Cologne is one of the 'hottest' Christmas Market destinations amongst our expat friends. Our flight was shared with a number of London based Melbournians that we bumped into at the immigration line - picking out the Aussie accents and navy passports. Cologne plays host to 7 separate Christmas Market locations. And when we booked this trip many months earlier, we hoped that our travel weekend would include snow to give us a true Continental white Christmas. We were not disappointed. Lucky we had brought along the snow boots!
Arriving in Cologne
Our first stop on arriving into Cologne was to locate our hotel, located on the opposite end of the city to the Old Town. It was a 20 minute walking distance from most of the attractions. This was a bit inconvenient. However this hotel was a last minute booking, as the original hotel booked at least a month ago, had given our room away after a mix-up with email communication. Lucky for us, they gave us enough time to find replacement accommodation that did not require extensive public transport distances from the main tourist sites.
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| Our first sight of snow for this winter |
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| Playing with the light and powdery snow |
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| The landscape at the old Fort |
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| Kids playing with toboggans |
Hotel Windsor
After completing check-in at our hotel and climbing up 3 levels of stairs to our room, we collected a map of all the Christmas market locations from the Reception. The receptionist gave us his recommendation for the best place for mulled wine and the location of a wonderful shopping street and a discount fashion store called TK Maxx (we had definitely heard of that one before!)
Cologne Cathedral
Our first stop was the Cathedral - the icon of the city and one of the few buildings that survived the bombings of World War II. The Cathedral (Kolner Dom), dates back to 1248 AD and is built in the Gothic style with beautiful decorations and flying stone buttresses.
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| At Cologne Cathedral |
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| Cologne's famous landmark |
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| Side view from the Christmas market |
Cathedral Christmas Market
The Cathedral Christmas Market was our stop point for lunch. This was our first Christmas Market of the weekend and is the most tourist oriented as it is located right next to the City Information Centre. The stalls sold the traditional foods of bratwurst with mustard and ketchup accompanied by hot apple cider.
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| Entrance to the Christmas market at the Cathedral |
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| Attacking the bratwurst |
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| The Christmas tree at the centre of the market |
Altstadt (Old Town)
Our next stop was located less than a hundred metres away in the historic Old Town (Altstadt). We visited our second Christmas Market and the stalls were filled with more traditional gifts (perfect for Secret Santa presents), wood carvings and a larger variety of foods. From a snacking point of view, we fell in love with the long pork skewers and mulled wine (gluhwein).
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| Traditional Christmas decorations on the market stalls |
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| Entrance to the Christmas market at Altstadt |
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| Enjoying the pork skewers |
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| Enjoying a snack |
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| Christmas biscuits in tins that double up as music boxes |
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| The pretty central fountain |
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| Pork is on the menu |
Ice Rink
Christmas Market number three was connected to the market at the Altstadt by a short laneway. The main feature of the market was the ice-rink. This was a very popular attraction as the outdoor temperature had fallen close to zero. By this stage, the novelty of the Christmas Market was starting to wear thin and we half-enthusiastically marched our way to the Angel Market at Neumarkt Square.
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| Ice skating |
Angel Market
Market number four followed a theme with white decorations and women dressed up as angels that were taking photos with the tourists. The food and beverages on offer were similar to the previous markets. We stuck with our favourites, snacking on the Nutella crepe from one of the stalls.
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| Angel Market |
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| Tree light decorations during the day |
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| Tree light decorations at night |
Rudolfplatz
After completing our walk through central Cologne, we went back to our hotel to rest up before dinner. In doing so, we passed Christmas Market number 5 at Rudolfplatz. Later on that night we revisited this market and ate a tasty (but very oily) German potato cake.
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| An old church looking very snowy |
Stadtgarten
Retiring back to our hotel, we caught up with the day's football scores whilst waiting for the sun to set and the Christmas lights to come out. We were not disappointed by the quality of decorations when we walked through Christmas market number 6 at the brightly lit Stadtgarten.
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| Christmas market at Stadtgarten |
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| The crowd was mostly locals out drinking |
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| The central city Christmas Tree |
Japanese Restaurant for Dinner
As the temperature fell to -5 degrees, we decided to skip the local cuisine for dinner and headed for a Japanese restaurant. We ate ramen and drank hot tea to warm us up. Watching a tourist navigate the icy pavements in a pair of stiletto heels made us laugh.
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| Doubling up with Kirin |
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| Tasty ramen |
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| Cake shop in the centre of town |
Baggage LockersThe next day we walked through the muddy slush of rain soaked snow in the Old Town, seeking out baggage lockers at the main train station to store our luggage. The lockers came with a nifty piece of automation whereby your bag slots into a compartment that disappears somewhere underneath the train station and you receive a ticket. To retrieve your luggage, you need to swipe the ticket through the reader, pay for any additional charges and your bags appear like magic from something that looks like a metal bread box.
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| Hauptbahnhof refers to the central train station in German cities |
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| The church near our hotel |
Eating Again
We passed back through the second Christmas Market just to eat another pork skewer, as well as potato dumplings with sour cream and sausage, finishing up with hot freshly made chimney cake - a sweet pretzel with cinnamon and sugar.
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| Getting merry with mulled wine |
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| How to make chimney cake |
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| Freshly baked chimney cake |
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| Potato dumpling with smoked sausage and sour cream |
Chocolate Museum
Our next stop was by the river and we made our way to Christmas Market number seven, at the entrance to the Chocolate museum. At this market, we hung around one of the mulled wine, drunk a couple of mugs worth and ate currywurst.
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| Entrance to the Christmas Market at the Chocolate Museum |
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| On the 3rd day of christmas, we had more mulled wine |
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| And another mug |
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| And some currywurst |
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| Next to a pirate ship |
Leaving Cologne
By the time we had finished the day, it was very clear that visiting seven Christmas Markets in less than 40 hours was too much. We took the train to the airport quite early and after security checks we stayed a while at the pub. This was a great location for people watching, eating more sausages, drinking local Koln beer and waiting another 2.5 hours until check-in time.
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| Eating a plate of cold, slightly pickled sausages |
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| Washed down with local beer |
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