Inspiring Spires

We arrived in Cologne after sailing for 18 hours overnight from Amsterdam along the Rhine Canal, with two locks and then upstream 150 miles.  The river engineering in Netherlands is very impressive, with waterways going everywhere and many (hundreds) of river boats of every sort. I took a few pictures along the beautiful canal countryside- mostly dairy grazing as far as I could see with small factories along the way; bridges every few miles (kilometers)- some just for trains and others just for bicycles.  I'm pretty sure we can stop preparing bridge EIRs- and just build more bridges.  The Rhine looks like the Mississippi, but without levees; only a few flood walls for some towns.  There are green over-banks with large trees-and cottonwood seeds floating down like snow.  The Europeans really use their rivers to move lots of goods in bulk, container, tanker and car barges-most are river boats-with the engine and living quarters connected with the barge.  The river has many factories along its length, as well as several large ports from Rotterdam to Bern (850 km navigable). The captain gave a great talk on river navigation and assured us that he can steer accurately with radar at night- no auto-pilot because the river is always bending.  He told us about the river captain exam- he needed to know (memorize) the navigation details of every port, bridge and lock along each major river.  He passed.

Here is our first lock- a guillotine lock- which held our ship (35 ft x 350 ft) easily in one half of the lock, with a tanker behind us.  The lock gates are lowered and lift gates open at the bottom, so no water pumping is needed.  But we will be passing bridges and locks with very limited head room- so our top deck railings will be lowered and the pilot house is lowered 5 feet in some parts of the rivers.

We passed under some very large bridges and around a bend to reveal the Dom (latin) cathedral of Cologne.  The towers are hard to believe- such intricate carving and ornamentation.  It was built of stone between 1350 and 1880 using the original design.  Most of Cologne was bombed, yet the cathedral remained- most of the stained glass had been removed and the roof was damaged, but most of the buildings around it were totally demolished as part of the war effort to destroy the industrial heart of Germany.  Such terrible and needless waste and tragedy for everyone; armies, civilians, jews, workers.

We wonder what motivated the catholic church to build such majestic, yet costly cathedrals?  We wonder how many were building it for God the creator of heaven and earth? The cathedrals have lots of visitors today, but do many look up past the spires to Jesus the Lord of Life?  "Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable. Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ." I Peter 2:4-5

God wants to build us up-individually through belief and faith in the God who is really here- and together to serve Him and love Him by loving and serving others, in grace. We cannot build ourselves up like a cathedral reaching to God.  We are not able to reach God; He must reach us.

Also in Cologne is the museum of chocolate; sponsored by Lindt.  Fascinating to see the story of discovery in Central America, importing to Europe as part of the golden age of trade, and now enjoyed by most of us.  We learned a little about recent efforts to control child labor and provide a higher standard of living for cocoa farmers/processors- similar to the efforts for coffee growers.  Jeremy- Republic of Congo has only about 1% of the cocoa trade as Cameron- Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire produce the most- better suggest ROC needs to increase this lucrative jungle trade. We need to get to bed so we can rise early- we enter the scenic castle section of the Rhine starting at 7 am.  Can't miss those picture opportunities for river roaming.