Is demanding a pay rise as well as a cut in hours for shift workers. deutsche bahn says the demands are unaffordable. meanwhile, convoys of tractors are blocking major city centres including hamburg, cologne, and berlin. motorway sliproads and border crossings with france, poland and the czech republic are also affected. our berlin correspondent jessica parker told us more about why these strikes are happening. i m in the heart of berlin. you can see the brandenburg gate behind me. but swing round here and you ve got a line of tractors. there are actually fewer here than there were a couple of days ago. but it is part of an ongoing protest by farmers against plans to phase out agricultural fuel subsidies. now, in some cases, tractors are parked up like this in city centres. in other cases, they are doing rolling blockades across the country, causing travel disruption. adding to that, today, you have got the start of a three day strike by train drivers who are in a dispute with the national rail operator deutsche bahn over pay and working conditions.
The Cologne Cathedral houses the Shrine of the Three Kings, a reliquary which tradition says holds the bones of the Biblical Magi. But how did they get there?
Cologne police acting on indications of a possible attack searched Germany's landmark cathedral with sniffer dogs Saturday and said worshippers attending Christmas Eve Mass would undergo security screening before being allowed in. In Austria, police in Vienna also said they were taking heightened security measures around churches and Christmas markets, deploying both uniformed and plainclothes officers.
Seven nights’ sailing Europe’s rivers onboard the S.S. Antoinette will deliver you to historic cities such as Cologne and Strasbourg , you’ll stroll through.