Brad Spurgeon's Blog

I am absolutely furious not because I failed to find a jam or open mic last night in Cologne, but because once again I lost some of my video footage for some bizarre manipulation I did while downloading it to my computer. This time it had nothing to do with interviews of people, but rather a few nice bits of skyline, and most importantly some wonderful shots of the thousands of Love Padlocks on the Hohenzollern Bridge across the Rhine River.

After eating a meal in a nice restaurant called Oasis, I walked along the Rhine and found a good spot to play a couple of songs, singing into the wind, singing and playing to the skyline of the massive Cologne Cathedral on the opposite bank. A few people stopped by to listen, and applaud.

It was a nice moment, and it was fitting that one of the songs I sang was “Crazy Love.” For it was then followed by the amazing discovery of the thousands of Love Padlocks on the bridge. They are clasped to the fence on this busiest of all railway bridges in Germany, and they bear the names of lovers, couples, and the dates of their relationship or when they were put on the bridge. The custom is to lock them and throw away the key, an eternal symbol of the lovers’ bond.

It is incredibly impressive and beautiful and warm to look at all these names and dates and different styles of locks. Apparently it has been done on this bridge since 2008, according to wikipedia, but I found locks with dates back to 1989. The bridge authority apparently at one point wanted to get rid of the locks, but the lovers won a battle and the locks remain.

I have now done another visit to the bridge and got some video footage….