This morning Amalegro sailed from Koblenz (where we docked last night), arriving early afternoon in Cologne (Koln in German). The weather was very cool and although we were warned to rug up it was not too bad (still glad we dressed warm though). Our tour guide Marcus (German, but sounded Irish?) gave us a very entertaining commentary on the city and was very un-German in his jokes about the local culture. The tour finished at the Cologne Cathedral. We had seen this from a distance but coming around a corner Bill's first impression was of a man-made mountain. It was the tallest structure in Europe before the Eiffel Tower, and the size cannot be captured in photos. The tour over, we went inside the Cathedral. This was equally impressive. The Cathedral is meant to be where the three wise men of the Bible are buried in crypts (and we have no idea why that is 'claimed'). Other than that Cologne was almost entirely destroyed in WWII (the Cathedral largely survived) so being a very new city it did not seem to offer much of immediate interest to us. We walked back to the Amalegro to get ready for the Captain's farewell dinner (always done on the second last night).

And now for something completely different, Kim's observations on fashion (apologies to those who have previously visited Europe):
European women are thin, stylish, confident and seem to all smoke
European men are confident, mostly stylish and seem to all smoke
Australian men & women dress very casually comparatively, even sloppily (although in fairness there are clothing limitations when you're travelling - such as ironing) but generally have little dress confidence. However, this can be somewhat overcome with reasonable hair, a stylish scarf and a 'statement' handbag or shoes (again the shoes and handbag pose significant travel challenges).
Scarves can make the biggest difference and there has been a noticeable increase in the appearance of scarves amongst the women (and even a couple of men) on our cruise. Glad I brought 3 with me!
But, the range of fashion in Europe (and I'm not talking haute-couture but everyday clothes off the rack) highlights the rubbish that is available in Australia! (Kim makes mental note to make more of an effort in the dress stakes).
It will be interesting to observe fashion in the UK.