As we were leaving the July 4th celebration of the Amerika Haus in Köln this evening

[DFW]

Last edited Sun Jul 5, 2026, 01:46 PM - Edit history (1)

We got a rather spectacular view of the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) from the other bank of the Rhein, where the event was.

[Scrivener7]

1. Beautiful!

[SheltieLover]

2. Beautiful!

Thx for sharing.

[oasis]

3. That must have been breathtaking up close and

in person.

[DFW]

38. It is impressive, but dont forget--

We live about half an hour away from there, and I pass right by it about six times a month. It may not get old, but it does get familiar.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Very nice! Thanks for sharing this, DFW. 🌞

Last edited Sat Jul 4, 2026, 10:07 PM - Edit history (1)

[blm]

5. Stunning

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Omigod, my dear DFW! What an incredibly exciting and beautiful shot you got!

Oooh, I wish I could have been there!

One thing: it's a tiny bit tilted to the right; if you feel like doing any post-processing, you might want to straighten it a bit. It's minor though.

The colors and composition are spot on!

Congrats!

[DFW]

25. It was shot at haste, repented at leisure

As it is, my phone told me to hold still for two seconds due to the weak lighting—something I had NOT anticipated. I was with my wife and our German Moscow correspondent friend you met here when we went to the Arabesq restaurant in Düsseldorf.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. I understand completely, my dear DFW! It will always be a fabulous photo.

I'll bet the 3 of you had a lovely time. I even remember him and that fabulous Arabesq restaurant!

Thanks for sharing the photo.

[erronis]

41. Surely, Peggy - you know how to make it lean back to the left.

Not to the center, but to the left!

[alwaysinasnit]

7. Thank you!

[Diamond_Dog]

8. Stunningly beautiful!

TY so much for sharing!

[irisblue]

9. Oh my. Thank you for this & thank for smart doctors you can tell us about it

[irisblue]

12. Wait on rereading....thanks be to the smart medical staff who kept you here to enjoy this & we got to as well

[DFW]

39. They were a good team, and I never felt a pang of fear or nerves

Of course, it DOES help that they told me that it went perfectly when I woke up!

[fierywoman]

10. Gorgeous! Thank you -- for some reason, this consoles me.

[Bavorskoami]

11. Herrlich!

We had almost that same view from the stateroom of our ship tied up a little closer to the Hohenzollernbrücke. Easy walking distance to the Dom, etc.

[DFW]

31. Since we were on the Deutz side of the Rhein

We drove over to the airport train station, and took a local train that went from the Düsseldorf Airport down to Köln-Deutz without having to change. It’s only a 32 minute ride, but 32 minutes gets long if you are packed in like sardines with room for standing sardines only. The event was at the Rheinterrasse, which was less than a 15 minute walk from the station.

[FakeNoose]

13. I was lucky enough to climb up in one of those towers, many years ago

There's a nice observation deck in one of the towers, but tourists are required to walk up the stairs because there was no elevator at the time. I think this was 1995 or 96. It's a stunning view of the river, the bridge and the city of Cologne. I did a daytime tour because it wasn't possible to go up in the tower at night.

This is an amazing photo! It's gorgeous the way they've lit up the Cathedral.

[DFW]

30. They didn't!

It was rather dimly lit, and the camera in my iPhone over-compensated. I suppose the next generation of iPhone will take photos of me, and make me look 30 again.

[calimary]

14. WOW, that's beautiful!!!

What a photo! Thanks so much for sharing it!

[gademocrat7]

15. Absolutely beautiful!

Thank you for sharing this photo DFW!

[TBF]

16. Amazing photo -

thanks for sharing! Happy 4th.

[LogDog75]

17. I was by the Cologne Cathedral in the 90s.

I took a trip through the base MWR to Cologne for the Fasching Parade in 1994. Fasching is pre-Lenten carnival season in Germany and the German know how to put on a parade. The vibe in a Fasching parade electric and definitely worth attending if you can. Their parades have large floats that wind through the streets and goes past the Cologne Cathedral. Parade participants will throw beads, flowers, and candy bars as big as a book into the crowds. The Germans are loudly cheering whereas in the U.S. the crowds sit, watch, and applaud.

A couple of Fasching traditions where I was stationed is if you wore a tie to work during Fasching women can the middle of tie off in half. Also, it's not uncommon for kids to stretch a rope across a street and you have to pay them some change (25 or 50 Euro cents) for them to let you pass.

[DFW]

29. Altweiberfastnacht

That is the Thursday before “Rosenmontag,” the crowning day of Karneval. It is traditional for women to run around with scissors, cutting men’s ties in half.

The floats of Düsseldorf are the famous politically charged ones. The brilliant Jacques Tilly is the one in charge of making them, and this year, his floats satirizing Putin were so biting that Putin tried to sue him (!!!). Trump probably would have, too, but I doubt he knows where Köln is, or what Karneval is. I, for one, was amazed that Putin was willing to admit publicly that he followed the parade in Düsseldorf, and the floats there got under his skin to the point where he wanted to take legal action. At least, he hasn’t sent any missiles our way (yet), so maybe that storm has blown over.

[CaptainTruth]

18. Nice! Thanks for posting it.

[kairos12]

19. I'd rather be there. Thanks.

[Prairie_Seagull]

20. Strikingly beautiful.

incredible lighting on history.

[DFW]

28. I don't know HOW I got that lighting

It was way darker than that. The iPhone’s camera over-compensated.

[JMCKUSICK]

21. What a great shot DFW, magnificent.

[AllaN01Bear]

22. oh, ahhh.

[electric_blue68]

23. Oh, right, you had the surgery (i think). Gorgeous photo!

[DFW]

26. You thought correctly.

That was on June 22. They said it went with textbook perfection, and other than not being allowed to lift anything heavy for a week, I was fully repaired. I put that to the test soon enough. A week after the last surgery (the first one was on the 12th), June 29th, I was on my way down to Barcelona for work, found time to have dinner with blm’s daughter, was off to Madrid at 6:20 the next morning, then Paris on Wednesday and Brussels on Thursday. No heart surgery comes with a guarantee, but mine seems to have gone as well as the cardiology clinic here said it did.

[electric_blue68]

36. Great to hear!

[Lionel Mandrake]

24. Kln

This is what happens when you try to put "Köln" in the title. Evidently umlauts are verboten.

[DFW]

27. And I have known that the whole time, too.

I just forgot in my haste to post it ang get to bed. It was after 1:00 AM by the time we got home, and I had been up since 6:30 since I had to work from 8:30 to 11:00 over in Duisburg.

[Dunc]

32. I visited this beautiful Cathedral in 85.

Great picture. Glad you are doing well hugs to you and your family.

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. if you want accented characters in post titles, use & ouml; without the space after the &

You do have to retype it if previewing or editing. Similarly & Eacute; for a capital E with an acute accent etc.

[Soul_of_Wit]

37. Sadly, it won't work for consonants

Good luck getting that umlaut over the N in Spinal Tap.

[DFW]

40. Thanks! I always wöndered what the secret was.

In your honor, I went back and edited the title!

[h2ebits]

35. Wow! Just WOW!!