Cologne Cathedral

We've been fortunate to have visited Germany in the past, but we've never made it to Cologne.  This has been high on Bryan's list because of Cologne Cathedral.  It is undoubtedly the best-known of Germany's cathedrals, a gothic masterpiece whose construction began in the 1300s. Construction stalled for centuries and the cathedral wasn't completed until 1880.  It's still considered gothic and not Neo-gothic, because it was completed according to the original plans.  Its immense size makes it difficult to photograph because it won't fit in the frame except at a significant angle.

Besides its stunning architecture, the cathedral is also home to the Shrine of the Magi. Acquisition of relics were important to many in the Middle Ages, and in the 12th century Cologne Cathedral acquired what was reported to be the bones of the Three Kings.  

Shrine of the Magi

The reliquary holding these bones is made of gilded silver, jewels, and enamel, giving it the appearance of gold.  This also put the cathedral on the so-called pilgrimage map bringing in many visitors.

The Chapel of the Cross, one of several side chapels inside the cathedral, features the Gero Crucifix.  It's named for Archbishop Gero of Cologne who commissioned its creation.  It dates to 970 and is made of carved oak.  It marked a turning point in western art by depicting Christ's realistic agony.

Gero Crucifix

Cologne Cathedral was more impressive in person than what we expected, certainly living up to its hype.  It's difficult to capture the architectural elegance and its sheer size in photos.  Our plan is to attend the main choral mass on Sunday, and we look forward to worshiping in the cathedal during the glory of the Christmas season.

First stop.....Frankfurt

Frankfurt skyline along the Main River

A lot of travelers know Frankfurt for its airport.  It is a gateway to all of Europe and a frequent place to change planes on to ultimate destinations.  Frankfurt is a modern city and a European banking hub.  Much of the city was destroyed during the Allied bombing in World War II, so it doesn't retain as much of the historic charm of other places in Europe.  There as a small section of the "Old Town" that was rebuilt in the historic architectural style.  Even though buildings look the part, they are of modern construction.

The Old Town

Given this history, Frankfurt is not usually on the list of places to visit.  However, we broke that mold and spent the day exploring and seeing its Christmas market.  We walked through the business district of skyscrapers to see the Opera House.  The original one was destroyed in the war, but the current one was rebuilt in its style in the 1980s.  The Christmas market stretched for many blocks winding through "Old Town." We detoured from the market to see the cathedral and city hall and to walk along the Main River.

Most Christmas Markets are an all-day affair, starting around 10am and going until 8:00 or 9:00pm.  If the Frankfurt market is any indication, the early hours aren't too crowded, but by 4:00pm things are hopping and lines are longer.  Frankfurt's market did not have many craftspeople, but there was plenty of food and drink.  There's really no need to eat before going to the market as all of the major food groups were covered -- meat, bread, potatoes, and sweets.  There were also some vegetables and salad available, but why bother with all of the other goodness to sample?

Our initial strategy in choosing what to eat was 1) typical German food 2) food we don't get at home and 3) where the lines were longest.  That led us to bratwurst for Bryan and a large chicken skewer for Mona.  We shared Kartoffelpuffer which are fried potato pancakes and served with applesauce for dipping. We finished with a trdelnik, which we first discovered in Prague and is frequently translated to English as a chimney cake.  It's dough wrapped in a spiral, baked, and then covered in cinnamon and sugar. Super delish.  And of course, multiple mugs of glühwein, which is mulled German wine that can be either red or white.

Enjoying our glühwein

We finished our time at the Christmas market by listening to an organ concert at St. Katherine's Church (1681) and advent singing with a choir and audience participation at the Liebfrauenkirche, a catholic church with adjoining monastery originally constructed in the 1300s.  This was a festive beginning to our German adventure and is quickly getting us into the Christmas sprit.

It's Christmas Market Time!

Hello from Lisbon!  We're on a layover on our journey to Germany so I'm trying to get a head start on the blog.

We've entered Advent, and in Germany that means it's the season for Christmas markets as well as church celebrations.  Christmas markets have taken place here for centuries. Stalls selling all kinds of handmade goods and food pop up in public squares throughout the country.  Cities and towns are awash in lights and decorations.  Dresden is home to the oldest Christmas market -- its Striezelmarkt was first held in 1434 and continues to this day.

We won't make it to Dresden during this trip, but we plan on visiting several markets throughout the country while we're here the next two weeks, including in Cologne, Nuremburg, and Munich.  People who have visited these markets have told us to expect great food and a festive atmosphere.  A few commented that once you've seen one, you've really seen them all.  I'm not sure that's true, but we're going to put that view to the test.  We will absolutely be doing all things Christmas market in each place we visit. Hopefully, I won't have to buy another suitcase for the souvenirs we might buy.  

Final Oahu Adventures

Our last day in Oahu was spent driving up the east side to the North Shore and back down through the middle of the island.  We stopped at beautiful lookouts and turquoise beaches.  We found a Buddhist Temple and saw an arch out in the ocean.  We spotted sea turtles from the shore and discovered fields of pineapple as far the eye can see. We stumbled upon a grove of rainbow eucalyptus trees.  We found Hawaii's first cidery on our way back to Honolulu and had a delicious kahlua pork and flatbread pizza from a food truck.  It was a fantastic final day in Hawaii.  Now, it's time to head back home and back to work.  We've had a wonderful two weeks in paradise.  Our last day in photos:

Waikiki Beach

Gorgeous Coastline

Byodo-In Temple

Sea Arch

Fields of Pineapple

Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree

Paradise Ciders

Pearl Harbor National Memorial

In our life quest to visit all 50 states, we also want to visit all 50 state capitals.  This was the main reason for coming to Honolulu.  While Honolulu is well known for Waikiki Beach, it is a large city with over a million people living in the metropolitan area.  Once you get away from the ocean, driving around Honolulu is like being in many other large cities....traffic, congestion, people, etc.  I don't mean that as a criticism, but more as an observation.  We love visiting big cities and seeing the diversity of cultures, food, and architecture, and Honolulu has been great.  However, if you're wanting a tropical beach vacation, different places on Oahu or the other islands are where you want to be.

After the capitol, the other reason we wanted to come here was to visit Pearl Harbor and see the USS Arizona Memorial.  The Pearl Harbor National Memorial is jointly administered by the National Park Service and the US Navy. Pearl Harbor is still an active military base and remains the headquarters for the Navy's Pacific Fleet.

The USS Arizona Memorial is both a monument and a graveyard to the 1,177 sailors who were killed in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.  Active duty naval personnel pilot the boat from the visitor center across the harbor to the Arizona.  It is a very somber and moving memorial and a reminder of the devastation that occurred here. In addition to the sailors who died in the atack whose remains are forever entombed on the ship, a number of survivors chose to have a burial at sea and have their remains interred here with their shipmates.

After visiting the memorial, we took a shuttle bus to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum located on Ford Island.  We had the added bonus of meeting our long-time college friends Kim and Mark who live in Honolulu. We haven't seen them since graduating over 30 years ago. Mark retired from the Navy and now works at the Aviaton Museum managing their capital projects.  Kim is the associate minister at First United Methodist Church in Honolulu. We were so fortunate that Mark was able to give us not only a great behind the scenes tour of the museum, but they also drove us to other spots on Ford Island that most of the public don't get to see since military ID is needed to be on this part of the base.

USS Utah

We were able to see the USS Utah Memorial where part of the ship is still exposed above the water.  We saw bullet strafing in the concrete next to the float plane ramp and the original memorial marker that still stands even after the current Arizona memorial was constructed.  We drove past some of the houses where active duty families live, with a blue sign identifying the current residents and a black and white sign that identifies the residents from December 1941.

After our visit, we went to a local brewery with Kim, Mark, and their daughter Ashleigh to catch up on the past 30 years.  It was a wonderful conclusion to a great day of learning and reflection.

With our friends Kim and Mark

On to Oahu

After a fabulous day in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, our time on the Big Island has come to an end and we've travelled to Oahu for the final two days of our trip.  Oahu is home to Honolulu and is the most populated island in the state. Honolulu is also the state capital, so our first stop after arriving was to visit the capitol building.

Hawaii is our 50th state and its capitol reflects both the recency of its statehood as well as pays homage architecturally to heritage and culture. There's no large rotunda or marble statues here.  It has a more modern design with one strikingly unique feature -- it is an open-air building surrounding an interior courtyard.  When you walk into the courtyard and look up, you see the sky.  Office doors open to the outside walkways on each floor, and on the top floor there are openings with views towards the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other.  

Hawaii has a part-time legislature and they have adjourned for the year.  As a reult, the house and senate chambers weren't open.  We asked in the Senate Clerk's office if we could see inside, and the Sergeant at Arms unlocked the doors for a private tour.  She told us about the symbolism of the building, and how certain features represent volcanoes, canoes, and other cultural icons of Hawaii. The sentate chamber has a moon theme, as evidenced by the chandelier, and the house chamber honors the sun.  She's worked at the capitol for 36 years, and was very proud of her history.

One final note about the open-air concept.  We've noticed this is a very common design feature in Hawaii.  My assumption is that because the temperatures stay fairly consistent year-round and there's always a breeze, that this is a way to save on energy and construction costs.  Both of the airports in Kauai and Hilo were open air.  The check-in counters and baggage claim were essentially outdoors.  Many of the post offices we passed on the islands had their individual PO boxes outside as well.  No need to go inside a building to retrieve your mail.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

My new favorite highway sign

One of the main reasons we wanted to visit the Big Island was to see volcanoes.  Kilauea is the most active volcano in the world, and for the past few months has been having intermittent eruptions.  We were hoping the timing would work out for our visit and that we would see one.  Spoiler alert -- we did not.  Nevertheless, it was a fantastic visit.

View from Devastation Point

We drove along the rim of the calderra and stopped at various lookouts over the landscape. Even though there was no eruption, we saw steam vents throughout the park giving us a gentle reminder of what was boiling beneath the surface. Our best view was at the aptly named Devastation Point, where we walked about a mile from the parking area to a lookout directly across from the active steam vents in the calderra.  

The most scenic drive in the park is called the Chain of Craters road, a 19-mile road that takes you from the calderra all the way to the ocean.  We drove through lush tropical forest near the top of the drive as well as through lava fields that looked as though we were driving on the moon.

Not far from the ocean was an area with thousands of petroglyphs carved into the lava rock.  We had to hike about 1.5 miles round trip across a lava field in order to see them. Ancient Hawaiian culture did not have a written language, so these petroglyphs provide a glimpse into the lives of this ancient culture.  We recognized human forms and animals such as the sea turtle, while others were more abstract.  The National Park Service has mapped over 23,000 of these rock carvings in this area.

We met a Bulgarian couple who had been camping along the coast for a week.  They were in search of a ride back up to the calderra and had been waiting for over three hours without any luck when we met them. After hiking to the petroglyphs, they were still in search of a ride so they hopped in the car with us.  We drove down to the ocean to see a sea arch that was still standing before driving them back to the campground where they were spending the night next to the calderra.  They are ski instructors in Switzerland who spend their summers traveling to various locales across the world. Even though we only spent about an hour with them, conversation flowed easily.  It was a nice reminder that we have much more in common with others around the world than we do differences.

Sea Arch