Last month my husband had to visit cologne for business and we used it as an opportunity to roam around this historic city in the west of Germany. Of all the places we had planned to visit in Europe and could not, Cologne was amongst the top.
With our prior backpacker knowledge and experience in our kitty, we looked for the most cost effective way to fly into and back from cologne and of course the lookout for a suitable accommodation was also commenced. Fortunate as we have been with all our trips in Europe, we could fix up our accommodation with a very pleasant lady, Lucia, who rented out serviced apartments in vantage points in the city for rentals which were significantly lower to the ones offered by budget hotels. Tourists and citizens within Europe do not generally complain about getting a bargain to fly within Europe and we weren’t any exception to this facility.
Having booked our flight in easy jet with the accommodation already arranged for in the freizenplatz area, which is 5 minutes walk from the world famous cologne Dom, we landed in cologne around 8.30 in the night. Immediately upon landing we could taste the world famous Auto Bahn experience, when our taxi touched a max speed of 200 kmph!!! Within a stretch of few kilometres. Our host was waiting for us to show our apartment. That night went in resting.
It was all work for my husband throughout the weekdays and there I was left alone in the apartment with all the time in the world left for me to relax , roam and get myself in shape.I used these times to explore the city on my own, walking being my preferred mode of transportation. Its worth mentioning that the whole of Europe is pedestrian friendly and Cologne was no exception. I eagerly used to wait for the clock to hit 6 in the evening , the time for my husband to be back, for us to step out together. We understood the meaning of “Spine chilling” , the very first time we ventured out in the evening. We were told that Cologne could have the nastiest of weathers with temperatures going -13 with no humidity whatsoever.
We had good plans for the weekend. We started off with the customary visit to the koln Dom. Needless to mention, we were spellbound by the architecture, especially the glass paintings which acted as the walls for the cathedral. We were left appreciating the genius who had designed the Dom and paintings in such a way that the paintings on one side was illuminated during the mornings and the others in evening. We enjoyed the thrill of climbing around 500+ steps to have breath taking view of the city. Next we visited “Farina Haus” famous for its “Eau de Cologne” We learnt that “eau de Cologne” originated in this city. The day ended with our visit to the “Chocolate factory” along the banks of river Rhine. This was our third visit to a chocolate factory, the earlier being Nestle Factory in Switzerland and the chocolate museum in Bruge. Needless to say, we ended up with a bag of chocolates. Who can resist chocolates!!!!
Next day was for a real outing to “Drachenfels”. We were thrilled by the fact that the city of Cologne and Bohn were connected by the metro line and we wanted to try this option out to reach Konigswinter station which was the base for the funicular which would take us to the top of Drachenfels. Though the weather was extremely chill, we had a little bit of comfort with the bright sunlight throughout the day. We had a memorable visit and walk atop the Drachenfels. The place has quite an interesting history and myth attached and is an interesting read in wiki.
On the day of return beckoned, I checked out from the apartment around noon with my backpack and headed to the Neumarkt(New market) area. There were couple of shopping mails – Neumarkt Galerie being the most famous. This was flooded with shops as in any other city. I walked in the surrounding areas and managed to spend about 4 to 5 hours till I received the call from my husband which signalled the end of our wonderful trip to Cologne, a place which we wont hesitate to visit or settle down.
