We slept late and didn’t rush this morning.  West of us is the GrunGurtel, or “green ring” of Cologne.  A walk in the park with a picnic lunch sounded appealing.

The Cologne Central Mosque, in Ehrenfeld, was completed in 2017.  It is the largest mosque in Germany.  Its modern glass and concrete design, along with the soft colours, provides lightness and openness inside the dome hall.   

From there we strolled through open parklands, until we reached the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Park.  It contains an enormous rectangular lake, home to ducks, geese and swans.  The low green hills south of the lake are rubble hills, mounds of debris left from the WW2 destruction of the city.  During the Nazi era, mass marches took place here, and there was a large platform topped with a huge imperial eagle.  In the southeast corner, there is a small monument commemorating the atomic bombing of Japan. Today the park is peaceful and serene; a nice place to sit and contemplate while munching on a sandwich.

In the park’s north west is the Museum for East Asian Arts.  The building surrounds a courtyard garden, and in each wing there are displays of artworks from Japan, China, and Korea.  Many of the works were modern day takes on traditional art forms, like the contemporary Chinese ink paintings.  There is an entire room of Ming dynasty porcelain. 

But the exhibition that took my breath away was the etchings by Japanese print artist Tanaka Ryohei.  Many of his works depict thatched roofs, rare in Japan but beloved by the artist.  Most of his work is monochrome, with occasional splashes of colour.  Every single one of them is exquisite.  The shapes, textures, and incredible amount of detail blew me away.  The pieces range from miniatures, to full floor to ceiling.  I absolutely loved them.  Here are some of my favourites.

We chose Cologne for a few days simply because it was a convenient stop en route to the Black Forest. We’ve really enjoyed our time here. We’ll finish with a few last minute photos. We never needed an umbrella.