Campo Family Travels: { Cologne }

{ Cologne }

0 Comments

Nov 29 - Dec 1, 2013 -- Jon and I were in need of some Christmas cheer after our last month. We both wanted to escape the dreary weather, leave behind the broken bones and find a cheerful and festive experience to brighten our moods. Cologne, Germany came highly recommended to us and turned into a great opportunity to find that missing Christmas cheer.

Jon warned me ahead of time that we would need to find other things to do besides Christmas stuff, because he would likely get burned out from all-things-Christmas… that’s a harder task than you would think. We had planned on only visiting a few of the seven markets, but quickly learned that Christmas IS Cologne’s major attraction (well, shopping in general). And the city definitely lived up to its holiday season legacy.

We were greeted at the train station with twinkling lights, bows of holly and decorated wreaths. Christmas had arrived! I spent the first hour squealing with excitement! The first night we decided to walk around the city and actually stumbled upon three of the markets. They were all quite similar in concept; freshly cooked food (potato pancakes, kielbasa, chestnuts and glühwein), hand-made gifts and Christmas decorations aplenty. The glühwein was Jon's favorite part of the experience. Similar to the mulled wine we enjoy in the States, but served from decorated ceramic mugs from nearly every corner in the city! Each market carried a different theme in an effort to distinguish from the others. For those that ever find themselves in Cologne around the holidays, our favorite market was one of the big ones situated on the Heumarkt. It had an ice skating rink, several fun little stores, some sort of bowling/curling ice game and a chalet that served glühwein and Austrian beer. We returned several times over the weekend trying to soak up as much holiday spirit as possible! Another market was just off the steps of the Cathedral, complete with a giant Christmas tree and beautiful “roof” of lights above. Here's a fun panoramic picture we took from inside a ski chalet (where we enjoyed more than a few Christmas drinks!).

Cologne provides an interesting mix of architecture as a result of its turbulent history. From what we read about the city, it was heavily bombed during WWII and much of the city was destroyed (including significant portions of the cathedral). The city still has a number of old structures still standing, but there is definitely a heightened mix of modern buildings compared to most European cities we've visited. With a little over 1 million residents, Cologne is a very manageable city to explore on foot. And the locals might disagree, but we felt like we could easily see all of the notable sites in a weekend trip.

After our first day of exploring Cologne's Christmas markets, we decided to start Saturday morning with a visit to the cathedral. Neither of us had any real expectations of the cathedral, but both of us were blown away by the craftsmanship and the detail that was inside and out. We noticed people standing on a balcony outside one of the towers the previous day, so we made it our mission to find a way to the top! Five hundred thirty three stairs later and we were enjoying an amazing view of the city. It was a little discouraging that they had put up a netting around the top (likely to prevent people from throwing things down or vandalizing the facade) so we only managed to take a couple of unobstructed pictures. As the day wore on, we found ourselves at a couple more Christmas markets, spending the evening under a clear sky, bundled up and drinking more glühwein.

Sunday was our departure date, and originally we thought we would maximize our travel day and book a late train home. There were a couple issues with this: (1) We had a six hour gap between checking out of our hotel and catching our departure, and (2) we did not anticipate seeing everything on our list in two days! So we stored our luggage at the train station and repeated our footsteps around the city for a few hours. Since we had only checked 6 of the 7 Christmas markets off our list, we embarked on another mission to cross off number seven. It was a bit of a walk (most were near city center but this one was waaay out of the way) but we felt it was worth the effort because the market offered a change of pace by being dedicated to organic food/drink (very reminiscent of Portland). By mid afternoon we were tired of walking so we headed back in for the train station early to relax for a while before returning home.

Our takeaway from this trip: We had a great time, had some great food and it definitely brightened our moods to surround ourselves with Christmas spirit. While Cologne is a fantastic little city during the holidays, neither of us found many reasons to return any other time of the year. Even with the Christmas markets, we only managed to keep ourselves busy for 48 hours. Perhaps we missed something, but there simply wasn't enough to do for an extended amount of time.

Here's a few pictures from our weekend:

Jon was excited to learn Kolsch beer originated in Köln, Germany.

This is what the waitress referred to as "Christmas loaf" and it was amazing!

Cologne's interesting mix of architecture which made for a fun walk along the waterfront. And the Rhine river's current is surprisingly quick!

Most of the cool buildings had no explanation of what they were or why they were there. This one seems rather pointless. Perhaps a lookout tower at one point?

Smoked salmon!

We finally found Christmas trees! Everywhere!!!

This is some sort of curling meets bowling. And the people participating were certainly amateurs, at best.

Inside the Swiss ski chalet!

Add caption

This was a piece of the cathedral from when it was bombed.

The floating organ pipes

Each little piece was hand laid into the floor of the church; all about the size of a nickel.

This was the view from atop the cathedral tower. Like much of Europe, Cologne has a very flat landscape.

As is this, looking down to the Christmas market.

This giant church bell hung from the Cathedral tower was the largest in the world at one time. I have no idea how they managed to raise it 500 feet to hang from the tower back in the 15th century.