North Rhine-Westphalia | Fotoeins Fotografie

25T90 Final full day: summer of `25

E89, C06.

I’m in Cologne on the 90th and penultimate travel day. Fortunately, I still have “room” for travel day 91 and Europe day 90: my last day within Schengen to allow for a timely departure. I didn’t need to stay in Frankfurt this time, because with ICE trains, I can go non-stop from Cologne to Frankfurt Airport in 70 minutes. But I will soon leave with another truckload of memories, thousands of images, and time well spent in places crucially important to me.

The 2025 numbers for 90 days:

Total distance walked: 746 km / 464 mi.
Total number of steps: 1.02 million.
Daily average distance walked: 8.3 km / 5.2 mi.
Daily average number of steps: 11347.

*Rudolfplatz: transport junction for lines 1, 7, 12, 15; and bus routes 136, 146.*

*Dürener Strasse 199-203: there’s a dark-grey plaque at far-left and a “stumbling stone” or Stolperstein at lower-right.*

Known for his series of turn-of-the-century portraits, photographer August Sander (1876-1964) lived and worked at Dürener Strasse 201 from 1911 to 1944. This memorial plaque is on the wall next to the entrance at Dürener Strasse 199-203. The August Sander photograph archives are located at the SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne’s Mediapark.

Stumbling stone (Stolperstein) within the pavement in front of Dürener Strasse 199-203: Photographer and August Sander’s son, Erich, arrested for high treason in 1934; died age 40 on 23 March 1944 at the NS penitentiary in Siegburg.

*Sander family grave at Melaten Cemetery.*

*Rudolfplatz: “BoConcept: (offering) one-on-one consultations on interior design.”*

*Of these great people in the frame, I’ve known two of them since 2002-2003. The setting that is the Latin American restaurant El Inca is a favourite. (Thanks to MW for the image.)*

*Last light of the day, facing northwest from Barbarossaplatz towards the Herz Jesu church (left-centre) near Zülpicher Platz.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 5 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

25T89 Cologne Ehrenfeld: “Ihrefeld is my kinda Veedel”

E88, C05.

Some of my best friends in the country are in Cologne, as I’ve known them for almost 25 years. Back in 2002, I’d been introduced to the city’s big football team, as well as the Ehrenfeld district, to which I try and get back when I’m in town. (I tried to stop at Kebapland, but the 630pm queue was already crazy long, and I remember good alternatives in the near.)

To begin my walk west, I’m at the Innerer Grüngürtel (Inner Green Belt) Park, within sight of the Deutsche Telekom building, the 266-metre Colonius telecommunications tower, and the 102-metre Hercules high-rise from left to right, respectively.

*I’ve gotta try to time my stay next time, so I can get a tour of the city’s central mosque. The place opened in September 2018.*

*Opened in 1912, the Neptune Baths have been converted to a fitness and wellness facility since 2002.*

*Helios is a local landmark in Ehrenfeld.*

That’s not a real maritime lighthouse; it’s a structure marking the location of a big factory that once manufactured electrical equipment including maritime lights. I wrote a short blurb about Helios here.

*Kölsch Bloot (Cologne blood) is a clothing company based in Ehrenfeld, which explains the Helios structure, the city’s coat of arms*, *and the silhouette of the city’s cathedral.*

*A 2nd-ad in the Veedel for Netflix and the upcoming 2nd season of “Wednesday”. That queue for Kebapland at lower- right is too long for my state of “hungry.*

*This little tiled piece represents the logo for football team 1. FC Köln. It’s not obvious, but plain as day for fans and for those who know.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 4 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

25T88 Cologne: back to where this began

E87, C04.

More than 80 days ago, I reached Cologne. And now again, it’s the Carneval City to which I’ve returned to put a final bow tie on this 90-day summer of `25 jaunt.

*Approaching the city’s central station with the world-famous cathedral in the background.*

*Rudolphplatz: the Hahnentorburg is one of the few remaining medieval city gates at the western edge of Cologne’s Old Town. “Rudi” is today an important transport junction and commercial hub.*

“ruhender Verkehr (Static Traffic)”, by Wolf Vostell, 1969. With his Opel Kapitän car (K-RM175) encased in concrete, Vostell created the sculpture to protest the increasing glorification of car culture. The sculpture has been placed on the Hohenzollernring north of Rudolphplatz since 1989.

*“He drinks Reissdorf Kölsch.” Spanning several vertical floors of the building at Aachener Straße 3, this 1968 neon advertisement is now under Heritage Protection* *as of 2021.*

*“Handy (mobile) on, World off”. The artist’s Instagram profile: liebezurfarbe.rise*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 3 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T87 Röntgen’s birth town, Lennep

(E86: Lennep b. Remscheid)

Engineer and physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen is known as the person who discovered X-ray radiation in 1895. Also called X-rays, they’re better known in German-speaking countries as “Röntgenstrahlung” (Röntgen radiation). The discovery would net Röntgen the world’s first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

I’d seen a big display about Röntgen’s experiments and apparatus in Würzburg, but I’d learned a day trip from Cologne would take me to Röntgen’s birth town of Lennep.

*The house in Lennep where W.C. Röntgen was born. He was only here for a few years before the family moved to the Netherlands.*

*1920 commemorative plaque by the city of Lennep for this house.*

One of the 1st ever X-ray images: left hand of his wife Anna Ludwig Röntgen, 22 December 1895. Despite initial skepticism, one implication would soon be obvious: X-rays to examine and diagnose “inside” the body without having to “operate.”

*Not far from the Röntgen birth house is the Deutsches Röntgen Museum (German Röntgen Museum) with ‘X’ in front.*

*1901 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Röntgen: declaration in Swedish, one.*

*1901 Nobel Prize declaration in Swedish, two.*

*Siemens Stabilipan machine, with aluminium, copper, or thorium X-ray sources.*

*Replica, dentistry practice. (Zahnarzt = Zahn (tooth) + Arzt (doctor) = tooth doctor, or dentist.)*

*“Ich dachte nicht, ich untersuchte.” (I wasn’t thinking, I was investigating.)*

Lennep (as part of the larger Remscheid) can be reached by S7 train from either Solingen or Wuppertal; both in turn are easily reached from Köln.

I made the photos above with an iPhone15 on 2 Aug 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T86 Köln, latest observations

(E85)

I saw the grand church’s north tower the first time in 2002. Like all before and after who trickle out of the train station in surprise, the first time one lays eyes on Cologne Cathedral is memorable, because the churches of transport and of religion are adjacent, and the neck gets a little sore leaning back for a complete view.

In the time between for 22 years, I’ve been reacquainted many times with that kink in my neck. Fortunately, I’ve also been here enough to know there’s more to Cologne than “just” the cathedral.