Wednesday morning things had cleared up a bit, the snow stopped and we headed out once again to the north, where we planned to visit Peter in Bremen, about 4 hours drive on the autobahn. Along the way, we of course had to visit
Altenberg Abbey, in the vicinity of Köln.
Altenberg Abbey was founded in 1133 and inhabited by monks for many years and created half a dozen daughter abbeys (on the map, below). With the secularization of Germany in 1803, it fell into ruins and was nearly destroyed by an explosion while being used as a chemical factory in the production of Prussian Blue. Restoration started in the mid 1800's and Altenberg Dom (Altenberg Cathedral) is now an interdenominational church used by both Roman Catholics and Protestants.
It's kind of hard to imagine such a long history of things, especially coming from California where 10 year old computers are believed to be from the stone age.
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| Altenberg at the center of things in Europe! |
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| The spectacular nave and stained glass of Altenberg Dom |
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| Iron work on the door handles at the cathedral entrance |
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