It was our last day in Cologne and while we’d hit up plenty of markets and quite a few sights in our time here there was still plenty on our list. We had a few day trips planned out of Cologne and had been to both Brühl and Dusseldorf, but rather than another day trip today we decided we should do some more exploring of Cologne. The kids had most definitely been angling for ice skating at the gnome market, and it was going to be hard to hold them off.
We’d all woken up between 7.30-8am to another cold and grey day but with wonderful views of the Kölner Dom from our apartment.
After breakfast in the apartment we applied all our layers as it was a mere 2 degrees, and wasn’t expected to get any warmer for the rest of the day. We had yet to have any snow on this trip – and it was now the 13th of December and 13 days in so we were keen). Sadly there was no snow on the ground yet, but we noticed as we head out that all the streets had been salted due to snow being forecast.
As our apartment (Haus am Dom) was cathedral adjacent, we started our morning adventure with a wander past the cathedral. I definitely had plans to come back and climb those stairs today. We’d been back and forth for days and I hadn’t yet gotten up there!
Off to the Belgian quarter…. eventually!
First up on our agenda was a walk the Belgian quarter, which was supposed to be about a 2km stroll from our apartment. Somehow we managed over 5km as we ended up in the Latin quarter because Anto, myself and google maps had a miscommunication.
On the way we saw some interesting buildings and different parts of Cologne. Up until now we’d mostly wandered through the many markets and around the Rhine waterfront.
As we’d hit the Latin quarter rather early there wasn’t much open, and we continued on and did eventually end up in the Belgian quarter. We declared all the extra steps to be working off some later glühwein and pretzel.
The Belgian quarter is supposed to have an array of excellent cafes. The kids were cold and very keen on a hot chocolate stop. Sadly for the kids (and Kim who wanted her morning coffee) we were out too early for most the cafes to be open, despite already wandering for an hour. We found a place for hot chocolates and coffee but it was tiny and full of similarly cold people, so it was al fresco hot chocolates in the park.
Christmas was definitely coming, there were Christmas trees for sale everywhere!
Niklausdorf market
Kim and Alan were off to do some slower market exploring while we decided we wanted to go to the nearby Niklausdorf market near the old city walls we’d walked past the previous night. We hadn’t been to this market yet and we were keen to have a look at those old city walls in daylight. We head off to the aptly named Rudolfplatz and found the Niklausdorf market fairly easily.
It was a smaller market but very cute, and as they were just opening at 11am it was quiet. The downside was that they didn’t have the pork knuckles ready for Anto. So it was the potato cakes (reibekuchen) and glühwein to warm up. This was definitely the coldest day we’d had so it was great to get into the Christmas spirit early with warm food and drink 😛
This market also had free toilets (which were both heated and clean) which was a bonus! In the toilet line with Zinnia I managed an entire conversation in German without them switching to English on me (the first of 2 that day!).
This was definitely a fun market and as usual we enjoyed the markets during the quieter period when they first open and there are far less people around!
The Kölner Dom….
Anto and I really wanted to go look at the inside of the Cologne Cathedral and go up the tower – which is only open until 4pm. I’d missed the window to go up the tower every other day we’d been in Cologne due our sightseeing and day trips.
We hightailed it over to the cathedral from the Niklausdorf market, and back through quite a few streets we’d visited already during our few days in Cologne.
As we made our way to the Dom we had a quick run through the cathedral market we’d visited on the first night for another quick looksie, and some souvenirs we eyed off on the first night but didn’t get back to. The cathedral market was already getting pretty busy and it’s lucky we’d just eaten as the food smells were delicious.
The Cologne cathedral looms large over the Old Town, and the market below it. It’s really hard to see just from photos it’s size. At 157m the cathedral is the tallest twin-spired church in the world and the third tallest church of any kind in the world. It is also UNESCO world heritage site. Construction of the cathedral started in 1248 but was halted for long periods. It was eventually finished in the 1880s.
The cathedral is free to visit, except the treasury and bell tower, which are ticketed. This is the most visited tourist attraction in Germany, at over 6 million visitors a year. Even in low season, in the middle of a rather cold day there were a steady stream of visitors lining up to go inside.
Luckily we didn’t have to wait long in the line and I can confirm it’s just as enormous on the inside. The huge stain glass windows were beautiful and several stories high.
While the kids are not super fans of churches, even very large ones, they did agree it was fairly impressive. However they were impatient as they REALLY wanted to go ice-skating, and were not keen on going up the towers or to the treasury. Anto took one for the team and took the kids back to the gnome market to investigate ice skating while I bought a ticket for the bell tower and commenced my ascent of the 533 steps.
The stairs are a very tight spiral, in a narrow staircase. There are basically no landings, and no space, so it’s difficult when people are coming the other way. You had turn sideways to let people past and don’t look down as there is no foot room.
The top is a metal staircase and a one way spiral. Luckily my fitness is way better than many who were attempting it, and I made it to the top fairly fast, but did pass a lot of people attempting to rest before the next section of stairs. It was rather cold in the towers so even with my coat on and a quick ascent I didn’t overheat.
The views on the way up were very good and you could see much of Cologne spread out below and along the Rhine.
The views are obstructed by the wire caging but you could definitely see a very long way. It was fun looking down on the bright red roofs of the cathedral Christmas markets.
The inside of the bell tower was very interesting and I did a couple of laps around to take in the views. It was rather cold up there, even after all those stairs and it definitely wasn’t great for my vertigo but definitely worth a visit.
As I head down I enjoyed watching all the people in the markets, it was now getting rather busy for lunch time!
Back onto solid ground and a final look up at where I’d just been, it was definitely a lot of stairs but I’d recommend a trip up the towers if you don’t mind some stair climbing.
Finally on the ice…
While I’d been stair climbing, Anto took the kids down to the gnome market (Heinzels Winter Fairytale) and had gotten them sorted out for ice skating. Astrid has ice-skated before but is not as good as most northern hemisphere people, much to her annoyance. Soren and Zinnia had their first ever skates. Anto got a good arm workout holding up Zinnia. The kids spent a fair bit of time on their bums or holding onto the edges but were having plenty of fun.
It’s a pretty cool spot to ice skate, with a nice big surface and plenty of places to watch. Sadly my plans of grabbing a glühwein and observing the ice skating were ruined by needing to make a dash back to the apartment for dry pants for Zinnia. She was spending a lot of time on her bum and now had wet trackpants and it was only 1 degree.
I did a quick 2.5km round trip back to the apartment so didn’t see too much of the skating. Ironically by the time I got back Zinnia had improved her skating and didn’t even want to get changed!
By now it was almost 3pm and the kids were most disappointed that they had to get off the ice for it to be resurfaced. Alan and Kim had come and joined us at the market and we were all starving (again!). Something to do with all the cold and activity I think 🙂 I’d already clocked up 10km of walking for the day and the kids had burnt a lot of energy on that ice. Anto had exhausted his arms dragging Zinnia off the ice.
On the menu for this round were potato cakes, bratwurst, raclette, and glühwein. The food was tasty but it adds up quickly when you have 5 hungry people and the conversion to AUD isn’t great. I think all our wages are currently going on market food!
The kids had somehow also conned a waffle out of us, which they declared to be pretty good.
A Rhine River cruise
We had hoped to do a Rhine river sightseeing cruise during our time in Cologne. Soren had been in charge of finding one that was suitable, and the previous night had found a Christmas themed cruise, with no commentary and live music instead. It looked fun and wasn’t too expensive. There were several time slots a day but we decided to do the afternoon 3.30pm sailing to see some of the Rhine by daylight and then the lights come on as the sun set.
We hadn’t pre-booked tickets as we weren’t 100% sure of either the weather or our itinerary. We made the short dash from the gnome market and by the time we ran down to the departure point the online sales had closed. We found someone to open the ticket booth but they apparently didn’t have enough tickets for all 5 of us (Kim and Alan had decided they’d head back to a warm apartment to do some packing and dinner prep).
Before we had to work out which one of us missed out, a kind man said we could use one of his tickets and we brought enough for the rest of us.
Last on it was hard to find seats together but we found some next to some Brits who we had a lovely chat to. The indoor area was heated, comfy and lovely big windows and we were treated to Christmas carols, both familiar ones and some less familiar German ones. We also had drinks brought to our seat. So yes it was our third glühwein for the day and the kids got another hot chocolate. It was far more fancy than the usual tourist ferries.
As we started our trip down the Rhine against the current the live music was cracking and we were enjoying our hot drinks and the company. We went very slowly against the current, admiring the interesting buildings we’d seen from afar and checking out the Christmas markets we’d been visiting.
It was a very slow trip in this direction, so plenty of time to check out the views and watch the sun starting set. It was well and truly dark by 4.30pm so we got to see all the lights come on. After almost 1.5 hours we reached our turning around point and we were zooming back in the opposite direction going with the current.
The kids convinced us to go up onto the top deck for a bit during the return trip, which was freezing at zero degrees before wind chill. There were some good views so hung out there for awhile. There is definitely some varied and interesting architecture along the river.
We did eventually wander back inside to enjoy a little bit of warmth and festive Christmas music and enjoy the last of the views of the city from the water.
It was a pretty good way to end our time in Cologne and an enjoyable a couple of hours. We bade farewell to our new British friends and made the walk back to our apartment. Despite it being no warmer than 3 degrees all day we’d all mostly acclimitised now and there had been no wind today so we hadn’t felt as cold as the previous day in Dusseldorf.
We were definitely keen to head back inside for some warm food though as we were a bit knackered from a lot of markets and plenty of walking and ice skating. Kim had cooked us some tortellini for dinner before there was the dreaded packing up. The next day we were off to France again, this time Strasbourg!
Up next….
We are off to Strasbourg France, for more amazing Christmas markets, full of the most amazing decorations and plenty of delicious food!
