Venimus Adorare Eum

This was and still is the "slogan" of about half a million pilgrims who have come to meet the Popein Cologne. And here he is!
It has been amazing to be in Cologne and to be together with an international believing youth on a special day like that.
I arrived about noon time in Cologne and I was quite surprised that the station was not crowded and that it was quite easy to walk through the city.
But people had already gathered either at the Rhine or near the route where Benedikt was supposed to pass, either by foot or in his papamobil.
I bet a lot of people have seen pics on TV and you have probably seen more than I have :)
We also went to the Rhine and saw Benedetto pass on the boat. Well, I saw a white dot inbetween a lot of black dots, but I have seen the Pope!
On the way there we met pilgrims from Ecuador for example, singing and dancing on the streets.
We decided to to walk near the Cathedral and we were lucky enough to get onto Roncalliplatz, where Benedikt was supposed to talk and bless the crowd. (We actually asked a policemen where it would be best to go and he said that Benedikt will have his "gig" on this place, so we would see him best there and also hear him talk.)
So thats what we did. We waited for about 2 hours because every single person was checked properly before he was allowed to get onto the place. It was so hot and exhausting to stand there for so long but something made it a lot easier. A group from Costa Rica cheered everybody up with "Benedetto" calls and another group from Poland brought a guitar and we all sang songs together which was really nice.
Once we were on the place we could follow the Father's pilgrim path on a big screen, how he got off the boat and how he made his way to the Cathedral. We saw him walking through the Cathedral and when the door opened, the whole mass went crazy. Believing that I had a good position where I could see, turned out to be wrong. All I saw was flags lol. But somebody took me up his shoulders and the view was amazing. Not only that I saw the Pope while he talked about the importantness of the World Youth Day, the happy people were a blessing as well.
After Benedikt blessed us, he went through the city on his papamobil but I did not see anything of this. We went for dinner and then wanted to take the train back home which seemed to be a big problem. Walking towards the station, the whole place in front of it was crowded. You could not move forwards and backwards would not have brought us home. Inside of the building, the chaos was even worse but somehow we got on our train while I heard on the radio later that the station hat to be closed for a while.
Tonight and tomorrow morning the Pope will hold a mass on Marienfeld, a rural area about 30 kilometres away from Cologne. I hope that everything will be safe and that it will be a glorious feast!
God bless you all.