The Gothics capital

While checking train schedules, I made a geographic discovery of the
city of Koln (Cologne) which is conveniently located b/n Luxemburg and
Amsterdam, our next scheduled destination.
Quick check of the travel guide revealed that Koln is the home to the
major attraction - their cathedral is the largest, tallest and also the
one that took the longest to built - 600 years! Yes, I think I've
heard something about that from the school history class. What I didn't know is that while the Cathedral was being built, the unoccupied burgers of Koln invented special substance so called "water from Koln". Obviously in German it sounded even less attractive than in English and nobody was buying. Than for marketing purposes they translated the label into French and it became 'eau de colon' (that is "odekolon" if you are not familiar with French spelling). The sales instantly picked up.

Of course, I just made up the whole story, because in my opinion tour guides who stick to the facts are too boring.

In any case this abundance of real and imaginary attractions made Koln our next stop. Certainly Amsterdam can wait for another two days.

The Cathedral of Koln, which miraculously survived the destruction of
the city in WWII, is as impressive as tour book says. Maybe even more.
The first thought that came to me upon seeing all of its immensity and
complexity was: 'I can't believe they did it in only 600 years!' And
indeed, the scaffolding that still covers some parts of the structure
indicates that the construction hasn't been finished yet - it's an
ongoing process.

Despite all the magnificence of the Gothic architecture I was even more
impressed by the Gothic people who assembled outside on the right flank
of the Church. New York Halloween aside, I never saw such a huge open
air freak show. There were probably hundreds of them, and new batches
would arrive with every passing train, all in outfits that would sure
scare the Dracula himself - the apparent founder of the fashion.

Nearby from the black-clad Goths (or Gothics?) there also was a smaller camp of colorful punks. Two groups peacefully coexisted, but didn't mix. Each stayed true to it's colors.

The neutral zone b/n goths and punks was populated with a handful of 'undecided', who haven't yet determined their calling. These might be dressed as Goths above waist, yet wearing colored pants that betray their incomplete allegiance.

These were Koln highlights. Apart from the above mentioned fashion groups, the rest of Koln's population seems to belong to the international beer culture. The only difference from New York bars, is that here they drink beer outside and speak German.