On my last post about my Viking River Cruise I showed you pictures of the Old Fish Market and Great St. Martin Church. When I left, we were on our way to the Alter Markt.
As with all cities and towns, you can always find interesting monuments, statues and fountains that mark the significance of important people or events, unique legends or acts of bravery or just art itself. As we were leaving the Fish Market, we came across the Fish Fountain.
It is adorned with little fish around the bottom and woeful women on the top.
And we passed a wonderful vine covered wall of Great St. Martin Church.
We saw beggars at the church. Being it was Easter Sunday, we were warned by our Viking crew and our tour guides to be on the lookout for pick pockets and be wary of the beggars. They told us exactly what to expect and how to keep ourselves protected in the large crowds we would soon experience. Luckily, no one on our ship had any issues. The crew and guides did a great job explaining what to look out for.
I love the large old doors of Great St. Martin Church.
As we moved through the alleys and narrow streets and got closer to Alter Markt, we saw a mix of old and new. Remember, Cologne was heavily bombed during World War II and very few of the original old buildings survived.
This townhouse from 1643 looked out of place with the other buildings.
A lot of these buildings seemed to open around little squares.
This group surrounded these beautiful wisteria arbors.
I love how they looked like umbrellas. And the wisteria was in full bloom. It smelled heavenly.
There was even wisteria growing up one of the corners of the buildings.
There were still more interesting alleys to look down as we headed to the historic Alter Markt, known for it’s charming outdoor cafes.
One thing I enjoyed was this statue / monument to Jan von Werth.
He was a general in the Thirty Years War.
It was created by Wilhelm Albermann, a German sculptor and completed in 1884.
The lovely lady on the side is Griet. Jan and Griet were in love, but because he was poor, she refused his proposal.
Jan was so upset by her rebuff that he went off and joined the army where he became a successful general. Years later he returned to find Griet selling produce at the local market.
Jan returned triumphantly to find Griet full of remorse for no rich man ever proposed to her and she was now alone and old. It’s a sad story, but the sculpture is really beautiful.
Even this old column in the square was interesting. There were lots of little cafes all around and it was a charming little square to visit. Our next stop was the old Courthouse, or Rathaus as it is called in German. Stay tuned…
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
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