If God ever comes to Cologne he sure has a nice place to stay.

To everybody else the cathedral is a convenient point of reference. Especially when you are looking for orientation. This seems to be easily lost around here. In a maze of one way streets you look to the sky and see …

On what I think is a normal sunday I take the tram from the outskirts to the city center. Somewhere in between an announcement is made, that today this line ends here. A substitute bus service is provided. Half an hour later a bus arrives and takes us to a station somewhere down the line. It stops close to where a train is waiting. Many of us jump off the bus and run. Come on, this train waits for everybody to make the transit. It does not. Actually I am only two meters short of making it, and wonder what the driver wants to teach me about the local public services. I decide to walk.

I pass some barriers at a medieval gate. There are more barriers ahead, fencing off the road from the sidewalk. For a moment I wonder if some kind of major construction is on the way. When he comes around the corner I get it: Marathon Day.

I follow the route. A nicely decorated shop window catches my eye. It takes a moment before I get it.

Of course there are cameras.

Provisions are on sale.

Two hours later as intended I arrive at the cathedral. Like a beacon it seems to attract people. Some seem to be tourists.

Others are harder to classify

I walk towards the bridge nearby. The barrier is covered with locks left by couples.

When I enter the platform there is hardly anybody there.

I stay another day.