German Christmas fun

We've been having a great time here in Deutschland since we last wrote.

The biggest highlight is that we celebrated Christmas with 10am mass at Cologne Cathedral - what an experience. And really the best place for a Christmas service, as the cathedral boasts the relics of the Three Magi! (That's them in the gold box.)

We chose the 10am service among the seven or eight Christmas services because there would be music and a cardinal would be there! (For those who don't know, the cardinals are basically the pope's cabinet; they are bishops who are appointed by the pope and work in the Vatican most of the time.)

It has been so very cold the entire time we've been here, and the inside of the cathedral is no warmer than outside (although at least it isn't windy). We could see our breath throughout the service. It's hard to imagine how they could heat that thing even if they wanted to - the vaulted ceiling is taller than a 10-story building! So everyone left their coats and scarves on the whole time, and even with that, my feet were popsicles by the end.

We got good seats in about the middle. At 10:00 the service began with a flourish - a grand procession walked up the middle aisle to resounding organ music. In front was the cross-bearer, a young man of maybe 15, holding a beautiful iron cross aloft. Next to him was a priest swinging incense, and its lovely smell filled the whole church (different and better than hippy incense). Then came several priests, the Bishop of Cologne and the German cardinal. People crossed themselves as the bishop and cardinal walked by, and the cardinal was blessing everyone with that familiar two-fingers-up hand gesture the pope does.

After the posse of clergy got settled up at the altar, a large all-male choir filed out in white robes onto a platform to our right. It included some boys, which was wonderful as I think the sound of a boys' choir is one of the most heavenly sounds in the world.

The service was an hour long and consisted of short prayers chanted in Latin, to which most of the audience responded at the correct points, longer prayers spoken in German, songs from the choir (beautiful!), a lot of standing and sitting (helped keep us a little warmer) and a long sermon from the cardinal. I wish we could have understood it - it looked like a good one. I was able to make out "Jesus Christus," "Gott," "Maria," and "Weinachten" (Christmas, which I had asked our hotel receptionist how to say when we arrived), but that didn't help much. During the service, the stained glass windows became brighter and brighter, making a beautiful effect. And we were also excited that it meant sunshine outside!

At the end, the bishop said something that apparently had to do with greeting each other, as everyone started shaking hands with those around them. I shook the hand of the guy next to me and one of his cute little sons (who had such a cold little hand). Then it was over except for the actual mass part; many people lined up to get their wafer from a priest, while others filed out. We got up and went around to the side, where we could see what was going on at the altar a little better. This picture shows all clergy in the recessional afterwards.

After the service we had planned to climb the tower, but alas, it was closed. So we went outside and David spotted the cross-bearer, who was following the cardinal to his car! So naturally I hustled over there and got a few pictures of him, and then noticed he was shaking people's hands - so I ran up, got in line, stuck out my hand, and - wahoo! - got to shake a German cardinal's hand. Then he got in the back of a lovely BMW and we all waved at him as he drove away. Pretty fun. Two big religious leaders down! Watch out, Dalai Lama, here I come!

The rest of the day we spent walking around town, seeing a few of Cologne's 12 Romanesque churches. They were neat, in a different way from the spiny grandeur of the Gothic cathedral. Sadly, every single one had been bombed badly during World War II, but all had been restored. Some old parts (as early as 10th and 11th century) still remained, though.

Christmas dinner was pretty unexciting - we went to a different Chinese place than Christmas Eve and got meals to go. We ate them at our little table in our room, and we agreed that it had been a wonderful, if slightly unconventional, Christmas.

Today our main event was a road trip to Aachen, which is about an hour's drive west, right on the border with both Belgium and the Netherlands. It was the home and capital city of Charlemagne (since 794 AD), and we went to see his "Kaiserdom," or imperial cathedral. It is supposed to be an impressive cathedral in itself, but it also holds the relics of Charlemagne, his imperial throne on which most subsequent Holy Roman Emperors were coronated, and some really impressive holy relics, known as the Great Aachen Relics: the swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus, the loin cloth he wore on the cross, the gown of the Virgin Mary, and the clothes of John the Baptist! These are only displayed every decade or so.

The city of Aachen was quite lovely, with a huge town hall that we first mistook for the cathedral, several large town squares and quaint side streets. But the main attraction of the city is definitely the cathedral, which is pretty much all that survives from Charlemagne's time. It's quite unique, and in fact reminded me more of the Muslim Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (which I know only from pictures, of course) than any church I'd seen. We were both very impressed. As a bonus, a service had just finished, and there was still incense in the air.

The cathedral was actually formed by enlarging and adding to the palace chapel built by Charlemagne. This became necessary because of the number of pilgrims that flocked there in the Middle Ages because of all the relics. The part built by Charlemagne is round, with an outer ambulatory and an inner seated area, separated by black-and-white-striped keyhole arches and with golden ceiling mosaics everywhere. In the center hangs a gigantic chandelier, which was donated by none other than Frederick Barbarossa.

Beyond this round part is a tall Gothic addition covered with stained-glass windows, modeled after Ste-Chapelle in Paris. This is the resting place of Charlemagne's bones, in a golden reliquary similar to that of three Magi in Cologne. We couldn't get too close, but we did our best with our camera zooms. Our guidebook says it was completed in 1215 after 50 years of work, and depicts Charlemagne and his successors on the sides. We could get a close-up look at the most impressive pulpit I've ever seen - dating from the 11th entury, it is entirely plated in gold with huge precious stones embedded in it.

On our way back into Cologne later that afternoon, we did a quick drive through the city, and did some great sightseeing by car! We saw a few more Romanesque churches by driving right up to them, which was the greatest given the cold weather.

As we crossed the Rhine river back to our hotel, a massive dark cloud was looming to our left. By the time we were a few blocks from home, it was snowing! It was a beautiful and unexpected surprise. The clerk at our hotel's reception told us that snow is rare in Cologne.

We warmed up for a bit in our hotel room and put on more layers, and then set back out to enjoy the snow and find some dinner. Interestingly, today is still a major holiday and almost everything is closed. But happily, we managed to find a non-Chinese restaurant open. It was a small, local German pub/restaurant and it was just what we were looking for.

The waiter spoke almost no English, which was wonderful. He gave us the menus and said, "England?" We said, "yes!" (well, that is where we flew in from). We were doing okay with the German food words we've learned (always the most important), when a friendly fellow customer came over and offered to help us with the menu in English. He went through each item and tried to explain it, and the few words he didn't know, I did, because Germany uses so many French words for food! He was so nice. When the waiter reappeared, the nice man stayed to help us with the ordering. We ordered some basic German meat dishes and they were delightful. At least we know how to say "very good!" in German.

Towards the end of our meal, the man who had helped us (who was there with his family) ordered us a drink! We received a shot each of what we think is Schnapps. We thanked him very much and he toasted us, "To your health!" We said, "Cheers," and all their faces just lit up and his family who didn't otherwise speak English said, "Cheers!" We then chatted some about Cologne, and how long we've been here, etc. They appear to be regulars, as the waiter sat down and had a cigarette with them after we'd been served (there were only a few tables filled).

On his way out, the man came over and shook our hands and wished us a happy New Year and a pleasant time in Germany. He then handed us his business card and said that if we ever needed anything, to give him a call on his mobile. We looked down at his card, and discovered that he is the Cologne chief of police! It's comforting to know that if we get thrown in the slammer or anything while we're here, we have a powerful friend!

Before we left, the waiter brought us two free beers. So dinner turned out to be quite a wonderful experience, much more than we'd expected for just trying to find a place that was open on the holiday! We plan to go back for dinner there later this week, as it's just a short walk from our hotel.

We're all cozied up back in our room now and will probably be asleep before too long. The snow is starting to melt, sadly, but it would be easier for our remaining planned road trips if it's gone by morning.