When we first arrived in Cologne I wasn’t sure what we would find to do. Kohn Dom, Cologne cathedral, near the central station looked imposing but the pedestrian street where we walked looking for our hotel could have been anywhere in the world – the same high street shops but selling merchandise more suited to a cold northern winter. We had initial difficulty finding our hotel which didn’t help and I told you what Anthony’s first impressions of the hotel were! We both had a restless first night in Cologne – our bed was too hard and our pillows were too soft and the in-suite bathroom was a little too close when Anthony had to get up in the night to go to the toilet.
However, over the course of a few days we came to see that central Cologne had much to offer within a very short radius of our hotel. Around Kohn Dom is the central tourist district and there are always lots of people coming and going but fewer tourist shops than you might find in other big cities. Around the train station is a real wind tunnel and a bitingly cold wind blows and we had to hold onto coat tails, hats, bags and scarfs so we wouldn’t be blown away.
Kohn Cathedral was spectacular inside and out and many Cologne souvenirs feature its distinctive shape. You caught glimpses of it everywhere.
Two great museums are right next to the train station – Museum Ludwig houses pop art including works by Picasso and the quieter Romanische Germanisches Museum – Romano Germanic Museum – has artefacts of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (CCAA), the Roman colony in the Rhineland from which the German city of Cologne developed. Museum Ludwig has a cafe which is a great meeting place and there’s a door upstairs onto a terrace from which you can get a different perspective of Kohn Dom and the Hohenzollern Bridge across the River Rhine.
We did walk across the Hohenzollern Bridge. It’s a bridge for pedestrians and trains only which makes for a quieter crossing than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It’s famous for the love locks that couples have padlocked to the bridge as a sign of their undying love. But Anthony saw one couple with a motorised angle grinder. Who knows – perhaps it was the end of one relationship and the start of another? My favourite was a tortoise lock! But there were literally tens of thousands of locks on the bridge.
It was an easy walk across the bridge with great views back towards the Koln Dom and the Musical Dom where ‘The Bodyguard’ is currently playing. Here’s one of my favourite photos – can you see why?
Across the bridge we came across demonstrators and at least three riot squad detachments and armed personnel carriers. We didn’t know what they were protesting about. When we asked our hostess, she said it was a labour protest about working conditions. We didn’t want to get caught up in this so made our way back on the other side of the bridge. This was the more popular side, hence more padlocks!
From the bridge you can also see the Kranhauser (crane house) buildings in the distance which are upside-down L-shaped buildings in the Rheinauhafen of Cologne which is a harbour area that has undergone urban regeneration. Their shape is reminiscent of the harbour cranes that were used to load cargo off and onto ships.
The old city borders the Rhine and is smaller than other European cities as most of Cologne was destroyed in the Second World War. The remaining small area of old houses has cobbled streets and lots of traditional eateries. We ate at one, the 12 Apostles, which had big helpings of ordinary but wholesome food with an Italian flavour.
But our most memorable meals were:
– The buffet breakfasts at our hotel – continental breakfast of grainy bread rolls, cold meats, smoked salmon, cheeses, juices, quinoa porridge, fresh fruit and coffee served in silver coffee pots!
– My birthday dinner at Hase, a restaurant about 7 minutes walk away. We had a relaxing dinner over a delicious German Riesling and had to walk home very gingerly as the paths and roads were slippery with new-fallen snow.
– Afternoon tea at Cafe Reichard which was very reminiscent of the coffee/tea houses of Vienna. Anthony had coffee and apple strudel with custard and I had a pot of tea.
– Liquid dinner at Seiberts, a new bar recommended by our hostess that we found on our last night in Cologne and I furthered my gin education.
Other sites worthy of mention:
– The city’s most popular museum seems to be the Wallraf-Richardtz Museum judging by the number of staff employed to check in coats and bags (four staff members and two cloakrooms) and the number of people who were checking in their coats and a bags. We saw the ‘From Durer to Van Gogh’ exhibition with most of the items sourced from the estate of Zurich-based industrialist Emil Buhrle whose greatest love had been impressionism hence his extensive collection of works by Pissario, Van Gogh, Picasso and others.
– MAKK (Museum of Applied Arts Cologne). We saw their permanent collection and workmen setting up a new modern temporary exhibition ‘Full House’
– EL-DE Haus, officially the National Socialist Documentation centre of the City of Cologne which is the former headquarters of the Gestapo and now a museum documenting the Third Reich. Unfortunately there were no English translations for the Hitler youth exhibition we saw but even without the language it was disturbing.
Travelling with Teresa 