It wasn’t the best of days to visit Köln. The sky was overcast, its grayness blanketing the stones of the city. The cold ruthlessly penetrating my body, keeping comfort as elusive as the wind. Maybe that is how Köln is supposed to be experienced. I could not bring myself to imagine myself experiencing Köln in any different way. It brought me to experience the materiality of Köln, the stone that which was molded into massiveness of the Dom, into the severity of the Romanesque churches, into the immaculate patterns of cobbles that made each fallen autumn leaves stand out as flaming feathers. Anyone who comes to Köln, first meets the Dom – its massiveness unfathomable. One wonders if it is the radiance of the bluish gray stone of the Dom that paints the city in a hue that makes it memorable.
Words will fail me if I, even as mush as, try to describe the experience that was Köln. It is a symphony in shades of gray. Köln could not be experienced better if not on a cold and gray overcast day. It is this climatic atmosphere which compliments the atmosphere of the place. The place molded by the severity of stone. Maybe I was in the best of the days in Köln. The day in which Köln was meant to be seen.
But I can see how unjust I am in being unable to fully express the experience of that day. But how could I if it all is as fleeting as it were in a dream? I feel ill-equipped to tackle these experiences !
Köln, 28 October 2015
sleeplessineurope 