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janestarzThe blitzkrieg visit to Köln was quite awesome. I was unaware of how much fun such a Christmas faire would be, and I went there with a little bit of scepticism. I am not a fan of small talismans, statuettes, christmas angels and such things. It's all gathering dust around the house, and since I rarely dust (with all that moving, I didn't see the need for any such housekeeping activity!) it's just not a good idea to buy such things.
We took the U-bahn, a streetcar (tram) towards the Neumarkt as soon as my brother and Eef had arrived and walked to the Dom, where we picked up Werner & Anette. Although all of us were quite hungry, we entered the Dom for about fifteen minutes. The mere structure itself is awe-inspiring, such a feat of engineering and so impressive!
The thing that I always find difficult when entering such a tourist-attraction / place of worship, is where the reverence starts and the tourism should stop. I tote a camera, and when I'm looking through the lens, it's not often clear to me that there might be people praying nearby. I tried my best not to disturb anyone, and I did far better than some of the other tourists, but the point was brought home when I heard a boy softly crying. I am not sure whether his mother chastised him, or he was upset for losing someone dear to him, but they were sitting in the benches near where you can light a candle to Mary.
After the Dom, we went onto the Dom Christmas Market and immediately started with a Bratwurst. You can say a lot of things about Germans, but they do know their meat! And I learned that the only distinction between bratwurst and currywurst is that a currywurst is just a bratwurst that drowned in curry sauce (a red sauce, not the Indian kind of curry).
After the bratwurst inna bun we sauntered over the market, which was already filled to the brim, and quickly continued with Reibekuchen (a fried potato "cookie") and of course the first beers and gluhwein were had.
Soon enough Werner and my father insisted on visiting the nearest Bierlokal, a city brewery called Früh which was next to the market. Eef and I did another round over the Christmas market and then joined the rest at Früh. The beer was brought up in large vats with an elevator, and numerous blue-clad gentlemen distributed the beer throughout the pub. I had the audacity to order a cup of tea, which warmed me quite nicely.
Drinking could continue on the outside patio. The tables and chairs were chained together so nobody could run off with them, but here and on the Christmas market itself nobody made a mess of things: glasses and gluhwein cups were used without any breaking. Getting € 2,50 back for each mug returned helped a lot, but I very much doubt you could do something like this in the Netherlands. I always found the practice of returning mugs like they do on Castlefest rather special; I'm more used to the crunching of plastic glasses underfoot at public parties.
The Heumarkt also had a Christmas faire and we continued our fun there. More gluhwein, more bratwurst (my brother's appetite is phenomenal) and more stalls with goods. I had bio-punch (alcohol-free cherry something that tasted of apples and the colour red). I wasn't very impressed with the merchandise, but I did buy some souvenirs for a couple of friends and a warm hat for myself.
We had dinner at Ständige Vertretung, overlooking the Rhine river. The kitchen messed up our order, half our food was cold, but compensated with numerous apologies and free coffee.
After dinner there was more Christmas market, but Eef was falling over and we took a taxi back to the hotel after saying goodbye to Werner & Anette. They took the ICE train home to Koblenz.
My bed was more comfortable than the one I have at home, and I slept the full 9½ hours my alarm clock gave me, promptly arriving at breakfast ten minutes before my father and Detty. I forgot about my diet for yet another day, and enjoyed the typical german rolls, a hard-boiled egg, and cheese.
After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and drove into town for the final Christmas Market. There were apparantly four, but so far we'd only seen two of them. The Neumarkt market was next on our list, and it was the best, foodwise. We ate bratwurst-mit-pommes for lunch and then said goodbye to Köln and each other.
No diet can resist the awesome bratwurst!
I napped a bit in the car, while my father took the liberty of breaking all speed records to get me to Someren on time.
I hoped that my dancing lesson would go well, considering the number of kilometers I walked (and sauntered through crowds), but at least I could close my eyes for a while in the car.
The weekend was a great success, (maybe with a bit too much bratwurst) but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
We took the U-bahn, a streetcar (tram) towards the Neumarkt as soon as my brother and Eef had arrived and walked to the Dom, where we picked up Werner & Anette. Although all of us were quite hungry, we entered the Dom for about fifteen minutes. The mere structure itself is awe-inspiring, such a feat of engineering and so impressive!
The thing that I always find difficult when entering such a tourist-attraction / place of worship, is where the reverence starts and the tourism should stop. I tote a camera, and when I'm looking through the lens, it's not often clear to me that there might be people praying nearby. I tried my best not to disturb anyone, and I did far better than some of the other tourists, but the point was brought home when I heard a boy softly crying. I am not sure whether his mother chastised him, or he was upset for losing someone dear to him, but they were sitting in the benches near where you can light a candle to Mary.
After the Dom, we went onto the Dom Christmas Market and immediately started with a Bratwurst. You can say a lot of things about Germans, but they do know their meat! And I learned that the only distinction between bratwurst and currywurst is that a currywurst is just a bratwurst that drowned in curry sauce (a red sauce, not the Indian kind of curry).
After the bratwurst inna bun we sauntered over the market, which was already filled to the brim, and quickly continued with Reibekuchen (a fried potato "cookie") and of course the first beers and gluhwein were had.
Soon enough Werner and my father insisted on visiting the nearest Bierlokal, a city brewery called Früh which was next to the market. Eef and I did another round over the Christmas market and then joined the rest at Früh. The beer was brought up in large vats with an elevator, and numerous blue-clad gentlemen distributed the beer throughout the pub. I had the audacity to order a cup of tea, which warmed me quite nicely.
Drinking could continue on the outside patio. The tables and chairs were chained together so nobody could run off with them, but here and on the Christmas market itself nobody made a mess of things: glasses and gluhwein cups were used without any breaking. Getting € 2,50 back for each mug returned helped a lot, but I very much doubt you could do something like this in the Netherlands. I always found the practice of returning mugs like they do on Castlefest rather special; I'm more used to the crunching of plastic glasses underfoot at public parties.
The Heumarkt also had a Christmas faire and we continued our fun there. More gluhwein, more bratwurst (my brother's appetite is phenomenal) and more stalls with goods. I had bio-punch (alcohol-free cherry something that tasted of apples and the colour red). I wasn't very impressed with the merchandise, but I did buy some souvenirs for a couple of friends and a warm hat for myself.
We had dinner at Ständige Vertretung, overlooking the Rhine river. The kitchen messed up our order, half our food was cold, but compensated with numerous apologies and free coffee.
After dinner there was more Christmas market, but Eef was falling over and we took a taxi back to the hotel after saying goodbye to Werner & Anette. They took the ICE train home to Koblenz.
My bed was more comfortable than the one I have at home, and I slept the full 9½ hours my alarm clock gave me, promptly arriving at breakfast ten minutes before my father and Detty. I forgot about my diet for yet another day, and enjoyed the typical german rolls, a hard-boiled egg, and cheese.
After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and drove into town for the final Christmas Market. There were apparantly four, but so far we'd only seen two of them. The Neumarkt market was next on our list, and it was the best, foodwise. We ate bratwurst-mit-pommes for lunch and then said goodbye to Köln and each other.
No diet can resist the awesome bratwurst!
I napped a bit in the car, while my father took the liberty of breaking all speed records to get me to Someren on time.
I hoped that my dancing lesson would go well, considering the number of kilometers I walked (and sauntered through crowds), but at least I could close my eyes for a while in the car.
The weekend was a great success, (maybe with a bit too much bratwurst) but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
