Christmas in Cologne (and Bonn)

No sooner had I arrived back in Utrecht from Paris than I found myself on a train to Cologne in Germany. Now, I have to say a word about the German ICE train I got - quite simply, it has to be the nicest train I've ever had the pleasure of sitting in. It was clean, quiet and stylish - it even had wooden panelling throughout with little LED's telling you the weather, temperature, train speed and next station etc. And all for only €38 return, so I couldn't have arrived in Cologne in better style.

Unfortunately, Cologne itself wasn't quite as snazzy. I arrived quite early in the morning and the whole place was shrouded in a rather heavy mist, something that didn't change over the three days I was there. The Allies flat tended Cologne in the war and it hasn't recovered that well. Some places have been rebuilt lovingly, especially the Old Town, but the rest makes it all rather industrial and soulless, which is a shame for a town with such a history, such a huge Cathedral, and such a wonderful position on the Rhine:



It's one of the those unfortunate cities where the main shopping street leads right to the old area and everything is commercialised. After walking around for the whole day I went to a cinema in the evening to see Little Miss Sunshine (and thoroughly recommended it is too!). In fact, after the first day I felt I'd seen about as much of Cologne as I wanted to, so on the second day I caught a rather less-swish train to the nearby city of Bonn. Bonn was much nicer and less built up than Cologne and I was very glad that I went. It's really a University town but it didn't feel like it and instead it felt much more cosy than Cologne:


The fact that the weather was nicer must have helped as well. Bonn lives and breathes Beethoven as the man was born there, so there's rather a lot of museums and theatres etc decicated to him, including a rather impression sculpture:


Bonn was just nice to walk around, and I walked down along the Rhine to the Federal Government district then across the river to a neighbouring town. I could have spent a couple of days there, which considering that Bonn is much smaller than Cologne says a lot about Cologne.

Still, I had gone to Cologne more to go to Germany than anything else. After taking GCSE German I've never been to Germany to put it into practice, so I thought it was about time I did something about it. The end result was, surprising and I managed to make myself understood the majority of the time, with the exception of a rather funny exchange in the youth hostel concerning duvets and checking out. No-way was my German good, but it was passable to the extent that I managed to give a guy directions in German when he stopped me to ask where something was. For ten minutes after I was elated, until a lady similarly stopped me and refused to speak nicht so schnell despite my protests with the consequence that I couldn't help her. So I've still somewhat to go there.

I also went to Cologne was for its famed Christmas markets, which were something of a let down. I had expected each to be different than the others based on what I'd read, but they weren't; they all had the same stalls and the same produce, just in different places. Heaven forbid, but perhaps I'm getting sceptical over this whole Christmas lark! Still, they looked pretty all lit up in the evening and the hundreds of children seemed impressed and full of Christmas cheer:


They also allowed me to sample some authentic bratwurst and a wonderful dessert called dampfnudeln which I should imagine I'll be dreaming about for weeks.