Koln: Padlocks and Goulash

A bit of a "moochy" day really, we have spent the day looking around shops, Jan bought some stuff and we continue our quest to check out every cake shop in Koln! We walked over one of the Rhine bridges, and explored some of the east bank.

 

We returned over the "Hohenzollern" bridge, where it has become the custom for people to leave padlocks on the safety fence - with messages engraved on them. This is a remarkable sight actually, it's become a tourist attraction and is so good because it's been generated by public enthusiasm with no corporate input, it's also nice and quirky!

Jan thinks she's found the best chips in the world, from a little back street fast food eateries, it's the paprika apparently. Chill in' in the hotel now, and planning to sample some "goulash" later - Sally is planning to have a litre "stein" of the local beer!

 

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Bonn: beer and bratwurst

So, after a BIG meal last night accompanied by a stein of beer, I decided I needed to have run this morning or else the guilt would be too much, 8 sluggish km's later we tucked into a healthy breakfast.

 

Because it is now the off season for river boat trips in Koln we thought a visit to Bonn might be a good idea - a "Bon" idea?, we planned to get a boat from there instead, to explore the Rhine and hopefully see some-hill side castles. Bonn is only 30 minutes on the train and so off we sped.

(Is this place bon? No it's schoen!)

Guess what? It's off season for river boat trips on Bonn as we'll! We didn't mind however, because Bonn is a really nice place, prettier than Koln, and we enjoyed exploring it's squares and cobbled streets. A trip to the (extremely) helpful Tourist info gave us a plan, and Jan would get to see a pretty Rhine-side "schloss", (castle/chateau).

 

(Some rowdy locals pushing in on the tram...)

The plan involved quite a long tram journey, which is good because as a transport geek teams are good... However we made the mistake of catching the north bound service rather than the necessary south bound service, we were 20 minutes into the suburbs before I realised and we trekked back and corrected ourselves.

(The cog rail way up to Schloss Dracenburg)

We were headed for a small village called Konigs-Winter, from where we took a narrow gauge "cog-railway" up the hillside, to eventually arrive at an amazing "chocolate box" type castle, called Schloss Dracenburg. The whole journey had been worth it, because the place was great, reminiscent of the castle in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".

 

 

Back to Bonn for Bratwurst and beer, and then the train back to Koln, a good day, lots to see and loads of train/trams!

 

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A short trip to Cologne

A slightly edgy start to our trip was caused by the threat of a "super storm" drawing in from the Atlantic... All through the day the wind has been picking up and it was a case of whether we would take off before it got really bad, with the resultant risk of delays cancellations etc, etc. We met Sally  at Heathrow, she had travelled from her place in London, and waited for the flight...

Being indoors means that you're not aware of the elements outside and when our boarding time came and went with no announcements or apparent progress we feared the worst. "Massive chaos at Heathrow as countless flights cancelled in Hell Storm drama!" was my imagined explanation. But no worries, with typical Germanic efficiency our flight, (delayed for 25 minutes), was loaded in extra quick time, and our pilot, (Baron Von Richthofen?), promises that we'll make up the time in the air, the flight time being "50 minutes" - (Jan: "50 minutes!")

Almost a problem at the station, the platform was about 400 metres long and unbeknownst to us our train was stopping way up the other end... This friendly chap warned us with just moments to go that we needed to move or we'd miss the train! Nice "random act of kindness"!

For our first day we did our usual routine, after savouring a leisurely breakfast naturally, went to the Tourist Information centre and gathered a load of leaflets, maps, coupons etc. Sally had this notion of visiting a "Torture museum" and so we had a strained conversation with the least helpful or friendly assistant in Western Europe. Non the wiser we left to explore...

Cologne, (or "Koln" as I will refer to it from now on), is famous for it's cathedral, (or "Dom" as it is called locally), and as it was near we went inside it, (or "entered" it if you prefer)! It's a very impressive building, during the war 70% of Koln was destroyed by Allied bombing, but in the same way as St Paul's in London, this church was relatively unscathed, amazing to think it took over 600 years to complete!

We explored the old town and found the river, (Rhine), the storm referred to earlier was still in slight evidence because it was very blowy! We found a nice bar/cafe and drank some welcome coffee. It seems that a lot of attractions, like the river boats and museums, are closed on Mondays, so we were thwarted on several occasions when we found places to visit.


German bakeries are often very tempting places, (as good as French patisseries), and we surrendered to some bread and doughnuts. More exploring, we found a Chocolate museum and a mustard museum and a load of shops, before a sharp shower drove us into a pub for more refreshment!

More walking, exploring and a bit of shopping, (Jan bought some "Eau de Cologne" from the 4711 shop), and we returned to the hotel for a chill - oh yes we also spent more time at the Tourist info and the Train station sorting a plan for tomorrow.