Cologne - Day 1 🇩🇪

This blog is brought to you by Ellie.

Barry’s birthday is coming up this week, or as we like to say in this house, “Barrymas”. His favourite thing to do is visit new places, so we planned a little city break to Cologne, Germany. Little, meaning one night, sandwiched between two very long days!

The flight time for this morning had been brought forward multiple times by Ryanair over the last couple of months, to the point where we had to get up at 2:30am to drive through the pouring rain to Stansted. As usual I time travelled there, weird how that happens (I fell asleep).

Usual airport happenings, we got through security quickly and were on the plane at 06:40. We both had short snoozes during the short flight.

We landed at Cologne/Bonn airport ready to face a full day of sightseeing. It was a short and simple train ride to the city centre, and as soon as we left the station we were greeted by Cologne’s magnificent cathedral; Kölner Dom. We walked around it, admiring the gothic architecture and the grand scale of it, planning to return to it later.

Check-in at CityClass Hotel Alter Markt wasn’t until 3pm so we dropped our bags there and headed out on an adventure.

We decided to head towards KölnTriangle, which is a viewing platform on the other side of the Rhein. To get there, we had a lovely stroll along the river. The sun was out, just blocked every now and then by fluffy clouds. There was a breeze, but nothing crazy.

The bridge we needed to cross is famous for people putting padlocks on it, like the little one in Paris, but bloody massive. There wasn’t a single empty space - only padlocks. We didn’t feel an urge to add our own, partly out of disinterest and partly fearing that one more addition would plummet us into the water below.

On the other side of the river, it was just a short walk downhill to the viewpoint entrance. It just looked like a normal office block really. We were ten minutes early and a small crowd had gathered, waiting for them to open the door. We bought our tickets, which were €5 each, and got in the queue for the lift. We ended up at the front of the queue and I tried pushing the lift button but it didn’t light up, so I assumed either the light didn’t work or that the lift was on an automatic cycle… up, down, you know what I mean.. after a minute or so an older, disgruntled German man came to the front of the queue and pushed the button again. It lit up. I was embarrassed that I had been too gentle with the button. The lift took us almost to the top floor. We had a flight of stairs to walk up to actually get to the top. I’m not sure if there is a more accessible option for those unable to climb the stairs, but it seemed odd to everyone involved.

The view from the top was very glorious. It was a 360 degree walk around. We could see the whole of Cologne’s skyline. It was sheltered but we could feel the wind whipping overhead. After a good look around, we decided we would walk a bit further along the river and use the next bridge in the direction of lunch.

After possibly the most blustery walk of our lives on the bridge, we trundled through the streets of the city, taking in the sights. I had seen a popular food spot online that looked unusual, so we went to find it. On the way, we spotted a brewery that we had already been thinking of visiting, and made a note to come back this way.

Lunch was reibekuchen and apple sauce from Rievkoochebud. We figured they would be some kind of rice cake (it was difficult to tell online) but I think they were made of riced potato. They were basically the best hash browns ever made, lovely and soft centre and super crispy edges. They went surprisingly well with the apple sauce. The downsides were the long wait (but this is also a positive because the reibekuchen are made to order), the kuchen were a bit oily and Barry couldn’t finish the large portion he bought. His reasoning was that he finally understood how I sometimes say “too much of one flavour”. This made a lot of sense to me. I got a smaller portion but even that felt very generous.

It was time to wash lunch down with beer! We took the short walk to Pfaffen Brauhaus and took a seat at a table under a heater, which was a nice touch. It was quite cloudy now and the breeze had made me chilly (it doesn’t take much). The waiter found us and gave us a beer each straight away, marking a beer tally chart on a coaster before he whisked off to serve the next table. They only serve one beer, which made the whole process easier. The beers were served in a very pretty narrow glass with gold detail. I decided to try to ask the waiter if the brauhaus sells them, if I was feeling brave.

I am not a beer drinker so I managed three quarters of one beer while Barry had two, plus the rest of mine before placing our coasters on top of our glasses to signify that we didn’t need any more. I apparently was feeling brave so when the waiter came back to take payment, I asked if they sold the glasses. He said they did, but then made a gesture that seemed to say: keep it, what’s ours is yours, take it with you, etc. so I put it in my bag and hoped I was right! I wasn’t tackled to the ground as we left, so fingers crossed I’ve not made an enemy of myself to the fine people of Pfaffen Brauhaus.

It was finally time to explore the cathedral! A short walk back in its direction had us facing the entrance to the south tower. We walked inside and prepared to pay for the ascent. When I saw the sign that said 533 steps, I chickened out immediately, you’ve never seen a human being 180 so fast. I may have taken it on if my legs weren’t already complying after a hike with the girls yesterday and an already long morning but alas, I was beaten. Barry climbed the steps while I waited patiently at the bottom for him. His description of the climb was “intense”. He said it was a relentless spiral with no indication of how far he had left to go, with tourists also coming in the opposite direction. Twice he thought he’d made it to the top but hadn’t. I was glad to have sat this one out, but he was glad he’d done it and told me that the view had been great.

We made our way around to the front of the cathedral next and joined the crowds of people filing in. It was maybe a little more impressive on the outside but still very beautiful. Barry and I are in no way religious but always enjoy a good cathedral. The stained glass was amazing but our favourite was what we dubbed “the pixel window”.

We were also intrigued by “The Shrine of the Three Kings” which supposedly contained their remains. (Proof or it didn’t happen). I also giggled at some unnecessarily scary paintings.

After a good look around it was now 3pm and finally time to check in to the hotel. We were both dying for a nap and a shower. We emerged, shiny and new about 3 hours later, ready for our dinner.

The restaurant I had selected, Kaiser Konstantin, was back across the blustery bridge. The main reason I chose it was because of its amazing sunset views of the cathedral, which didn’t disappoint. The menu looked interesting too, a mix of European cuisines all in one place. Barry chose a fennel sausage with fries and I chose a truffle and goats cheese homemade pasta. Both were delicious and we ate whilst enjoying the view. The waiter was very sweet but spoke as little English as we do German, so there were a couple of delightful misunderstandings which landed us with a fancy bottle of sparkling water. Neither of us particularly enjoy sparkling water, but we thought it best not to cause further confusion by returning it.

After dinner we meandered along the promenade, admiring the sunset, toward padlock bridge. As we were walking I spotted a bird flying in the opposite direction over the water, silhouetted against the sky. I pointed it out to Barry, saying it looked a bit parrot-shaped. He fiercely opposed this, saying it couldn’t be anything like that. I said maybe it’s one of those little green parakeets, like the ones living in London. I am proud to say I was correct, readers. At the end of the promenade there was a large tree absolutely full of little green parakeets, cheerfully singing to each other.

It was a delightful end to day one of two in Cologne. It was an absolutely packed and very long day, but we made the most of it and had more fun planned for tomorrow.

Help! My legs!