Day 22: Cologne
Welcome
Yesterday we headed Western Germany and the Rhineland for our show in the largest and most populous city on the Rhine.
The Superbude Altona Paradise had a broad and diverse buffet from which I assembled this assortment of foods. You can see buttered sourdough, olives, zucchini and eggplant salad, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, tomato houmous, curry mango houmous, and aubergineu pilz dip.
By 10am we were on the road heading Southwest on Bundesautobahn 1, one of the oldest motorways in the world with the first section dating back to 1936. Yesterday there were large sections under renovation and we spent a good portion of the afternoon stuck behind lines of truck traffic.
Not quite two lanes.
At the end of our 418 kilometre slog we pulled up outside Bumann & Sonn, a handsome venue with a large and sunny beer garden that is located in the neighbourhood of Ehrenfeld, Northwest of Cologne’s city centre. We were glad to be off the road and celebrated with a quick beer before setup and soundcheck consumed the next couple of hours.
After dinner I walked the neighbourhood in a fervent attempt to locate the soaring syringe-like structure I had seen silhouetted against the cityscape as we approached Cologne. My purposeful stroll took me down the vibrant Venloerstraße toward the city centre; not quite a grid search but not without logic. It was completely without warning though that I happened upon an empty lot and my view of the skyline was no longer blocked by shops and apartment buildings. My search was complete. Less than a kilometre away was the imposing sky skewer known as Colonius (3.7 stars from 248 reviews).
At the time of it’s completion in 1981 Colonius was 252.9 metres high however in 2004 a radio tower was added bringing the height up to 266 metres - still falling well short of the 328 metre Auckland Sky Tower but nonetheless a useful altitude for a communications array. Its primary function as a transmission tower means that the upper platforms house a plethora of radio antennae and parabolic mirrors to transmit UHF/VHF and digital TV. There is also an observation deck, a restaurant, nightclub, and a cafeteria, although sadly these have been closed to the public since 1992.
Even more impressive than the Colonius with its comically evil looking T-Mobile logo was the Cologne Central Mosque, a unique looking structure that dominates the corner of Venloer Straße and Innere Kanalstraße. The building is designed in a neo-Ottoman style and features two 55 metre minarets, and a concrete and glass dome. The entire mosque is 4,500 square metres and includes lecture halls, a library, and a prayer area which aims to house 2000-4000 worshippers.
The Cologne crowd brought a powerful energy to the show and expressed their appreciation after every song with repeated calls for ‘drum solo’ and ‘ten more songs’. The energy got a bit too powerful when Liz’s mic stand got knocked into her face a few times but we carried on and had a great time.
