Our Favorite Things to Do in Cologne

We loved living in Cologne, and we tried to experience it as much as possible. So I have compiled a list of a few suggestions and a few of our favorite things.....

In the City

Things to Do & See
"Must Do's" (where we took visitors)

(L-R: View from the Dom tower, a choir concert at the Dom, Köln's Altstadt)

• The Dom - towering over the rest of the city and directly next to the Hauptbahnhof, the Kölner Dom (Cologne cathedral) is hard to miss! There are many Dom-related activities, and they are all worthwhile.
• Explore the Dom - best on a weekday or in the mornings to avoid the crowds. I prefer going when it's quiet, so it's easier to absorb the awesomeness of the Dom without bumping into people.
• Dom Concerts - Orgelfeierstunden (organ concerts, literally "organ celebration hours") in the summer, and regular choir concerts the rest of the year. Not to be missed! If the website looks out of date, check their Facebook page for the most timely info.
• Climb to the top of the Dom towers (info) - I'll be writing a post on this soon! It is a very neat experience, and absolutely worth climbing all 533 steps.
• Attend a mass. Lots of pomp and circumstance, and a good way to hear the organ play if you couldn't make it to a concert.
• Roman Praetorium + Archaeological Zone - visit underground Roman ruins at the Praetorium and see an ongoing archaeological excavation of the old Jewish quarter
• Roemisch-Germanisches Museum - next to the Dom, with really neat displays of all sorts of Roman artifacts found in the area. Some of the museum info is in English. Even if you don't go in, check out the Roman mural, which is visible through a big window near the Dom.
• Walk through the remaining Altstadt near Groß St. Martin Kirche and Heumarkt - It's pretty touristy, but you'll get a feel for what Cologne was like before it was bombed in WW2.
• Stop by one of the old city gates. Our favorites are in Rudolfplatz, at Severinstrasse, and just south of Ebertplatz. Our favorite thing to do was walk from our apartment to Ebertplatz and eat gelato in the shadow of the Eigelsteintor. 
• Visit other churches and cathedrals in the city. Our favorites are St. Gereon's Basilica (built in the 1100s) and St. Mariä Himmelfahrt (go inside to see incredible pictures of WW2 destruction; also, the name means "the Assumption of Mary, or literally, Mary Heaven-travel", not what it sounds like in English!).
• Go to an FC Köln Game - they just moved back up from a lower league to the main Bundesleague. Games are a blast! Learn the words to the FC Köln hymn beforehand, wear red and white, and buy a scarf on the way in to hold up during the game.

Other fun things....

(L-R: Tierpark, Botanic garden, a Rhein Spaziergang)

• Lindenthaler Tierpark - a free petting zoo in the Grüngürtel. One of my favorite weekend activities! Best in spring and early summer when the baby animals are there.

• Buchermeile + other antique/flea markets - once a month during the warmer months, used book sellers set up stalls along a long street. You can find all sorts of books, from expensive rare finds, to paperbacks, to old cheap books for a Euro a piece. I only went once because I came back with 5 books (including a huuuuge 1950s world atlas)! There are a bunch of other Flohmarkts (flea markets) throughout the city, and they usually have lots of inexpensive treasures. If you want a Kolsch glass or a pair of Lederhosen to take home, you can find them at a Flohmarkt for a much better price than anywhere else!
• Botanishergarten + Zoo - the botanic garden is free and quite lovely, with a couple of parrots named Moriz and Oskar. The zoo is not free, but you can get discount tickets on Mondays, and it's great fun if you're trying to learn German! Check the calendar, and try to watch them feed the piranhas.
• Walk along the Rhine - from the Dom up to the Zoobrucke and then a bit past it to enjoy a nice riverside park. You might also run into a flock of Rheinische lawnmowers (pictured above, at far right) hard at work. This is a long walk, but wonderful on a pretty day -- bring beer and snacks!

Food

(L-R: Oma Kleinmann's, a local cafe, Nippes daily market)

• Bei Oma Kleinmann - the best and largest Schnitzel in the city! We took all of our visitors here. Closed Mondays.
• Fruh am Dom - a typical Koelner brauhaus, with decent food. Try the Sauerbraten (marinated roast)!
• Max Stark - the best Reibekuchen in the city (served on Tuesdays after 6pm only). It's quite small, so arrive early and be prepared for a wait.
• Cafe Eichornchen - the only place in the city to get delicious Belgian beers. Rochefort 10 is the best!
• Kaffeekiosk Nippes - the best cappuccinos in the city, run by two best friends. Grab one after a morning of shopping for cheap produce at the daily market (Mon-Sat, 7:30am-1pm) .

Special Events

(L-R: Zons Easter egg market, Marburg Christmas market, Karneval parade)

• Christmas Markets - running from late November to December 23. There are 7 markets in the city, each one different. German Christmas markets are such a special experience! If you're in Germany for the season, be sure to go to a market in a small village, such as Bad Münstereifel, too.
• Karneval - a full week of city-wide partying in early March. Be sure to bring a costume and a bag for candy!
• Zons Easter Egg Market - a nice day outing in the spring. Explore the medieval town and check out the beautiful egg crafts at the market.

Day Trips

(L-R: Rhine cruise, Bonn, Bad Muenstereifel)

• Brühl - the historic home of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologe. The palaces are best seen in spring or summer when the gardens are green, but it's still fun to go in winter. Post forthcoming!
• Koenigswinter - a nice hike to castles overlooking the Rhine. Best in summer when the Biergarten is open, but still a fun hike any time of year!
• Bad Munstereiffel - charming walled village, just an hours ride on the S-Bahn. There's a shop here with THE BEST mustard I've ever tasted.
• Bonn - we visited this city several times on day trips. Things to do include the Beethoven House (his birthplace and a museum), the German National Museum of Contemporary History (really excellent, and free, with lots of English translations), and the botanic garden at the university. We really wanted to visit the Rheinische Landesmuseum (history museum about the Rhineland), but we never made it.
• Rhine Cruise - I did this with my mom and sister. We caught a train to Bacharach, saw the town, then caught a river cruise ship up the river to a couple more towns before getting off in Mainz and catching the train back to Cologne. It was very relaxing! Unlike driving, everyone gets to enjoy the views and everyone has a good view. You can get on and off wherever you like along the river, or ride the boat all the way back to Cologne. I think it would be really fun to do this over several days.
• Mainz - often a starting or ending point for Rhine or Mosel cruises, this is a fun city in its own right. Bibliophiles should definitely visit the Gutenberg Museum!
• Industry Museums - Cologne is in the Ruhr, Germany's industrial region. There are a lot of very interesting museums in the area, including an old woolen mill (the Tuchfabrik Museum in Euskirchen) and mining museums (post forthcoming!)

Making this list has made me realize that I still have a number of things that I want to post about before I forget the details. I kept travel journals from all of our big trips, but our smaller day trips are documented mostly with photos and ticket stubs. So look for more Ausflug posts soon!

Checking In, 7 Months Later

Back in November, I posted a list of things we were missing from the US and things we wanted to do before we left Germany. Now that we've been back 7 months (!), I thought I'd look back through the lists...

Things we were looking forward to in the US:

• Inexpensive, high-quality steak. -- Yep, we definitely missed this! Thanks, Mom  & Dad F, for grilling some steak for us when we got back!

• Tacos, sharp cheddar, and good salsa. -- Our first homemade tacos were 100x better than the best we managed in Germany. Though now we eat them with a lot more fresh ingredients, like chopped onions, peppers, and lettuce.

• Maple syrup and brown sugar available at the grocery store. -- Lots of baking has been happening, and I've already gone through 4 bags of brown sugar and 2 jugs of maple syrup.

• French toast, pancakes, scrambled eggs...eating at Parker's Maple Barn and Soundbites. -- We ate a Parker's for my birthday weekend, we've made it to Soundbites several times, and gotten fried chicken with waffles at M3!

• Our stinky hound! -- She turns 10 this month and is slowing down some, but overall she is very happy and healthy. We have been enjoying taking her on lots of walks!

hiking together in NH, just like old times

• Getting reacquainted with my kitchen gear and all my other clothes. -- Oh, bread machine, slow cooker, and kitchen scale, how I missed thee! But for every kitchen gadget I did miss, there is one that I didn't miss at all...and those have been donated or given away in a house-cleaning extravaganza.
• Having a cell phone with a camera and being able to text family on the go. -- 'Inbox 100% full' is a common message on my phone these days, and it's nice to be able to look up restaurant recommendations or directions on the go.
• Seeing family and friends who we have only seen online for too long! -- We see J's family frequently, I got to see my parents and Em in January when I picked up the Granny Mobile, and I made it down to see Beth and Chris in March. We are slowly making the rounds!
• Being able to effortlessly speak with shop owners, administrators, and pretty much everyone without having to compose each sentence in my head beforehand. (Though I will miss this, too!) -- Extra thankful for this during tax season, though it took several months to clear our accounts with the German electric company and our German bank, so I didn't have to go cold turkey. I also took a German class in the spring, but it's just not the same!
• Having a car! Oh, how I have missed the freedom of having a car! (And, yet, oh how I will miss the fabulous trains and public transport in Germany!).  -- Mom road tripped from TX to MA with me to bring the Granny Mobile back to Boston. Sadly, the green truck drove its last mile on my second day back to work, so we're now a 1-car family. When sitting in summer beachgoer traffic this summer, we have sorely missed being able to kick back with a book in a train. But it is also glorious to be able to pack up the car and go!

3000+ miles of non-stop catching up :)

RIP faithful green friend

Things we wanted to do in Germany before we left:

• Go shopping for gifts at all of Cologne's Christmas markets. -- Done! I have a long list of the best of/worst of the Cologne markets, which you can read about here.
• Visit a Christmas market in a small, charming village (Bad Munstereifel? Monschau? Münster? We shall see...). -- We made it to markets in Hattingen and Marburg, and they were one of our favorite things to do in the fall and winter!
• Eat schnitzel at Oma Kleinmann's. -- check.
• Eat saurbraten (J's favorite) at a Kölsch pub. -- double-check. I undertook a culinary adventure to replicate this recipe on the hottest day in July. Recipe and post coming soon!
• See Radical Face at the Kulturkirche in mid-November. -- So much fun! I get very nostalgic every time I hear 'Welcome Home' now.
• Cheer on FC Koeln at another soccer match. -- We actually didn't make this happen. Instead, a quick trip to London happened.
• Attend mass at the Dom. -- This was a very neat experience! There's a lot of pomp and circumstance. Highly recommended for anyone visiting Cologne on a Sunday!
• A quick, 3-day trip to London, staying at a super posh hotel using our free Hyatt nights. -- Done, and post forthcoming!
• Experiment with more interesting ingredients from the market. -- I think this happened...probably. I don't remember any specific weird veggies or fruits, but I loaded up on Kaki and other favorites before we left. So much so that, when Sam and I departed for good, I had an entire bag filled with snacks and beer and things that were too good to throw away!

a last family photo on our back porch in Cologne

[Long, rambling] side note: Our departure from Germany was quite a production! J took a separate flight out of Amsterdam on Iceland Air, while Sam and I took a train to Paris the next day to catch a flight to JFK, where we rented a car and drive up to Boston. (Pets can't go through Iceland and other island nations without getting quarantined, and we were trying to save money, hence the abominably complicated travel plans!) J and I spent most of Dec 13th doing our favorite things in Cologne, before he left the next day.

saying 'bye for now' to the Dom

top row: walking along the Rhine and enjoying Koeln's Altstadt
bottom row: enjoying the Christmas markets (ice skating and hot chocolate, respectively)

soaking up our lovely neighborhood, Nippes, one last time

on his way to Boston, via Amsterdam and Iceland.
the next time we saw each other was 3 days later in NH!

J, along with his mandolin, backpack, and two bags weighing precisely 20kg (thank goodness for luggage scales!) hopped on a train to Amsterdam in the afternoon on Dec 13th. Then I went home and started packing my bags. At about 4pm, I realized that there was no way everything was going to fit so I threw away some things (bye-bye, tennis shoes) and speed-packed a box to mail. I had the box ready by 4:45 and the post office closed at 5, so I ran several blocks carrying the 15kg box to the post office...in the rain. The rest of the day was spent packing and cleaning. The next day, I gathered everything together, did last minute clean up, put the cat in the carrier, and trudged (in the rain) to the UBahn station near our house with about 15 minutes to spare before my train to Paris left. Aaand when I got to the UBahn station, I realized that I had grossly misjudged the timing of the trains on a Sunday morning (every 10 minutes), which caused poor Samson and I to miss our train to Paris by 3 minutes. So I had to go to the Thalys counter (side note to the side note: the woman who helped me was French, but spoke excellent German as well as perfect English with a Cockney accent!), buy new train tickets, and wait 4 hours for the next train. Sam was not amused, though the ladies in the restroom thought it was hilarious to see a cat wheeled into a stall with me. I spent the time reading and killing time in the Hbf.

there's a small cat in that carrier, being very quiet and definitely not appreciating
that she's getting her picture at a UNESCO World heritage site

The rest of me and Sam's trip was also pretty eventful. We caught our train to Paris and it was uneventful except that I sort of spewed beer all over the place (I couldn't leave behind our last Rochefort 10!) and I ended up not in my assigned seat. But we got to the airport with plenty of time, which was good. I had been stressing about the baggage weights, which were very strict on this budget airline -- you got one 20kg checked bag (every additional kilo was 10 Euros or you could check a second bag for 100 Euros) and one carry-on bag (not counting the cat, since I paid 75 Euros to take her in the cabin) that must weigh under 10 kilos. I got my checked bag down to 23 kg and was planning to just pay the 30 Euros, but I had two big carry on bags (plus the cat) and both of them were waaaay over 10 kg since they contained J's camera and lenses and my computer. As I stood in line, I watched the attendants carefully count and weigh everyone's bags. But God took mercy on us, and the very nice man who helped us didn't bat an eye at my 23 kg bag and he pretended that he didn't see my excessive carry-ons...and we made it through the baggage gauntlet!

The flight was very empty, so Sammy and I got a whole row to ourselves. When we landed in New York, it was midnight and raining, but we got our little rental car and headed out. The rain turned to snow once we got into CT and we were making terrible time--no one else was on the road, but I couldn't see the asphalt. I had planned to stop at a Motel 6 just outside Hartford, but I passed the exit with no sign of the hotel. Fortunately, 30 minutes later I saw a sign for another Motel 6! Sam and I stopped at about 4am, slogged through 8" of snow to get to our room, and slept til about 10 before getting back on the road. The plowing teams must have worked the entire night, because the roads were completely clear by the time we headed out of the motel. We made it to NH just in time to avoid a late fee on the rental car, and Leslie, Kristy, and Nora met us at the airport rental return. Silly Nora didn't remember me at first, but I finally got a couple tail wags. And I could finally relax--we had made it!

Sam was such a trooper--she was dragged all the way from Cologne to Paris to New York, got rained on, and then had to ride in the car. She was in her carrier for 30 hours! I gave her relax treats and water throughout the trip, but I am still amazed at how good she was. She didn't struggle when I carried her through the Paris metal detector, and she didn't make a mess in her carrier. There were so many little blessings along the way that made our adventure of a return trip possible!

And now she is sitting contentedly beside me on our couch in Somerville, a real world traveler with a German cat passport!

Word of the Week: Wiehnachsmarkt

the Marburg Weihnachtsmarkt, in front of the Rathaus

Let's talk about Christmas in August. Specifically, Christmas markets, known as Weihnachsmärkte ("vye-nachts-mehrk-teh") in Germany. These markets begin usually in late November or early December and run right up until Christmas Eve. Cologne alone has seven different markets, and there are smaller markets in villages all over the country (plus large markets in other major cities). We visited all seven markets in Cologne, as well as markets in Brussels, Hattingen, and Marburg.

"Happy Christmas" in Marburg

The smaller markets in Marburg and Hattingen were delightful, with a much cozier, less commercial feel than the markets in Cologne. Marburg was especially beautiful, and I highly suggest visiting a market in a small town such as Marburg or Bad Munstereifel. Spend the day wandering the cute Altstadt and exploring the city, and then spend the evening hanging out at the cheerily-lit Weihnachtsmarkt.

escargot & Swiss-style noodle bowls at the Brussel Christmas market

The market is Brussels was huge, and quite different from the markets in Cologne. Rather than discrete, themed markets, this market in Brussels ran 2km from the Grote Markt to the Place Sainte-Catherine (map). In the market square at Place Sainte-Catherine there was the neatest carousel I have ever seen, called La Manege D'Andrea (kids could sit in a rocketship that blasted up through the roof!). The food was also quite different, too --I got a delicious bowl of escargot, and Jeremy and I both ate really tasty Swiss-style noodles! Sometime in the future, I would love to make it to Christmas markets in other parts of Belgium and in the Netherlands, as well as in other parts of Germany. But in the meantime, here's what we learned about the markets in Cologne...

Good Eats in Northern Germany

Well, I didn't write this post while we were actually in Germany, but I'm going to try to catch up while it's all still fresh.

The first thing we noticed when we left the Hauptbahnhof in Bremen--the first stop on our tour of Norddeutschland--were the huge carts filled with rows and rows of beautiful candied nuts and dried fruit. These stalls were common in all the cities on our trip, and they were dangerously delicious-smelling and tasting!

In Bremen, some sort of medieval-themed festival was going on, with bands playing strange instruments, booths selling furs and leather, and a stall selling Met (aka, 'mead' or honey beer). It was pretty chilly, so we grabbed terracotta cups of hot, yeasty Met and planned our walking tour of the city.

We also encountered signs of some well-known Bremen exports :)

While exploring Lübeck the next day, we stopped by the Holstentor, which included a city history museum. And any history of the city of Lübeck absolutely must include another famous treat, marzipan.

(left) elaborate marzipan molds (right) molded and painted marzipan

Lübeck has been famous for its marzipan since the Middle Ages, when the 'treat' made of sugar and pulverized almonds was considered a medicine. I had tasted marzipan before, but I remembered it as dry and sickly sweet. But all the books and reviews suggested visiting the Niederegger Cafe and marzipan museum, so we gave it a try. And it was delicious! We tried chocolate-covered marzipan, marzipan kartoffeln (potatoes), and cake with marzipan filling. We stuffed our backpacks with more to take home and send to family!

life-size famous historical figures, all made of marzipan

a model of the city, a model ship, veggies, and the guestbook

I bought even more marzipan in Cologne a couple weeks later when the stores overflowed with the Christmas-time candy. We're still hoarding some marzipan kartoffeln :)

Northern Germany is also famous for something less sweet, but equally delicious (depending on which of us you ask)--fish! We saw smoked and baked fish stands all over the place in the towns we visited, but especially in Wismar, which is on the coast. Most of the towns we visited became wealthy due to the fishing and industries in some way--salt from Lüneburg's mines was sent to Lübeck and either stored in the Salzspeicher or used to pack fish, and these products were then sent to Hamburg and other cities in the Hanseatic League for distribution inland.

In particular, the Raucheraal (smoked eel) was highly recommended, so I grabbed a sandwich while we were exploring the docks in Wismar. The guy took out an eel (young eels, so they're only a couple feet long and about 1.5" thick), chopped it in half, then skinned and deboned it before putting it on a bun with some creamy garlic sauce. It was really tender, smoky, and delicious!

Though it's not specific to Norddeutschland, we also enjoyed a romantic breakfast in our room in Lüneburg at a B&B that I found through AirBnB. We had the traditional German breakfast of soft-boiled eggs (thanks, Matthew, for teaching us how to properly eat one), cold cuts, cheese, and tasty bread with coffee and orange juice.

I've got a bunch more posts in store (northern Germany, the Christmas markets, and more) -- til then!

In Red-Bricked Northern Germany

[[Here's another post that I meant to publish while we were still in Germany!]]

brick molds in Wismar

A few weeks ago [[the first weekend in November 2013 -- how time flies!]], we made a quick 4-day, whirlwind trip through northern Germany to see one of the last regions of the country that we hadn't been to yet. The trip was filled with lots of train travel, fish, and bricks, and Norddeutschland managed to remind us of Portsmouth, NH, Rockport, MA, and Bruges, while still remaining distinctly German. I'll save the food for another post, so let's talk about trains and bricks.

Day 1: A & B  >  Day 2: B & C  >  Day 3: C, D, & E  >  Day 4: E & F
(click on the map for an interactive version)

Above is our route, all by train. We got a lot of reading and napping accomplished on the trip, when we weren't soaking up the scenery :) Unlike much of the rest of Germany, many of the historic buildings, including cathedrals and churches, are constructed of Backsteine/Formsteine, or bricks.

a brick tower in Wismar

one of Lübeck's city gates

Bremen Hauptbahnhof

inside Lübeck's St-Marien-Kirche, with the bricks painted to resemble stone

Böttcherstraße, Bremen

And, as a result, many of the larger buildings have leaning towers!

Jakobikirche, Lübeck

Holstentor, Lübeck -- you can't tell from this angle, but it was listing to one side

The buildings were certainly influenced by the cities' contact with the Netherlands, too. This, combined with the brick, is what made us think of Bruges and Rockport at the same time!

Roland Statue with a Lebkuchenherz, Bremen

Salzspeicher, with the Holstentor in the background, Lübeck

Am Sande, Lüneburg

We also enjoyed seeing the multi-period architecture in Schwerin (pronounced 'schver-EEN'). We saw lovely old half-timbered buildings, next to more ornate facades from the Gründerzeit, as well as boxy post-war constructions.

Many of the churches in the cities we visited had been bombed and either restored or turned into monuments or museums, like the museum located in the remains of St-Marien-Kirche in Wismar where we learned about  medieval brick-making or the solemn peace memorial at St-Nikolai-Kirche in Hamburg.

left: broken bells in Lübeck's Marienkirche; right: Hamburg's St. Nickalei Kirche

a beautiful memorial in Lübeck's semi-restored Dom

The brick-making museum in Wismar was quite small, but it included interesting equipment, such as the brick molds pictured at the top of the post or this big wheel that was used to lift materials up into the towers--it worked just like a human-sized hamster wheel! We saw a similar contraption inside the tower in Nördlingen [[which I thought I had written about but it turns out I forgot--I hope to write more catch-up posts soon to capture our travels while they are relatively fresh]].

We also came across a gem of a town, Lüneburg. Only 30 minutes out of Hamburg, it escaped the bombs that wiped out almost all of Hamburg and many other cities and towns. Even though it was rainy and cold the day were were there, the town was still charming -- we called it the 'Rothenburg of the North,' though sadly its city walls are no longer standing

We tasted some interesting regional foods during the trip, which I'll report on later. Til then!

Word of the Week: Gottesdienst

[[I just realized that I hadn't hit 'Publish' on this post, even though I wrote it 3 months ago when we were still in Germany! There will be a few more like this to follow, too.]]

I've been going to church at Luthurkirche in Nippes since the early summer. It's only a 5 minute walk from our house, it's not catholic (a bit of a rarity in Cologne), and the services are good, so it's been really nice to go whenever we're in town. The building is brick gothic in style, much like the churches we saw in northern German (post and pictures coming soon!) with the ceilings stuccoed and painted.

it's hard to see in the picture, but the apse is painted with beautiful light blue stars

The services--Gottesdienst--are in German, so sometimes I'll catch 70% of the sermon and sometimes only about 10%, depending on the speaker and topic. My favorite part, though, is the singing--hearing the organ echo off the walls, and singing some of my favorite hymns in German is a lovely way to start my Sunday. And it's yet another thing that makes me feel like I'm in Germany, even if I spend most of a week working in the apartment! I borrowed a hymnal the other week, and I've been making copies of my favorite hymns so I don't forget them.

Morning has Broken, auf Deutsch  - one of my favorites

I also like the church because they regularly host concerts and events, called Kulturkirche. Most of the events are secular, but they never bring in death metal bands or anything, so it turns into a really neat venue. We recently went to a Radical Face concert there, and it was so fun! The acoustics are great and, because we're in Germany, there was a bar with beer. Drinking beer in church felt a bit funny, but I guess they wouldn't get a very good turn out if it was a dry concert :)

clockwise from left: the lighting effects, the sound guy and bar, and drinking beer in a pew

I haven't posted as much recently since we're busy working, getting ready to move, and soaking up as much as we can before we leave. The Christmas markets kicked off today, so I'm sure I'll be sharing about them soon!