It's Just What All Young Lovers Do
The Count and I have never done something for Valentines Day before. We don't believe in showing you care about someone on a special day and we also don't like flowers and cheesy cards. Today though, today was different. We did the cheesiest thing a couple can do in Cologne. We hung a love padlock on the Hohenzollernbrücke which is one of the bridges that cross the Rhine. It is the one closest to the cathedrale and the most famous place in Germany to put love padlocks. Right now, there are over 40.000 padlocks on the bridge, they have become a tourist magnet and a very popular photo motive.
Many padlocks are engraved or signed but we decided to go for a simple cheap padlock, we're not THAT cheesy.
It is a tradition to throw the keys into the Rhine but I think a lock is something that should open all the time, even if it is just to replace it with a nicer one. Also, it's not exactly ecological to just throw your trash into random rivers so we each kept one of the keys.
Have a geat day,
The Countess
I love this tradition. You can do the same thing on Le Pont de l'arts in Paris. Me and Ash will add a padlock if we ever get to return to Paris =] Or if we get to Cologne first we'll add our padlock to the multitude with yours =]
ReplyDeleteJust add a lock in Paris and Cologne, it can't hurt :)
DeleteI love that tradition, too, even though some people critisise it rather harshly. They say "What kind of society do we live in where the symbol of love is a lock?"
Good point not to throw the keys in the river. You can keep them as treasures.
ReplyDeleteThat's what we thought, too ;)
DeleteAww, that's a cute green lock ♥.
ReplyDeleteThis tradition has taken some foot in Finland too.
...in my home city some art students got this "great" idea last year: they went and cut the locks off this one local bridge and melted them all together to a yucky lump. They also video taped the whole thing and the lump was shown in some art show. Something about "one love", or something... but did they cause some rage with that! I don't remember, but maybe they even got sued xD. (I belonged to those who thought them idiots, especially since the lump was so ugly... >__>.)
Oh nooo, really? Oh my god... I like the idea of 'one love' but just using something that has such a high emotional value to many people for their project doesn't seem right...
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