About Berlin & Cologne . I could write many, many things about these towns ... but I don't know if it would be too much ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
One page about Cologne (Keulen in het Nederlands) :
http://www.koeln.deAnother page about Köln :
http://www.stadt-koeln.deIn English :
http://www.koeln.de/en/index.htmlhttp://www.stadt-koeln.de/en/koelntourismus/index.htmlUniversity of Cologne :
http://www.uni-koeln.deIn English :
http://www.uni-koeln.de/index.e.htmlMuseums in Köln :
http://www.museenkoeln.dePictures of Köln (a sub-link of the first page I quoted here) :
http://files.koeln.de/bildergalerien/index.phpSome of these pages are also available in Francais, although the country's flags (indicating the languages) are *very* small ...
Francais :
http://www.koeln.de/fr/The really famous Römisch-Germanisches Museum :
http://www.museenkoeln.de/roemisch-germanisches-museum/default.aspThe angle from which this photograph has been taken is a bit strange : The photographer sood beneath the meseum, with the "Old Town" (Altstadt) , the oldest part of Cologne, in his back, and behind the Altstadt is the river Rhine (Rhein), famous for wine (like the river Mosel as well).
The Dom of Cologne in this photograph is in the same lavel as the Museum - but only on its base. The building is of course *much* higher than the museum. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> To say the Dom is huge would be an understatement. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> It's really impressive.
We don't say Cathedral or Church, we say Dom to such big churches. We don't have much real Cathedrals in Germany - at least we don't say so. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
On the far right of this picture, under that bridge, you can see an excavated part of a roman streets that went through Cologne. Cologne is stall full of Archaeology. If a new building is going to be build, Archaeologists must go through it first. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
The shadowy building on the left side of the picture is the old Diözesan Museum, a museum showing items connected to the church. The new is currently being built. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
The text reveals the oldest name of Cologne : COLONIA CLAUDIA ARA AGRIPPINENSIUM
Agrippina seems to have founded this town, but historians aren't 100% sure about that, because of the lack of details from that time.
From today's point of view I'd say Agrippina was a "bitch". Agrippinas ancestor was Augustus, Caligula was her brother, Germanicus her father, Agrippina major her mother. She herself was called Aggrippina minor.
I take this from the German-language book "Agrippina, die Stadtgründerin Kölns" by Werner Eck.
Her son was Nero.
HEr position was extraordinarily strong : Although no "real" Emperor, she had to some times an almost similar position with Claudius, one of her husbands, which she might proably have poisoned, and later with Nero, whom she dominated in that respect.
At one point Nero decided to let his mother be killed, and that was her end.
I quote here a passage from that book about the founding of Cologne (roghly translating it into English) : "Tacitus reported about the year 50 : 'But Agrippa wanted to show her power to the allied peoples as well; so she set it through that in the town of Ubier in which she had been born a Veterans colony should be founded which had to bear her name.' "
The Ubier were a group of "Germanen", as we say here. The English language still says "Germans" about us, although that word rather means one group of peoples in that area. In today's speech, the term "Germanen" means a container of all of these groups, clans etc which were living in the area that is now "Germany". The Ubier were allues of the romans who had been settled down on the left side of the Rhein by them - as allies. And as a puffer against other groups.
The Römisch-Germanische Museum contains items from every age of living in Cologne, even tomb marker stones from the earlies stages. I remember one of a solder who had belonged to the group of soldiers that had been defeated by "Hermann the Cherusker". This defeat signalled the withdrawal of romans from the Limes, the border against the "Germanen". But that's a different story. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
Köln is very famous because if the roman churches ...
Well, here in German language, "roman" means mainly the architectural "style" of the building. Buildings from every century have their own architectural styles, and the "roman" style is very simple, simple buildings with relatively small windows and simple bows above them. The other extreme is the gotischer Stil (gothik style), resuulting in *very* very high bows above the windows, like seen with the Dom of Cologne.
So Gotik doesn't mean in German language the thing you know from English language; instead, it's meanly only the architectural style. The "Gothic" meaning has seemingly been re-imported from English language into German again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
These roman churches are very old. In fact, some of them are *really* roman - I mean they were build in the times of the roman empire, when the christian religion was spreading. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I have recently the curious report of one church ... don't know which one ... I read that this church had *originally* been a tomb for a member of the Emperor's family ... the building is still well preserved with original walls up into the height of 14 metres (or were it 4 metres ?) , I read. Sorry, but I don't know anything more about it.
I have been in the chocolate museum. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> The term "chocolate comes from south-american origins, for example xocolatl, a mixture of cacao and pepper and some other spices. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
