Happy December everyone! Samir and I had the luxury to visit Cologne just over a month ago (yes I've been slacking with blogging), but here we go!
We arrived in Cologne or Köln on an early Saturday morning and had our very first meal at the McDonald's in Flughafen Köln/Bonn (Cologne/Bonn Airport). We ordered a hotdog, a breaded chicken burger, and what seemed to have HUGE potential but fell through - a Schoko toastie (aka the German version of Nutella in between flatbread)!
After that, we tried to head to Köln via train but the ticket line was huge, so we decided to take a bus instead! Smart us ended up taking the wrong bus to Bonn Hautbahnhof, instead of Köln Hautbahnhof! This turned out to be a Happy Mistake, as Samir calls it. For one, I was planning on paying Bonn a day trip visit to check it out and for another, we had quite the fun walking through the city. In Bonn, we learnt that Haribo is headquartered in Bonn itself! I feel that this is a piece of trivia I knew but conveniently forgot! Of course, we visited the Haribo store and bought a bunch of goodies, including the gummy bears!
Strolling the streets of Bonn
Bonner Munster (closed for remodelling)
We also learnt that Beethoven is from Bonn, we did not get to visit Beethoven-Haus itself but I got a neat selfie, jokes just a photo with the statue of the artist! Ironically the weather in Bonn was much colder than Watford was and I was quite under dressed! Fortunately, we managed to grab some warm melted Raclette cheese with bacon on toast among the food stands in Bonn! Talk about the perfect comfort food on a chilly day!
Next stop, Köln. We toured the city a bit but left most of the touristy things to the next day. This includes Cologne's most prominent landmark - Kölner Dom, home to the 4th tallest church building in the world!
We were joined by two friends who introduced us to the world of Köln drinking! This consisted of numerous cups of Kölsh (200ml beers that are magically refilled unless you put the coaster on top of the cup - very very slippery slope) at Fruh Gastronomie and Gaffel am Dom. We were also introduced to a plethora of local cuisines including Himmel un And (heaven on earth) or apple sauce with black pudding, Schweinehaxe (grilled pork knuckle), mettbrötchen (minced sausage meat on bread with red onions - sounds super weird but oddly my favourite discovery in Köln)! It was (almost) not all drinks and food, we also toured around the old town area of Köln!
Fruh Gastronomie's stained glass + food!
Raw sausage meat from Gaffel am Dom
On our third day, we realised our timing wasn't the best. Germany has declared itself in a winter state (in November for crying out loud), we were too early for Christmas markets, the ferries are no longer working, and our destination of the day - Drachenfels was closed for the season as of the day we were there! That didn't stop us from climbing all the way up the hill in the rain to get a peak of the castle! Definitely not the most conventional view of the gorgeous Rhine river nor the famous neo-gothic castle, but we made do.
View of the Rhine River from the top
Sneak peak of the castle
Random house on top the hill
Cold and tired, we went into Curry Bar for Bratwurst and Currywurst! Our first time trying Currywurst but an unforgettable memory for sure as the lovely shopkeeper offered us bread to take back when we asked if there's any bakeries nearby.
Our very last day consisted of visiting the Romisch-Germanisches (Roman-Germanic Museum). This place was recommended by Samantha's prof who's great grand-father (Peter Anton Tholen) led the team that discovered the Dionysus Mosaic (pretty much the museum's main exhibit) among many other discoveries. We also visited Peter Brauhaus where we ordered Schnitzel and Kölsh for the last time!
It was incredible to be able to see Köln from an insider view and a shout out to our hotel (Hilton Cologne) for the lovely service, we had a super relaxing time for sure. #teammemberworkperks There were definitely a few things we weren't able to do while in Köln, but hopefully we'll be back soon, if not in Köln, definitely Germany! ♥
Listening to "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran
Images by Me
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