a day of heights.

tuesday was a day of reaching new heights, literally. we took a train down to a new part of town i hadn't seen before, close to the zoo, where we caught the seilbahn, which is a cableway that takes you across the rhine river in boxes...i don't even know the name in english, but they used to have them at disneyland (spanning the park) and also running the length of the santa cruz boardwalk.

the view from above was absolutely impressive, and we could see the whole city, many of the bridges and the gorgeous sight of rheinpark, which runs along the riverfront on the other side of town (which johannes refers to as the "uncivilized" side). the most hilarious part of all is that the seilbahn goes over the claudius therme (a spa/bath of sorts) with a section that is freikörperkultur (or fkk, aka nudists) so if you look down below during your descent into the park, your eyes will be met with the sight of many many naked old exhibitionists.

once on the other side, we ventured through the park, which is full of flowers, plants and trees, and a fantastic view across to the other side (which is supposedly the best part of this side of köln!). along the waterfront there is also a small lot of sand, and for the sum of four euros, one is able to lay in loungers, listen to techno-y music and tan! there is even a disco ball overhead. wtf. so euro!

our walk along the riverfront eventually led to a bridge that all the trains (national and regional) pass over on the way to the main city center station. lining the bridge are padlocks with names of lovers etched into them. interesting trend - like the nodern-day carving of initials into a tree. there's also quite a bit of graffiti, which is pretty standard fare in the city. each side of the bridge is also flanked with four regal statues of some kaiser of sorts on his horse.

we made our way back to kölner dom, and began our ascent to the top, a whole winding, exhausting 532 steps, which takes you 97,25 meters into the sky, which is quite high. but luckily, the view is worthwhile, albeit shielded by a chain-link fence. johannes remarked how cool it is to see things from an aerial view and realize how much empty and open space there really is below - something you don't notice when you're walking among it.

after checking out the view, we made our way down and back to johannes' house for lunch, after which i took a nap and he headed to the university for a lecture on anesthesia, followed by a run (although that was cut short by the surprise onslaught of rain). so we had dinner and then spent the rest of the evening completing the music exchange!