The "burnt" gothic look is due to air pollution - and this is also the reason why these medieval cathedrals in Europe are permanenty "under construction", the masonry being cleaned, repaired, replaced.

Soon enough this channel will be the go-to encyclopedic source for toilet knowledge around the world 😂

German here: I still remember the first time I experienced one of those self-cleaning toilets as a child, probably 23 years ago. I was so shocked because it didn't have a sensor, it just started the self-cleaning process after I had flushed. I thought it was so futuristic and cool. I don't remember much about that hundreds of years old castle, but I do remember the toilets there!

If "Köln" is too difficult, you could also use the Latin name of the city: Colonia Agrippina (short for Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium). It was founded around 20 BC as Oppidum Ubiorum (town of the Ubii, a German tribe allied with the Romans, who originally settled at the other bank of the Rhine). In 15 AD Iulia Agrippina, daughter of Roman General Germanicus and sister of Caligula (who became later Roman Emperor), was born here. After she had married Emperor Claudius, she declared in 50 AD the town a Roman colonia and city, which was renamed after her (and often abbreviated as CCAA). 🙃 For a good and true "Brezel" you have to be in one of the southern states (Bavaria or Baden-Wüttemberg). Nice cat, by the way. I've heard they have to remove the locks regularly because they would otherwise to become too heavy for the grating... Actually they halted the construction of the cathedral around 1528 because they run out of money, and afterwards hard times came for the city (wars, famines, riots, ...), so for nearly three centuries the skyline of the city was portrayed with a wooden crane on top of one of the two tower stumps. At the start of the 19th century the Cologne art collector (and trader) Sulpiz Boiserée began to campaign for finishing the construction; after he discovered original plans from 1370 for the facade, he got a lot of support from all over Germany. Cologne had in 1815 (after the Napoleonic wars) become a Prussian province, and he could win over the Prussian king Frederic Wilhelm IV (who, being a foreign Protestant ruler, aimed to win over the hearts of the Catholic population there) to back the project. Around the same time the citizens of Ulm decided to finish the tower of their (Protestant) Minster, but they waited with the last steps until the towers of Cologne were finished and then topped their height by about 4 meters (10 meters more than the original medieval plans had stipulated), so they got the tallest church in the world, Cologne being only second. And by buying that liquor you helped to fund the restorations and repairs of the cathedral, so you have now taken part in the effort. Mostly due to air pollution over the centuries the rather soft sandstone used for most of the stone carvings has to be replaced continuously, the stonemasons producing replicas of the artwork using material from the same quarries, then cutting out the old ones and replacing them with the replicas.

😂 " i will not call it an obsession" 2 minutes later "I think about it all the time " 😂 that cracked me up

Thanks for the kind words about my home town. I really like to here the impressions from other countries.

It is so funny to see a person never been to Cologne liking it so much. Me beeing born, raised and living in cologne sometimes forget what we have. Nice that you liked it.

It‘s really, really impressive to walk outside the train central station and you see this massive, huge building. Even for me who was born close to Cologne, it is still so impressive. I also can warmly recommend visiting Aachen. Much smaller and cuter but it also has historic buildings like Aachen Cathedral, Town hall, the so called Elisenbrunnen, Ponttor. Glad you liked it in Cologne. You Americans make us Germans really love our country again. So thanks for that. 🙏🏻

Hi Heidi! Very funny video! Two comments: it took over 600 years to build the cathedral BUT it stood unfinished for almost 300 years without any work being done! The self-cleaning toilets belong to a chain of restrooms (hence the fee) often found in train stations and highway service areas.

I am very happy that you liked Europe and especially my home country Germany so much. Hopefully you will have the opportunity to come here very often, because there is still so much for you to discover. I'm very curious how you liked the Italian food and the delicious wine. 👋 cu soon

Cathedral gift shops are pretty standard in Europe. These ancient buildings need such a lot of money to maintain that they need to cash in however they can. In my city, Lincoln UK, the cathedral has quite a large gift shop. A lot of the stuff is quite tacky but there are also a fair amount of quality items too.

As a Cologne resident, I am pleased that you liked my hometown :-) By the way, perfume is named after Cologne = Eau de Cologne or literally translated into English: Water from Cologne

I have visited Cologne only once, but it made a big impression on me. The food was good quality every place I ate. The Cathedral was jaw droppingly huge. The Art museum sticks in my mind even after 30 years (I was so impressed at their collection). I would love to go back just to take it all in again. Nice video.

Finishing a public project in 600 years seems to be the standard Germany is striving for again :)

I was born in Cologne and there is a saying: When the cathedral is finished, the world will end. Therefore it remains as a construction site.

The locks on bridges became popular after a scene in some film. It is actually a major nuisance, cities have to waste funds on their removal because the extra weight can be a real danger to the bridge.

Just a quick tip concerning bathrooms in germany : usually if you can buy something to eat/drink somewhere and can sit down at the place, you can use the bathroom for free .) Well, unless you go in a mall or train station etc.

I visited St. Paul's in London. What was amazing was that a service started while we were appreciating the architecture and history of the building. I think the same thing might have happened at Canterbury. It made me appreciate that these are living, working buildings. ❤

There is always renovation work going on at Cologne Cathedral. They even have their own workshop and people working on it full time. And the maintenance never ends. So you could still spend your whole life working on this building today.

Fun fact: the word cathedral comes from the Greek "kathedra", which means "seat" as in the seat of a bishopric - so a bishop is preaching here. In Germany we have two words: "Dom" (without a bishop) and "Kathedrale" (with a bishop) Not every "Dom" is a cathedral, but every cathedral is a "Dom". To add to the confusion, several cathedrals - including the one in cologne - are called "Dom", but are actually cathedrals, as they have a bishop. Also the "632 years" are mostly marketing... there was a LONG gap in building. Essentially it was built over ~250 years and then there was the thirty-year-war as well as the protestant reformation and they just stopped. Hundreds of years later they finally finished it. So while the start date and end date were 632 apart, the actual building was maybe ~300 years - still a lot, but not that unusual. There are several big churches in Germany, that had a build phase of 300-400 years.

Wait, they sell beer in big glasses in cologne? That wasn’t a local restaurant, then. Kölsch, the traditional cologne beer is served in small slender glasses of 0,2l.

The bones of the three Wise Men, Three Kings, or the Three Magi how you call them in english are in this Cathedral in the Shrine of the Three Kings.

If you read (or listen to audiobooks) you should check out "The pillars of the earth" by Ken Follett. It is very long, but worth it. Really good story, and it revolves around building a cathedral. So while a lot of other stuff is going on, it gives a lot of insight into what it takes, and how amazing it is they managed to get it done.

Thanks for the video it looks like you two had lots of fun, and I've learned a few things as well, take care and keep safe.

Great video! Glad you had a good time. I love Germany too. All the best from Scotland.

Bathroom fee: You usually get a voucher to redeem in the shops of the mall. Sometimes it is 100 percent, most times it is about 70 percent of the bathroom fee.

so glad you enjoyed the city. its actually my favorite city in germany. not because of the looks of it ( cause its actually just a ton of ugly houses not fitting together with ugly streets etc) but its the most open minded city in this country with super nice people ♥. and it has a big music scene with many cool venues ! wish I couldve seen more photos or videos with you exploring it but its fine :) cheers! oh and I always drive to cologne to see my hairstylist.

I once was in love with a girl from cologne. Maybe it's because i always got to see her when i went there, but i only have good memories of that city. I am glad you and your hubby had a good time too there. It was really fun listening to you talk about it. Once again, i mentioned this before, to me the beauty of germany is mostly to be found in the smaller cities and i really hope you will come visit again and get to see some of those.

Glad you made it to Cologne, I lived there for about 10 years, before moving back to my hometown. Your vid brings up so many nice memories! About the locks on the Hohenzollernbrücke: Their weight actually became a problem for the bridge's statics at some point. I remember there were concerns about that. I also always loved looking at the river Rhine below and the boats slowly passing - it is almost meditative. There are 4 statues in total on the bridge. All of them represent members of the Hohenzollern noble family. The one you took a picture of (at least from "behind", the one with the bird on his helmet 😂) was Germany's last emperor Wilhelm II. The cathedral is amazing indeed. And it's getting renovated all (!) the time. Fun fact: There's a saying in Cologne that when the renovation of the Dom will be finished, the world will be coming to an end (which means that it'll be never finished). Maybe you noticed a part of the columns on the left side of the portal, which is very much lighter in colour. This is due to a quick repair (the so-called "Domplombe"/"Cathedral filling") between severe air raids during WWII. This part was badly damaged by the bombings and there were concerns that the portal could potentially collapse. Apart from the city's historic background (there's so much to be mentioned!), I highly recommend going out in Cologne. There are plenty of concerts all over the place, hundreds of bars and clubs for every taste of style and music. The city vibrates at night on the weekends - you'd surely enjoy the experience and the openness of the people. Anyways, thanks so much for your comments about Cologne. It was very inspirational to me and I think I might visit it again on one of the next weekends.

Please come to Germany again and visit Hamburg or Kiel. Schleswig-Holstein is a very federal state with the happiest population in Germany. Very beautiful landscapes and little villages. Glad to hear you liked it.

I absolutely adore these videos you made, describing your experience with Europe and all the cultures (shocks?) in the different countries.

oh finally - been waiting for this part! I live in the area and was curious what you got to see. That dish with the Rotkohl & Knödel was one of the finer dishes my mom used to cook deeeelicious! was surprised you got off at deutz/messe (tradefair) but the weather was good so def good choice. for those interesed: the Hbf (central station) is right next to the dom, you dont HAVE to walk over the bridge like they did :)

Hey Heidi! I moved to Cologne suburbs 1,5 years ago, so I loved all of your reactions. That view of the bridge with the Dom is my absolute favourite as well. You see I grew up near the sea, so it's very unusual for me that you get not one but two stunning views from the body of water. You should definitely try to attend the organ concert in the cathedral - they are free and take place in summer usually. I was blown away by the performances, and the Dom is jam packed with listeners, people even bring the sitting cushions and sit on the floor. And regarding Bretzeln - honestly, the frozen ones that you can buy in any supermarket and just pop into the oven for 10 minutes - they are the best! In backeries they are not as hot ant soft. But everything else in a backery is usually of amazing quality. Just don't go to the ones in the train stations, you'll definitely feel the difference. My small Bäckerei in my suburb is the most important shop on my street.

Glad you liked it. I grew up there and it's my first recommendation for everyone who visits Germany for the first time. You'll find nice, open and welcoming people all over Germany, but I think it's easier to find them in Cologne and the surrounding area. As for the locks, you are right: They had to remove them some time ago but that had little long term effect as you could see. That gummy shop that you found wasn't by any chance the "Bärenland"? I completely forgot about that one. I used to buy a lot of stuff there, including harmless looking but super spicy chili gummy stuff, which was always fun to bring to a party and watch people try them without knowing.

Thank you for these video's!

Thnak you for visiting, loving it and talking about it! God bless!

Your style of storytelling is very good. You bound me completely till the end. ❤👍👍

Thank you for sharing your great experience in Cologne. Excellent video!!! I am a German teacher and have taken several trips to Cologne and it is truly an amazing place. I hope you also had the chance to see the chocolate museum too.

The Cologne Cathedral is always under construction/restoration. When one restoration cycle is finished, they have to start with the next one right away. And this is more or less the situation since they started to build the cathedral in August 1248. Howeever, there was a very long break in construction between 1520 and 1823. After this pause it took another 57 years until it eventually was finished.

Glad you liked my hometown so much!

„Cathedral was close to the train station" .😂😂 It's literaly right next to it.

Yes, I took 600 years to build the Dom, but they had a really long lunch break. :) But its still not all finished - it will never be. If one work spot is finished, there is another one that needs repair.

I moved 15 years ago from the east of germany to Cologne Mülheim...i love this City ... Its just cool and the people are rly nice

Hi Heidi, that is a fun video again. Because you are so interested in the detail and the craftmanship that went into constructing the cathedral, it is maybe also good to know that that is an ongoing process. Next to the cathedral is the Kölner Dombauhütte where craftsmen and women work everyday on the maintenance of this great monument. There is a fixed crew of stonemasons, sculptors, glassartists, carpenters etc. constantly working in their workshops and on the scaffoldings. I know for sure they like your video and I will send a link to a female stone restorer there who is as enthusiastic as you are.

Nice you liked your stay in Germany ;) and strange that getting to the cathedral was the only reason to go mainly :D but nice! I totally enjoy watching you talking, so cute and beautiful

As a subscriber who live near and work in Cologne i am happy to hear that you like and enjoyed your Cologne trip😃 I watch your videos for 1 year now and really enjoy them. Keep up the great work. Greetings from Cologne 👋

Hallo Heidi, I love listen to your experiences. It makes me Smile. 😀😂😊 Greating from Frankfurt, Tom 🍀

I also think it's amazing in the year that construction started!!

Bretzels originate from the South of Germany, and as a man who has been living in nearly all German regions tere are two rules: Bretzel are getting better the mor south you go, bbeing the best in the Danube Valley (Ulm to Passau) and in train stations you 'll always get crab.

To put the 600 years for the construction for the cathedral in perspective: it took that long because they stopped building the church at the end of the medevial ages. Completion only start in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Cologne Cathedral is the place where the bones of the three kings are laid out

Loves the video ❤ see you on stream

Nice video Heidi! - I'm very pleased that you enjoyed your stay with us Germans and that your expectations were not disappointed. I can still remember how shocked I was by the sheer size of the building when I first saw the cathedral, which I had previously only seen in pictures, with my own eyes. Pictures and videos simply cannot convey this impression, which will probably stay with you for the rest of your life. And I have to mention it again: You look simply gorgeous in the outfit you bought in Germany! Best regards from NRW, Germany.

My Wife and me we have our lock on that bridge.We left it there some 10 years ago.We have a few in other Cities too.Glad you enjoyed your German trip,this Country has a lot to offer and i hope you'll make it again sometimes in the future.Greetings from Westerwald,Germany.

Both cities, Frankfurt and Köln were burnt to the ground after WW2. I found the lack of historical buildings (beside the dome which was spared from the bombs because the pilots needed it for orientation) in Köln remarkable when I visited.

Hey... I live only 50 minutes away from Cologne anf the "Dom" has always been the most fascinating building for me, even as an atheist. I really recommend you get a book about the Dom, its history and all the legends and mysteries. It's just great fun and so rich. The gummy candy thing is not that unusual. The HARIBO brand originates just a couple of kilometers away from Cologne down the Rhine in Bonn. 😁 Looking forward to more stories! And if you need any recommendations according literature on Cologne or the cathedral, I would love to help. Greetings from Aachen, Germany! Andi

Cologne Cathedral, probably the most decorated horse stables ever.

I hope u enjoy germany!! Köln is magic at night

Haribo was founded only 20km to the south in the town called Bonn (former capital city of Germany). The founder name is Hans Riegel from Bonn. There you have the Name of HaRiBo 😂

It was definitely a nice day in Cologne, especially when there was a lot of new things to See! But you need a long time to get a real Impression! Germany has so many more sights,maybe you'll have the opportunity to say longer! Kind regards from old Germany 😊🎉🎉

If you like Gummies you might want to check out the Haribo store in Bonn one day, if you ever are in that area of Germany again. They had the biggest variety of Haribo gummies I have ever seen. Bonn also is a lovely city that's definitely worth visiting.

Glad you liked it! You're welcome to come back and visit my home country ever again!

It's always nice to see a report about Cologne Cathedral. The amazement at the gothic appearance and the darkness of the exterior. Hmm, I guess I should give something away: Cologne Cathedral is just incredibly dirty! The Cologne cathedral master builders then thought about how they could get the cathedral clean. And what effect that would have. As the stones all have a different shade of gray, the cathedral would look like a mottled mess if cleaned. So the idea of cleaning the cathedral was shelved. Completely black is then easier to look at. And the idea that the cathedral is old.... ....next to the cathedral is the Roman-Germanic Museum. Cologne is around 2000 years old and was planned and built as a city by the Romans. Archaeologists are always involved in the construction of the subway. You basically always find Roman remains. The museum was no different. The Nazis wanted a bunker to be built next to the cathedral. Then a floor mosaic was found at this location. The people of Cologne then thought: build a bunker here? No, we'll build a museum here! You can see the floor mosaic in this museum. It dates from around the year 300 AD. Compared to the floor mosaic, the cathedral is a NEW BUILD! Greetings from Germany

That was a nice video. I liked it and also your enthusiasm for the city. Thank you. What I like best about Cologne is its history, which dates back to Roman times 2,000 years ago. Back then it was called CCAA (the Romans loved abbreviations). There is even a fortification tower of the Roman city that has survived all these 20 centuries. And I am also fascinated by the story of the Holy Roman Empress Theophanu, a princess of Greek origin from the Byzantine Empire. She was sent to the western Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, as it was later called, 1,000 years ago to marry the crown prince. For this girl, it must have felt like being sent to the moon. I admire how she handled her life there, in another world, especially when her husband died young and she had to keep the entire empire under control. Her grave is in the Church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne.

Hello Heidi, if you are still in Germany (or return some time) you might want to visit the Aachen Cathedral. It was the crowning Cathedral of Charlemagne, which we call Karl the Great, the first and only emperor of France and Germany together in the 9th century. That Cathedral was built in the old Roman style with much of gold and purpur colored carpets. Ever since it was the crowning cathedral of the german emperors. The old roman style is totally different from the much later Gothic style. Interestingly there is no Crucifix but a Holy Mary Statue at the main prayer place. So its really a sight. 😉 Oh, and in Cologne you should really visit the chocolate museum. There's a real chocolate fountain in it, where you can try and eat as much as you'd like 😅

Cologne, Köln, ah. Been there once, during my first trip to Germany. Visited a wonderful woman in southern Germany, however it did't work out well, so I had to hit the road. My flight home was not for many days, and could not be changed, because I was a student and didn't have many Marks left. It was also before credit cards so I was soon totally broke after a short stay at a Jugendherberge hostel in Frankfurt. However I stumbled across a Canadian guy, Todd P., who was about to fly back home. He had a Bundesbahn railroad pass valid for many days, so he gave it to me and I travelled back and forth by train in Germany for a few days ("Ja, ich bin Todd P., guten Tag, herr Eisenbahnschaffner"). One night I took a train from Frankfurt, woke up in to Köln. It is a truly beautiful city, but being a tourist is not the same having a empty stomach for days :) anyway, just sitting an hour in the cathedral and thininking of nothing was so nice. PS. This means I don't have memories of food and beer from this trip, but that was fixed later ;) Nice country to visit.

thanks for sharing 🥰

Always nice to listen to Americans what they notice when traveling to Germany. I hope, you went to the top of the Cologne cathedral? There is also a museum under the ground, you can walk through the roman ruins (because that's how Cologne was founded). It is always a pity, that most Americans do not have sufficient time (vacation days) to travel through Europe. Because Germany alone has a lot to offer, and it simply takes time to both experience things and enjoy the stay. There are tourists on a 10 day tour though Europe, like Barcelona-Paris-London-Rome-Munich-Berlin, and that's too much in such a hurry.

imho best tour in the Dom is the foundations/excavation tour. they dug out the tower foundations to see how well they were made 600 years ago and came across historical artifacts dating back to pre-roman times, at least 2000 years of history is hidden down there. they say they had to stop digging because they already dug out work to keep several generations of historians busy. standing underneath that massive structure and on grounds that have been holy to people for maybe 3000 years or more is impressive.

Hello Heidi, it was fun again to watch your experiences here in Germany. Now toilets, yes it is true that you pay for the toilets in Germany. You always hear that visitors from other countries wonder about it, but what many don't know or think about is that this money is not used as profit or something like that, no this is used to ensure the highest possible cleaning and sterility, but you will have noticed that yourself. And so every visitor who has to use a toilet will find a clean toilet. But you can see from your enthusiasm in the video that you liked it in Cologne. As a German, you are naturally very proud of that.

hi Heidi. So I've been living in Cologne for 10 years with my great wife for 8 years and we also have a castle hanging there on the Hohenzollernring bridge in the direction of Cologne Cathedral train station. The castle also holds us and our marriage together, for example after an argument or something like that, right up to the present day. You simply throw the key over the bridge into the Rhine.

I made a similar trip to another cathedral: la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It is still being built. It might still take another 100 years to finish it. Even now it is awesome, let alone when it is finished. But I will never see that. Nor will you.

I never really thought about it, but now that you mention it: all the times I've visited our German neighbours, I've always been served big chunks of meat when ordering a dish. Like the shnitzels were bigger than the plate they were served on, the bratwurst was large enough to fill 3 bread buns, and shweinebraten was usually a hunk of meat the size of a decent coffee mug... I guess the Americans aren't the only ones having huge portion sizes 😄

It took from 1248 to 1880 to build the cathedral. And of these 600 years, the construction stalled for 300 years. It very much describes the history of the city. When they started, Cologne was a wealthy member of the Hanseatic League and the by far largest city in modern Germany. But when the Hanseatic League declined, the population had no more money to fund the construction, so the work stopped for 300 years. There was a treadmill crane on one of the tower trunks as a symbol of that time. Only after Cologne became Prussian in the Congress of Vienna, the new llords of the city decided to finish the work, which was quite difficult, as the original plans had to be rediscovered. In this construction, modern building techniques were used, such as a steel roof framework rather than timber, which saved the building from destruction in WWII. Other churches in Cologne like Romanesque Great St. Martin burnt to the ground.

Happy to hear you got hooked up with some good beer. We here in Wisconsin spend most of our waking hours worrying about the maximum number of people possible liking beer. And cheese. And bratwurst. And sauerkraut. Not really.

I think you should really like the cathedral in Trondheim, Norway - very impressive!

Yes. Lock in your love and THROW THE KEY INTO THE RHINE! 🙂

Hallo Heidi! Köln is the Hometown of HA-RI-BO means Hanns Peter-Riegel-Bonn! I wish you all the best.

In case you do the trip between Franfurt and Cologne again, you should use the railway through the Rhine valley (via Mainz and Koblenz) instead of the hight speed line. Takes an hour longer but you would see all the castles and the Rhine gorge.

You should have tried the pepperoni gums in that shop. That is fun! 🌶🌶🌶

So if you are interested in learning more about, what it means, building a cathedral read Ken Follets "The Pillars of the World" , "World without End" and so on

locks on bridges and monuments are a big issue all around europe , since the weight is damageable for the structure ,that's why the governments remove them on a regular basis

I'm glad you liked it in my hometown...

There's some epic toilet nerd who did a youtube tutorial on the entire toilet ecosystem, he also made comparisons.. I don't remember who it was but it's friggin' epic.

@Hailheidi With regard to the gummy bears, there is a city south of Cologne called Bonn, our capital during the cold war, where the HARIBO gummy bears originate from. By the way, HARIBO stands for Hans (HA) Riegel (RI) Bonn (BO).

Locks are usually sold in a DIY store and sometimes in a supermarket. The black coloration of the two sandstone cathedral towers is caused by algae and cyanobacteria, as well as air polution especially sulforous smoke from steam locomotives in the 19th century, as the main raildroad station is next to the cathedral and of course house fires in the past.

You can get the locks (and the engravings) f.e. at those small shoe-repair-shops.

Bretzel have a long tradition in the south of Germany and, generally speaking, the quality is better in Bavaria or Baden-Wuerttemberg . In the last one or two decades more and more northern German bakeries starting to offer them but in my experience these bretzels cannot compete with the local original version

Living and working in Switzerland, at our company we have exclusively these sort of self cleaning toilet seats 😅 I would say that it's quite common in Germany and Switzerland

if you liked the cathedral of cologne you will love the la sagrada familia in barcelona spain. Also plenty of things to do in barcelona. Just sadly a bit more touristy over there

The locks are called "Liebesschlösser" (love locks). I don't know when the first ones were put on the bridge but throughout the years they started to remove some locks and aruged that they jeopardized the static of the bridge. EDIT: They have since stopped removing the locks and more were/still are added.

I am german and I have never seen that self-cleaning toilet thing. I am amazed.

the same amount of locks on the bridge is the number of keys in the river under the bridge ^^ after you lock it up,you throw the key in the river and do a wish :)

Yeah its fun

Are there any love lock bridges in the UK? The Love Lock Bridge Lock locks started to appear on the Wye Bridge in 2012 and were the first to appear in Derbyshire, presently there are many hundreds now attached to the bridge.

The Bremen Roland knight statue also looks in the direction of Bremen's St Peter's Cathedral. It symbolises the resistance against the church, which had some influence. But in Bremen this influence was broken and the town hall decided independently about the city.

I always sail under that bridge, from the Netherlands.

One of the aspects I like about the Dom as a german: Cologne main station is a very important traffic hub, many trains stop there and the Dom is just next to the station. Every time I travel through germany I just love to stop by. We're all so damn lucky it wasn't just bombed to bits and pieces.

Hello from Switzerland, regarding the renovation I can only tell you that the maintenance of such buildings is very time-consuming and cost-intensive, even more so with such complex decorations/figures. In plain language, these are practically permanent construction sites. Dom liqueur, aha... I always wondered how angels share (the evaporated alcohol) remained, now I know 🤣. Priests/monks etc. were not averse to wine/beer (and probably other things) before, and the fact that it is an original recipe actually underlines it. Unfortunately for you, it wasn't made 1,000 or 600 years ago, otherwise it would be worth more than its weight in gold. Of course you have to try it, it would be a shame to just look at the bottle, but if the bottle runs out at some point, keep it, the bottle, the label (if it's a little aged), just looks great. Regarding the food, well, if you want nice weather, you travel in the summer, if the dishes you want to try are winter dishes, then what the heck, that's the way it is. Don't worry about it, we see that here too in the summer, you can recognize tourists by the fact that they eat fondue in the summer and drink cola or beer with it 🤣. I don't remember ever paying for the toilet in a mall. But the thing about cleaning the ring is great, I've never seen it like that before. There were once some with a plastic coating that was somehow tightened, but that hasn't caught on yet.

Please come back and visit our city again one day!