So here I am on a gorgeous early summer evening in May standing in front of the mighty Cologne cathedral – one of the biggest in the world – waiting for the Lord Mayor.
Young people in traditional costume are lined up to greet me – girls in embroidered blouses, red and green dirndl skirts and lots of frilly white knickers on show. The boys are also in the colours of the German flag with black breeches, tricorn hats, green and red waistcoats.
Of course, I’m not the only one the Lord Mayor and Dean have come to greet. There are over 600 travel professionals from all over the world who have come to the 37th German Travel Mart. I’m one of 38 foreign journalists.
The great bells ring out (including Big Peter, the biggest swinging bell in the world at 27 tons) and we all troop inside to be welcomed. Stained glass saints, stone martyrs, soaring arches, flickering candles, medieval wooden pews and tattered tapestries enclose us as formal speeches are followed by the majestic notes of the organ in an avalanche of triumphal music.
We are reminded by the Lord Mayor that Cologne cathedral boasts one of the longest building histories in the world – started in 1248 and finished in 1880, over 600 years later. And it doesn’t stop even now because there’s a team of masons, carpenters, craftsmen of all kinds who work continuously to keep the cathedral in good nick.
But it is in the few days leading up to this pomp and pageantry that I experience another side of one of the most popular travel destinations in Europe, with a staggering 60 million overnight stays by international visitors last year alone.
I’m part of a Historic Highlights/Unesco/Music Country Tour, where I discover some of the amazing wealth of Germany’s history and culture.
My first stop is Leipzig – a city in progress. Old buildings are being restored everywhere, cranes punctuate the skyline. A famous old department store – the “tinbo”, so called because it was covered in aluminium – is rising up phoenix-like from deep foundations and will mix and match old and new.
Giant yellow pipes curve up out of the ground and snake along past traffic lights and by the edges of the main roads – I thought they were some kind of modern “installation”. The “ring” encompasses the main heart of the city – just a square kilometre, with smart shops, more coffee houses than could utilise the whole of the Ethiopian coffee crop, cobble streets, and smart trams dinging their way along.
Bach is omnipresent – from his house, to his interactive museum where you can hear the old instruments individually as they were played in his day, look at his receipts and even see one of the little garments one of his many children wore.
He had a huge family of 20 children, some of whom were more popular in his day than their famous father, now rated the No 1 musician in the world.
Then on to the enchanting little town of Weimar where a four-piece brass band greets us with Wagner. In the space of a few hours we visit Mendelssohn’s apartment with his own very good watercolours on the wall, his piano (Midsummer Night’s Dream is played for us), his death mask and a cast of his sturdy little hand.
Then to Goethe’s house, the National Theatre where Goethe and Schiller – great lifelong friends – stand in bronze companionship, Then to Liszt’s house where the Hungarian pianist spent most of his summers at the edge of the gorgeous 2km long English Park designed by Goethe and Schiller and two years in the making.
A blackbird sings, a robin joins in, and lilac and may blossom, daisies and dandelions complement the old trees, some of which have stood here for centuries now. Liszt’s daughter, Cosima, married Richard Wagner.
Bayreuth is also enchanting. We are told by our enthusiastic guide that we are to see the “most beautiful opera house in the world”. Ja well, no fine. I’ve been to the Paris Opera House, Hanoi (built as a replica of Paris), Convent Garden, the Met in New York, La Scala. But Bayreuth? Whoever heard of Bayreuth?
She was right. Bayreuth’s Margravial Opera House is certainly the most beautiful opera house in the world. From the street, it just looks like all the other buildings, but once inside, it’s truly breathtaking. Green jade columns, gilded boxes, gold everywhere – a rococo wet dream.
When it’s restored in two years’ time I’m sure the world and his wife (including me) will flock to see a performance of Mozart or Rossini. The music will have to be in keeping.
Wagner’s Opera House, on the other hand, is very Wagnerian. Cold, austere, forbidding, with hard little seats but superb acoustics.
Katerina Wagner, great-granddaughter of the great man, ensures that only Wagner is played here. World-famous musicians and conductors flock to perform here during the annual Bayreuth Wagner Festival in June and accept reduced fees for the privilege. You have to wait 10 years for a seat, and the most expensive ones cost a mere R25 000.
I can’t help myself and sit in Wagner’s own conducting seat (gasp) in the orchestra pit and silently conduct the opening bars of Ride of the Valkyries. My German guide is not amused.
We visit the celebrated Bauhaus Museum and University and marvel at modern architectural styles.
That night we tiptoe round the Steingraeber & Söhne piano factory because the 92-year-old Steingraeber matriarch is sleeping. We get a bit high on the glue, but marvel at the craftsmanship which has been making pianos by hand for hundreds of years. The main market for these works of art today is Asia, particularly China.
Then it’s the picture-perfect town of Heidelburg, with famous castle perched high on a hill overlooking the river. We let our hair down tonight and dance on tables scored by thousands of past students and their thousands of tankards. (Our musicians should never have played Abba.)
And so on to Cologne, a city since Roman times, when Claudius named it in honour of his wife Julia, who was on her third marriage. In 1180, the 4km Roman wall was surrounded by a 7km medieval wall – you can see traces of both all over today’s city.
I bunk out of an official function in Bonn (another former Roman city and birthplace of Beethoven) and stroll around Cologne on my own as the sun sets over the Rhine and swallows and swifts dart over the pavement cafés and evening crowds. I enjoy a Bratwurst and potato salad and some of the Kölsh beer that Cologne is famous for, before wandering back over the cobbled streets past the cathedral and the Philharmonic Hall where locals in smart evening clothes are waiting to go in.
One last highlight I must share with you. Cologne’s Museum Ludwig – right next to the cathedral – has the best collection of pop art outside the US, and one of the finest Picasso collections. Don’t miss it.
There’s so much more to tell you… but you’ll have to go and see for yourself.
l Kate Turkington flew courtesy of Lufthansa on the new 380 Airbus, and was a guest of German Tourism. - Sunday Tribune
