During our evening walk into Cologne, we stopped off to see the thousands and thousands of padlocks that are attached to the Hohenzollernbrucke Bridge, which is a railway bridge with footpath that spans the river not too far from where our boat was moored.
I can't take the credit for writing this wee story as it was printed in the daily issue of our our 'Viking Daily' which was the newsletter that gave us our itinerary and all the details we required for that day's cruise and visits. This is how the story goes, and you'll remember the photo of the padlocks that I posted in the page about our visit to Heidelberg:
"Lovers all around the world have unique ways of showing their affection for each other, but few are as enduring as the act of locking your love with a padlock and throwing away the key. The love lock tradition is thought to have originated in China, where lovers would write their names or initials on a padlock, lock it to a public fixture and throw the key into a river so that the two lovebirds could never be parted. Few displays are more impressive than that on the Hohenzollernbrucke Bridge that spans the Rhine River in Cologne. The bridge features padlocks, handcuffs, tin cans and bicycle chains inscribed with couples' names and romantic messages. When the bridge operator recently threatened to remove the padlocks, public outcry ensued and the locks stayed."
When you see the amount of padlocks involved on the total length of the bridge, the extra weight borne by the bridge must be pretty high!! Here are some photos that I took, and this is just a small fraction of the padlocks that are attached to this bridge!!
I can't take the credit for writing this wee story as it was printed in the daily issue of our our 'Viking Daily' which was the newsletter that gave us our itinerary and all the details we required for that day's cruise and visits. This is how the story goes, and you'll remember the photo of the padlocks that I posted in the page about our visit to Heidelberg:
"Lovers all around the world have unique ways of showing their affection for each other, but few are as enduring as the act of locking your love with a padlock and throwing away the key. The love lock tradition is thought to have originated in China, where lovers would write their names or initials on a padlock, lock it to a public fixture and throw the key into a river so that the two lovebirds could never be parted. Few displays are more impressive than that on the Hohenzollernbrucke Bridge that spans the Rhine River in Cologne. The bridge features padlocks, handcuffs, tin cans and bicycle chains inscribed with couples' names and romantic messages. When the bridge operator recently threatened to remove the padlocks, public outcry ensued and the locks stayed."
When you see the amount of padlocks involved on the total length of the bridge, the extra weight borne by the bridge must be pretty high!! Here are some photos that I took, and this is just a small fraction of the padlocks that are attached to this bridge!!
