The Rails to Amsterdam

On the way to Amsterdam we had a quick stop over in Koln (Cologne) Germany. While in Koln we visited two attractions including this impressive church building that was one of the few structures to largely survive the 95% destruction of the city during World War II.  It was so tall that vertical images were the only way to capture it, and poorly at that. 

I was messing around with the vertical panorama function for this shot.

At the focal point there was a rather unusual relic for which the church was constructed. In this gold box are thought to be the bones of the Magi who came from the East to worship what the Jewish prophecies said was the Savior from God. An interesting part of that account is that these travelers from the East were the first to notify the religious and imperial powers in Jerusalem that, by their understanding of the Jewish Holy Writings combined with their astronomical calculations, the Savior was born in that area within the last few years. 

The detail we read in the Bible of the Magi coming to worship Jesus as God in the flesh seems a little strange when compared with the practice that started almost 800 years ago in this church. According to the liturature distributed in the building, people have come for centuries from all over Europe to worship the bones of the Magi and other relics housed within these walls. It is probably safe to say that God was pleased with the worship of these men 2000 years ago while He is not pleased with the worship of their bones. 

The second and maybe not as interesting attraction was a frozen yogurt shop that the girls discovered in the train station. It was one of those places where you load up your cup with yogurt and all the fixings. Except this was not a pay by weight but a buy the cup and load it up. Which they did much to their delight. 

Images, just a few, in 2015 Koln.