The great city of Köln Germany! A wonderful town with remains of an old Roman wall, great night life, and a small church that people seem to like to go to for some reason. But really, the Köln Cathedral is an intense structure to look at. The amount of detail and artistry that went into constructing it can not be described in words. No picture that I took of the church captured the magnitude of it. So many colored glass windows, so many sculptures, so many depictions of Bible stories, and even the Three Wise Men’s Bones to boot! WOW
Being part of a Catholic mass was an interesting experience. The beginning and end of the service, when they had the processions of the golden cross, the priests, the guy at the front leading the procession, and the guys swinging sensors had almost a militaristic feel to it. Like the army of God is marching into the cathedral, or something like that. There was a lot of incense, and it makes sense given the size of the cathedral. The sermon itself I could catch a few words and piece together the message. It was along the lines of “We are all part of the church, Jesus is in our hearts, and He is part of the church, etc, etc.” But this service was drastically different compared to my own church back home.
As for the tourists, it is kind of sad seeing more people coming to the Cathedral to take pictures and to gawk at the highly detailed architecture, than to go there for the service. But I guess that happens with many of the old churches in Europe now.