Cologne people by Sjalen
Cologne people are seen as lazy by other Germans and in particular the Prussians throughout history. This fountain near the cathedral is a monument to the Cologne temper as it shows a merchant's wife in a household where gnomes did all the work whilst the family slept, but one day the lady in the house wanted so much to see who did all the hard work in the house that she put peas in the staircase. What you see is therefore loads of gnomes falling over. They were supposedly so angered by this that they left the house, never to come back. When the Prussians came to town, there was much being done that "those lazy Colonians" had never done. Finish the cathedral for once! Why had it been semi-finished since the 13th century, they wondered. And well...still today, Cologne is known for its carneval and relaxed lifestyle.
