Wolfgang had offered to drive us into Koln this morning so that we could at least get a taste of the city and see its famous cathedral. So after a pleasant breakfast outside in the morning sun we piled into his Landrover 110 and got going.

The cathedral is situated close to the banks of the Rhine river right by the central railway station and is simply immense. Construction started in 1280 when Europe was predominately catholic. Eventually the reformation reduced the flow of Catholic pilgrims to the city and hence money dried up for the local church and construction ceased for hundreds of years. During that period the incomplete part of the church was closed off. In the mid 1800s while Prussia was pushing the German states towards Unification contruction got underway again and according to our guide book 700 men worked for 38 years between (1842 and 1880) to complete the building.

At the cathedral we joined the throng of other tourists and climbed the 533 steps to the observation deck on one of the main spires from where we admired the city but more importantly the amazing stone decoration on the cathedral. Back on ground level, and inside the cathedral, we stood awed by the height of the ceiling and the fabulous stained glass windows.

After lunch we got underway again following the main east west motorway route to the east. Finding a spot to stop for the night proved a little challenging. We called into a number of roadside rest areas to find them overflowing with semi-trailer trucks settled in for the night. However eventually a gas station and restaurant complex with a very large parking area saved us as we found a small spot amoung the horde of trucks.