| Listening to: The whistles of trains and shouts of German football fans |
June 24th, 2006 - Cologne, Germany
Michelle and I traveled to Cologne Germany today. I was very excited about seeing the old Roman city and the Dom Cathedral which I read was extremely beautiful. We arranged to take a bus from Maastricht to Aachen, which is the most westward city in Germany, and then took a train from Aachen to Cologne. We arrived in Aachen with only a few minutes to catch our train at 10:14. The line in the station was about 10-15 people long and we were sure we wouldn’t make it. We got up to the ticket office or Karten Verkauf in German. Fortunately the man at the counter spoke English so we got our tickets and ran up to Gleis 3 with one minute to spare. It was close but we made it!
When we arrived in Cologne we couldn’t see the Cathedral yet since the train station was extremely large. The inside of the station had a large mural painted across the ceiling of football players from many different countries including David Beckham from England. We walked outside and my jaw literally dropped. The massive cathedral rose straight up in front of us. Its blackened roofs and spires gave it a doomsday feel but the architecture was simply astounding. I, and everyone else, failed to capture the shear beauty of this structure. I was so amazed that all I could mutter was ‘whoa…’ It is one of the largest and most impressive structures I have seen in my whole life however I haven’t see very many, this was a first. It is an absolutely gorgeous cathedral even though it looks like hells gate.
We moved south around the cathedral and down to the shore of the Rhine river. There were people setting up for the Saturday market and we happened to notice a young guy unloading boxes of massive pretzels; more on those soon. We had the day planned out so we first bought our tickets for the Rhine river boat tour. The tour was quite nice and Michelle was able to get a tan on this beautiful sunny day in Cologne. I put on sunscreen, of course, but went into the shade as it started to get hotter. The tour passed a couple of nice attractions and had a great city view of the Dom but that was about it. We passed the chocolate museum on the boat, which was next on our itinerary, so we knew how to get there which made things easy. It looks really far on the map but it’s actually really close. On the boat I had my first German beer, which is only brewed in Cologne, called Kolsch. The brand was called Sion and it was very tasty. It was a tad bitter at first but then it was creamy with mild flavors of fruit. They gave it to me in the traditional ½ liter glass that is thinner than a traditional mug. It looks more like an elongated shot glass with a little bigger diameter. I was very pleased with my first Kolsch. When we got off the boat we couldn’t help but get a bratwurst since they were station all around the market area. We finished that off with a slushie and one of the giant pretzels we saw earlier. Yum! They were all delicious.
We continued on our way and went to the chocolate museum and it was awesome! It had the history of the cocoa bean which was interesting but more importantly it was actually a fully functioning chocolate factory. We saw all the machines used to make, churn and cut up the chocolate into many forms including hearts, footballs, bunny’s and many more. We got to sample some of the liquid chocolate when we passed by a fountain of flowing chocolate. A woman handed each of us a wafer dipped in the river of chocolate. Soooo good! Mmmmmm. We went through the rest of the museum and saw more about the history of chocolate, hot chocolate and chocolate bars which included a lot of the old packages and tins that were used to store chocolate. On our way out we no doubt stopped at the gift shop which was full of chocolate and chocolate accessories. We browsed through the hundreds of varieties of chocolate and had to choose only a few things to buy. Michelle bought a Lindt chocolate bar that was chocolate covered wafers and I felt more daring so I bought a 99% cacao Lindt dark chocolate bar which knocked me on my back with its bitter power. It was very, very, very dark. I also bought a chocolate beer that I haven’t tired yet but am looking forward to tasting.
After the chocolate museum we walked around for a bit and decided to find the Eau de Cologne which is a staple of the city. This was not as easy as it seemed. The world cup was going on in Germany at this time, fortunately there was not a game in Cologne or else we would not be able to get to the city because it would just be too crowded. However, we were lucky enough to come on a day when Germany was playing a match against Sweden. Everybody was outside walking around, blowing air horns, cheering loudly and sporting their Deutschland gear. One particularly humorous piece was a hat that was actually an umbrella which of course was the Germany flag. We definitely took a picture of that and we were both very tempted to go up and take a picture with the group of Germany fans wearing them. So keep all this in mind as we’re walking through the city admiring the sights and of course the people.
After a bit of wandering through the shopping district we were getting tired of all the people around us and Michelle was craving a cold, iced drink. Ice is very hard to find in europe so we had to find an American restaurant in order to have any chance of find some chilled cubes. Burger King looked perfect and we were right, but we had to ask for it in order to get it. Afterwards, we walked up a few more streets in search of the Eau de Cologne and decided to stop and rest for a bit. We found a bar on the corner and it served a different brand of Kolsch, Russeldorf. They brought me out a chilled glass and I drank it with pleasure. This one was very good and it was much colder than the one on the tour boat however both Michelle and I agree that it didn't have as much flavor as Sion Kolsch. I finished my glass and we saw a bakery across the way that served all kinds of delicious snacks. Michelle decided on a multi-colored pretzel that was extremely tasty.
We were rested and ready to find the Eau de Cologne. We headed down the street we were on and came to the street it was supposed to be on. We walked down it but it wasn't there. We stopped, pulled out the map and were befuddled. At this point I could smell something but wasn't sure where it was coming from. I studied the map some more and then Michelle turned around and there it was, right in front of our noses. I walked in and there was a fountain of the famous cologne pouring out of a spout into a golden bowl. They had a pamphelt which described the history of the cologne which dates by hundreds of years. I bought a small bottle as a remembrance of the city, the history and trek to find this store.
We headed out of the store and up to the main plaza where the Cathedral was. I was looking for a particulare Deutschland t-shirt which had a german flag on it but failed to find one big enough for me. I had to settle for a nice looking t-shirt with the colors of the german flag streaked across it and a symbol that says 'deutschland' on the breast. Afterwards, we searched for food at a restaurant recommended by the Frommers guide book but Michelle was looking for something called Spaetzel and the menu only looked decent. In hindsight, we probably should have taken the risk and tried it because it was probably a very good place to eat but on the other hand our pretzel, banana and nutella crepe, and a glass of Gilden Kolsch was perfect in our minds.
We ended the day in high spirits and sore bodies. We both immensley enjoyed our tour of Cologne and definitely want to go back to visit the other cities in Germany.
