A good night's sleep is just what I needed and
I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed; ready to
face the day ahead.
The group gathered for breakfast
in the hotel dining room then we set off on foot to
the nearest train station - Barbarossaplatz; all looking
very touristy with our WYD backpacks, ID passes round
the neck and our blue WYD Scottish polo shirts.
As the train neared the station at
the centre of Cologne we had no idea what was around
the corner! Up until now we had only seen small gatherings
of groups with international flags and matching t-shirts.
As the train pulled up at the station
we heard an almighty roar coming from a large group
of Italians who were singing and cheering on the platform!
I have never seen anything like it before; the hairs
on the back of my neck were standing on end and it
honestly felt like they were a personal welcoming
party just for us!
Moving through crowds of French,
Germans and Americans, we reached the ground level
of the station and were amazed at the thousands of
people who were lining the steps of Cologne's giant
cathedral.
We saw flags from every different
nation throughout the world; Brazilian, Spanish, Dutch,
Canadian and many others. The atmosphere was amazing!
People were crowded onto the cathedral steps clapping,
cheering, singing and dancing.
There were a few journalists around
who interviewed us and our whole group were filmed
by German TV. (We found out later on that night that
we had been shown on TV singing Scottish songs on
the Cathedral steps!)
Our group split up for an hour or
so and we walked around talking, singing and dancing
with the thousands of WYD pilgrims that were spread
throughout the city centre.
Just before we left, we joined a
wonderful group of Italians as they danced in a circle,
doing all manner of conga-like dance moves.
Leaving the Cathedral we travelled
to the Media Park where we hoped to get some food
but we were in the wrong place and had to go back
a couple of stops on the train. We reached a busy
square around mid day and joined the queue for food,
which consisted of a warm pasta lunch and a cold dinner
of fruit and bread and stuff.
Once the hungry hordes were fed,
we listened to the Christian rock band that were playing
to an energetic audience in the square and most of
us swapped hats with a friendly group of French pilgrims
who were eating lunch next to us. The trading of items
is a tradition that was repeated everyday whilst we
were in Cologne. People were always coming up to us
asking if we wanted to trade t-shirts, hats, key rings,
badges; everything and anything that had some connection
to our country.
Leaving the busy square, we made
our way to the Rhein Energie Stadium for a massive
opening festival mass which was attended by 60,000
people and there were an estimated 150,000 people
watching on screens outside!
As afternoon turned in to evening,
we watched from high up in the stadium seats as the
crowd on the pitch begin to grow bigger.
Mass was said in front of the vast
crowd and everyone treated the stadium respectfully
as a church; which was quite remarkable to watch!
No aspect of the mass was missed out; everyone offered
their neighbour the sign of peace (shaking of hands
and sometimes a hug) and collection bags were even
put round at the offertory time. The most remarkable
feat of all though was that hundreds of priests made
their way out in to the crowds and gave everyone in
the stadium the communion host; something I just could
not believe!
After mass, the pitch was opened
up to everyone and we all went down to watch the bands
that were playing and sang and danced with the many
thousands of people who had gathered for the opening
ceremony.
A couple of hours later our group
split up and ten or so people stayed to enjoy the
amazing atmosphere while the majority of us made the
long trip back to our hotel. We had to walk most of
the way because the trams were so busy. |
