After assembling in Frankfurt, our group of 43 received its first taste of the German railways, the Deuche Bahn, with a trip along the Rhine River to Cologne, where we stayed almost in the shadow of the famous Cologne Cathedral — once the world’s tallest building — and just a few hundred yards from the main train station. This also meant we were adjacent to the Hohenzollern Bridge — reputed, believably, to be the busiest railroad bridge in the world.With much of the day free, I had planned to explore the city a bit, but I was so captivated by the activity of the bridge that I spent the day watching the action across its six tracks — two for the local commuter trains, and two in each direction for national network trains — and taking hundreds of pictures. I did briefly visit the very crowded cathedral, and paid the 4 Euro fee to climb the 535 steps to the top of its belfry — but that was in part to see what the bridge traffic looked like from on high.
Oh, one note: This was all posted from the wi-fi on the first of our three trains today (Sunday), which are taking us to Wernigerode, where we'll spend three nights to provide us ample time to ride the Harz steam railroad. I'll post from there when I get the chance.
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