Köln: Roman & Germanic Museum, Roman Water Organ Demonstration

Thursday we rented a car, the first time we've driven ourselves anywhere since New Zealand. Rental cars in Europe are shockingly expensive and driving on the autobahn is no fun. Some Americans think that having no speed limit would be freeing, but actually there is a slow lane for trucks and a fast lane for BMWs and the rational majority need to slam on the brakes and endure tailgaters while repeatedly venturing out into the fast lane to pass the trucks. We rented a car because there was no train early enough to get Ross's friend A.K. to his morning flight back to Los Angeles, but we used the opportunity to go see an old friend in Bonn. We made friends with Jan back in our Marburg days 30 years ago, but lost track of him after the birth of his daughter as we both moved around during various academic postings. I googled his name back in May and found him on the first hit; his home page at the University of Vermont biology department showed conservation studies on small mammals in Ghana. When I sent an email, he immediately replied that he had moved back to Germany in September to work at a natural history museum in Bonn.

The upshot was that we dropped A.K. at 7:30 and were to meet Jan at his museum at 4:00, so we had hours to kill with only a short drive. So we decided to explore Köln, since we'd only ever been in the cathedral. We walked around the downtown, which is broken up by a big dig project for a new subway line. I liked the candy-colored houses next to this old stone Romanesque church.

Groß St. Martin Church seen from Rhein River waterfront

Here's a fun balustrade on a railing at the St. Maria Im Kapitol church.

Snake eating a rat carving on railing

 

We spent the bulk of our time in the Roman-Germanic Museum where we happened upon a press conference for the opening of an exhibit on Roman music. I was eager to hear the water organ played, but had to keep checking back till the 45-minute lecture was finally over. I should have known that, for anyone to take her seriously, she needed to give a long lecture first. Ross thinks we can't count this short demonstration in our concert list. By the way, if anyone reading this knows an easy way to turn the video, please let me know, but I gave up and will post it sideways and you can turn your screens. This is called crowd sourcing, when old folks enlist young folks to help them with technology.

Reconstruction of Roman Water Organ

 

 



I always thought of the Germanic tribes (e.g. Ostragoths, Vandals) as the barbarian hordes that swooped down and rousted the civilized Romans from Germany, but this museum was full of intricate jewelry and artifacts from these tribes. Check out this belt buckle.