Bahnhof - Köln

January 27, 2008 10:47 PM | Related Categories: Architecture,Transport,travel

I stopped off in Köln en route back to Zürich from Düsseldorf. I didn't have time to see much, and anyway you are much better visiting April at Cologne Daily Photo. The station is a nice old fashioned affair though, the ironwork goes nicely with the giant arches of the Hohenzollern Brücke that leads into it across the Rhine

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The ICE trains lined up under that fine Bismarkian roof do make a superb shot. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to take the ICE all the way to Berlin.

I remember the first time I ever passed through Cologne it was still blackened and half derelict as a result of British saturation bombing and fire bomb raids.......just like London which was still black and shoddy after the German effort. Few peope realise that it really took the countries of Europe 30-40 years to properly recover and bury the scars, and in the East and South-East Europe they are still recovering. When Americans blame Europeans for their reluctance to "co-operate" they would do well to remember that none of us really enjoyed blasting hell out each other. The evidence is still easy to find.
# Posted By Chuckeroon | 1/28/08 2:20 PM
Wonderful ironwork, nicely illustrated! ... and two minutes walk to the Cathedral! It's a fantastic feeling when you travel to or from Cologne by train to see the Cathedral so close!
# Posted By Peter | 1/28/08 2:25 PM
Chucker - Cologne definitely feels closer to it's recent past than Dusseldorf. I suppose I know like a lot of people the photographs of the Hohenzolleren bridge lying in the waters of the Rhine with the gutted, but semi-intact Cathedral behind. It's easy to feel the connection with the past. Watching the Dutch and German barges cruising up and down, Europe feels quite co-operative from this standpoint. I used the ICE trains quite a bit this weekend - a joy, even from someone used to Swiss railways.

Peter - we should form a Ruhr focus group. (That's a good name for a foto club, eh "focus group")
# Posted By richard | 1/28/08 2:39 PM
I've been through that station a few times, years ago. Your photo is amazing.
# Posted By George | 1/28/08 3:36 PM
Les trains ICE !
Et les trains allemands toujours en retard ! Moi qui ne parle pas bien l'Allemand, lorsque je suis allée à Bonn seule ! Je me suis trompée, je suis montée dans un ICE...
Les trains sont rouges et sont si photogéniques.
Et cette gare est magnifique, tu lui as rendu honneur par cette photo en diagonale parfaitement composée (les poteaux, la profondeur de champ) qui met en valeur ce voile porteur, comme une structure juste dessinée par ses lignes. Et ces deux trains...
J'aime cette photo, c'est normal, j'aime les gares et les trains.
(J'adore ce pont ferroviare aussi, que j'ai bien sûr photographié car je l'ai traversé ainsi que le Rhin à pied avec la cathédrale en ligne de mire...)
# Posted By cergie | 1/28/08 5:59 PM
@Cergie....what really surprised and psd me about the ICE trains was the PINK interior. Very un-Germanic and a great change from the (long gone) German/Lufthansa love affair with Brown and Gold (and green in the trains). I was wicked and went First Class. I was intrigued by the quality/unostentatious/downmarket/upmarket (strange mix) "informality". "Germany has changed"......in the sense that some of the old comic book cliche's seem to have gone. Europe aint what it was!

Ruhr focus group....Great Idea, but I'd be hard put to contribute these days.
# Posted By Chuckeroon | 1/29/08 2:11 PM
@Chucker - You might be disappointed, but these are the latest ICE trains, and the ones I travelled on didn't have a trace of pink (Erste Klasse) - just spacious compartments with luxurious leather chairs, power points etc. Colour scheme now is a sophisticated grey/blue, picked out with red. How times have changed
# Posted By richard | 1/29/08 2:46 PM
:) a cool shot richard. I like how you have captured the whole scene, wide enough to get a clue about the location.
Thanks for coming over, it was a pleasure to meet you.

cheers
VT

p.s.
http://www.xoverip.info/pb/index.php?showimage=224...

:-)
# Posted By Vernon Trent | 1/29/08 2:50 PM
First of all, a wonder-wonderful photo of Cologne station and its new modern roof with the ICE. I think after the renovating, the new and old elements have gone into a fine symbiosis, making it a very nice station. I hope the back side will be creatied anew when the building-site of the new underground line will have gone.
Yes, Chuckeroon, the English have a lot of prejudices and pictures in their mind. They should visit Germany and see for themselves. (B.t.w., I have a photo of a pink train inside - abit strange. I'll post it later).
As for the trains: We Germans complain about them every day, Cergie, especially the regional trains are always late. It's terrible, wrong public transport politics here.
And - to close the circle, Richard: I envy you and your train system, it's so great, it's phantastic. When we are in Switzerland, we always go by train.
# Posted By april | 2/1/08 3:45 PM
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