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| View from the top of the Kolntriangle - The Cologne cathedral was the tallest structure in the world for a few years after it was finally complete in 1880 - some 630 years after its construction had began. We can confirm that it is a monster! |
In English we say Cologne, but in German and throughout Germany you'll notice on signs and timetables it's Koln.
Famed for its massive Cathedral, the river Rhine, its beer Kölsch, having more bars and pubs per capita then any other German town, the Lindt chocolate museum and of course some more Christmas markets. Cologne was calling out to us. These few attractions were more then enough to make a two night visit worth while as we cross Germany headed for Belgium and the Netherlands.
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| Amy having a crack at some Eggnog - this was my first attempt and I was not impressed! I'll stick to the gluhwein! |
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| Small compared to Munich and Nuremberg, Cologne's Christmas Markets were stunning, and the cathedral background really added to the whole experience. |
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Apparently, one of Cologne's most charming traditions is for the locals to lock their love onto the Hohenzollern Bridge. Each side of the bridge is almost filled with locks across its entire length.
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Kölsch, why is it so special I hear you ask? Well, its a clear top-fermented frothy bright in colour and crisp in taste. It was determined in 1986 by the directors of 24 Kölsch breweries that Kölsch is not only a type of beer but also a designation of origin, and that production should be restricted to a specific set of instructions and area of the world. Much like the French do with some of their cheese and champagne. Another cool thing here is that you don't really need to order the beer, as soon as you put down a coaster they bring you beers over. To stop receiving beers you need to put the coaster on top of the empty glass.
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| After smashing 1litre frothies in Munich, it was strange to hold and consume only 200ml of Kölsch.... reasonably expensive at 3 euro's per glass. |
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| Packed lunch! |
Amy had to visit the Lindt museum, which was ok because we've visited plenty of breweries and pubs off my bat. It was reasonably expensive, and I expected to walk out feeling sick with eating too much free chocolate - which unfortunately didn't happen... It had a lot of information about where chocolate came from, how its grown and its uses over the years. We walked away having learnt about chocolate production, how and where cocoa is grown and genuinely learnt something.
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| Woot woot - for a few euro's you can make your own block of chocolate with chosen ingredients. |
Walking back to our apartment from the Lindt museum we wandered through a couple of different Christmas Markets selling a lot of hand made non-christmas specific product. Plenty of locals were out and about, well and truly more then tourists which was good to see.
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Get yourself a custom on-the-spot handmade belt.
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