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| Cologne Cathedral |
When you are on any tour of a European city you are going to visit a church. And as you bop around the country side in their villages and towns, the church will always be the tallest, most visible building there. (I guess Ridge is no different because St. Michael’s Church is the tallest building there also.)
For the most part, the old cathedrals and churches are all pretty much alike. Buzzy’s line about “seen one, seen ’em all” always pops into my head as I stand before one of these structures and check it out. As impressive as they are, I usually find myself thinking “What a colossal waste of time, money and effort to build something like this.”
Outside, their gothic architecture is full of ugly statues and gargoyles glaring down at you like they are pissed for having to be stationed as such for all of eternity. And because they are so old, the structures are often dirty and in need of a good cleaning.
The tour guide will cue you up in front of the building and provide a brief overview of when and how the church was built and how it was either bombed or burnt and then rebuilt. The story is usually the same: they ran out of money, they waited another 100 years and then they built it bigger and higher until it was completed.
The tour guide will inevitably say something about the church having survived repeated
bombings during the war(s) and make it sound like it was some kind of miracle or something. (Similar to those 9/11 stories of the church adjacent the Twin Towers surviving.) Miracles aside, our tour guide explained that the churches surviving may have had more to do with the bombideers wanting to retain a landmark to know where to come back to later and bomb some more if they ever had to do so.
As the tour guide continues to tell you all about the history of the church and why it is such a unique and grand place, I find myself tuning out their commentary and becoming more interested in other topics.
For instance, when we visited Strasbourg, France and did a cathedral tour there with our very attractive tour guide (shown here to the right) I found myself more focused on how nice her scarf looked on her and the way it draped around her neck and fell between her – well you can see for yourself.
She may have been talking about architectural twin spires but the twin spires I was thinking about had nothing to do with cathedrals. I know, I am hell bound for thinking such things. But at this point in my life I have found that being bored and alone with my thoughts is sometimes a bad combination. Maybe I need to go to church.
And speaking of church, here is a nice little tune from Eric who passes along as much good advice and wisdom as you will ever hear in any sermon given today.