Crowded Cologne

From hotel in Cologne:
*Whew, Cologne has been crazy this week. I arrived Wednesday with AP friend Matt to cover World Youth Day, an immense gathering of Catholics and Pope Benedict’s historic first foreign visit since being named pontiff. (Benedict’s also a native German).

*The first sight from the train station was overwhelming – mobs of young people carrying flags from countries around the world, many of them singing and chanting. (We learned the numbers were expected to reach 450,000 that day and an estimated 800,000 are expected at the mass on Sunday). They were packed so densely around the train station, and in front of the jaw-droppingly impressive cathedral, it was difficult to move through them. Matt and I cabbed it to the press center, which was joyously uncrowded and full of great facilities. (Reportedly there are 7,000 journalists here but I haven’t seen nearly that many anywhere at once). Matt graciously invited me to hang out with the other AP folks in a room designated for them.

*I spent most of the day playing catchup in the press center until I could finally meet up with some members of the Charlotte Diocese who traveled here for the event. After a quick interview, I found my way to the hotel room Sabra offered to share with me, then retrieved luggage that had mistakenly been taken to the AP folks’ hotel (for a few heart-stopping minutes I thought it had been stolen). My hotel, the Maritim, is something of a landmark along the Rhine and quite elegant (thanks Sabra!).

*Yesterday was a marathon – I got up at 5:15 a.m. in order to meet the Charlotte group by 7 a.m. to follow them around for the day for my story. Journeys that normally should take 20 or 30 minutes swell into hours in these crowds, but I made it on time. I attended a catechesis and mass in a soccer stadium with this group and some 10,000 others. Not to offend any Catholics, but I found it a bit bizarre that priests were hearing confession from rows of plastic chairs set up in full view of the crowd. I also found it fascinating how efficiently they took communion – about 100 priests fanned out into the crowd with bowls of communion wafers and moved down the rows and had the stadium covered in no time. I was a bit embarrassed that I had to decline – I was probably the only one in the stadium besides the security guards who did so.

*I had time to go to the press center to transmit my photos, then made my way back to the Charlotte group again. On a train crossing the Rhine I caught a glimpse of the Pope’s boat floating down the river – that was how he was first presented to the faithful as they lined the banks. I’d originally thought I’d be either in a journalist boat beside him or on the banks with my Charlotte group, but they decided to skip the river arrival because they figured they wouldn’t really be able to see him anyway (they were right – I had a far better view on live TV in the press center). As I made my way to the crowded streets near the cathedral where the Pope was scheduled to drive by in the Popemobile, I was beginning to think that finding the Charlotte group would be futile, despite the meeting point we’d devised. But against all odds, I ran into one of the group leaders on a street near our meeting point. She led me to the rest – they’d picked a spot behind the barricades at the end of the Pope’s motorcade route. A very painful, leg-cramping two hours ensued during which I waited with them, pressed on all sides by sweaty strangers, for a glimpse of Benedict driving by. A distant photo showing him as a white blob and a concluding quote for my story rewarded the effort. I filed my story around 11 p.m. and had a room-service dinner afterward.

*Today I visited Krefeld, a city of about 250,000 a 40-minute train ride from Cologne. It’s Charlotte’s sister city. It’s a decent little place with nice amenities which I’ll detail in the story I’m writing about it, but the best part about it today was the fact that it was so uncrowded compared to Cologne. I found a nice shaded bench in a grassy park and just enjoyed the silence for a while. I also saw some cool modern art by the likes of Warhol, Christo and Lichtenstein in one of the city’s museums. Sadly, eventually I had to board the train again and return to the mobs!