A bonus from closing ceremony

In the coming hours and days you'll be seeing many, many photos similar to this one, taken on the way back to the old city of Cologne from the right bank, where the Tanzbrunnen fairground welcomed the Gay Games VIII closing ceremony.

A little bonus from holding this event there was that those of us who had yet to see this amazing view of the Dom, the Musical Dome, the Hohenzollenrbrûcke and the rest of the riverfront were able to enjoy this sight.

The Hohenzollernbrûcke is a rail bridge with a footpath along each side, and is the Cologne venue for the tradition of placing padlocks on bridge guardrails as a souvenir of a visit to a city and as a sign of a couple's love. As participants and spectators of Gay Games VIII closing ceremony headed back into town, they were able to admire the thousands of padlocks already orning the bridge, and decide where they would like to place their own.