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Published: June 17th 2023
Dear All
Greetings! This is my first of two blog entries relating a mini-trip I took to the Cologne area of Germany for three nights. After returning from an amazing two weeks in Florida, I felt it was a bit of a long time until my next trip to South Africa in the summer. So, to break up the 14 weeks between the two, I booked a short trip to Cologne for three nights during our summer half-term. I felt this would be a litmus test to see if I could make this an annual trip somewhere at this time of year, as I’ve never done a summer half-term trip before. This would probably not be to a new country, or even a new TCC territory, but rather a little exploration of a European country I’ve already been to. After all, there is much more to see in all these European countries that I quickly skipped through during my summer of 1999 Interrailing trip. Within just a few days of having this idea, I’d already booked myself a cheap Ryanair flight to Cologne, and an Airbnb stay there for three nights. I was excited!
Not long after booking the
trip, literally a few days, our lovely train drivers' rail union announced strike days on both my day of departure and day of return. I will not darken my travel blog entry with my thoughts on these evil unions, but I did have to look into whether I'd be able to make it to Stansted Airport or not for my flights. Fortunately, the marvellous Stansted Express managed to run an hourly service on both these days, rather than its usual half-hourly one. Well done them! I would just need a taxi to a tube station to take me to Liverpool Street Station to get me to the Stansted Express, and a bus route back again, as my local Southern trains were completely cancelled for both days. Job sorted, I booked my outgoing taxi for 5.40am, and arrived at Stansted Airport 3.5 hours ahead of my flight as I’d given myself lots of time in case traffic was bad, the taxi was late, the tubes were packed and things like that – no such thing, and the journey was a breeze. It was at least much better to be waiting at the airport than in some crowded intermediate station or stop
affected by the strikes.
After a very quick hour’s flight, and a rather bumpy landing, I arrived at Köln-Bonn International Airport. Stansted Airport was great - I hadn't flown from there for ages, but it was good to see it's as easy to get to for me from Croydon as Heathrow and Luton.
From the airport, I took an S-Bahn train then a bus to my accommodation, and got talking to an English-Turkish couple I noticed were on the same flight as me on the bus. This turned out to be an amazing coincidence. While they live in the UK, they have a house in Cologne. Not only this, their house turned out to be right next door to my Airbnb accommodation. Not only this though, but their house and my hosts' house are the only two buildings in this amazing location I'm staying at. They are two isolated dwellings in the middle of two large fields, surrounded by the Königsforst forest. They were also good friends with my hosts, and were going round for dinner on the Sunday after I left. This really was just amazing, and after quite some time of wondering whether I made the
right decision to do this little trip at this time of year, this coincidence quite confirmed that it was!
When we arrived, my host greeted all of us, and after chatting with the couple, showed me to my abode for the next three nights. With no exaggeration, this has to be the finest Airbnb I've ever stayed at. It's a cute little Granny/gingerbread cottage on the hosts’ lush grounds, in the middle of what can only be described as a slice of paradise, a little Garden of Eden of sorts, with little pathways, grassy patches, blooming flowers and lovely trees, all filled with the beautiful sound of birdsong all around. Surrounding us and the English-Turkish couple nextdoor were the afore-mentioned farm fields, and then the Königsforst forest. I couldn’t believe the beauty and tranquillity of the place!
After downing my bags, a short rest and a cup of tea, I headed out to explore a bit for what was left of the day. I left my jacket behind, as after leaving London only an hour’s flight to the west at 9 degrees C, it was a pleasant surprise to arrive there with 24 degrees temperatures!
I walked
through the beautiful nearby Königsforst, past its wildlife enclosure home to semi-wild deer and wild boar apparently, though none to be seen, and on to the nearby and lovely village of Brück. On the way, I passed a house with very small and modest commemoration stones on the pavement outside which remembered it as a house which hid three Jewish families from the 1930s until 1944. Although the stones noted that they had survived their hiding, they didn't say what happened to them in 1944 which I found sad.
After stocking up in Brück's supermarket for my self-catering provisions for the next three nights, I headed back to my accommodation for a wonderful evening on my little cottage's terrace with a beer and birdsong all around in this little paradise, before a good meal and bed. I felt really happy to be there, and was excited to explore this little corner of Germany over the next few days.
The next day I enjoyed a wonderful first full day on this trip. I spent the day exploring the beautiful and friendly city of Cologne. Many people there were happy to interact with me in my German, which I've been
working on even further since my trip to Austria and Liechtenstein over the New Year. I think it has also improved since then, and I had a few compliments on it while there.
After breakfast, I took a nearby U-Bahn train into town, for a lovely morning walk along the Rhein River, I believe Germany's most famous waterway. On my first and last trip to Germany, which as mentioned was Interrailing as a student in 1999, I visited only Munich and Berlin, and a small place called Kassel in between. It was actually really nice to go back and explore more, noting my more genteel pace of travel at this more mature age I currently hold. The Rhein was impressive in central Cologne, at around 300 metres wide even at such a distance from the sea. The weather continued to be beautiful, bathing the city and its river in vivid sunlight, overlooked by a deep blue sky.
I headed to the city’s most iconic sight, Cologne Cathedral, and first climbed its south tower, a total of 533 steps! Cologne’s Cathedral is the third tallest in the world at 157m high, yet the steps only reached up to 97m.
It was amazing to think it was another 60m from up there to the top. The climb was exhausting, but well worth the awesome views over the city, the river, and the landmark but unvisitable Colonius telecommunications tower in the distance. I could also just about see a trio of similarly quite famous Cologne buildings, the Kranhäuser (Crane Towers) resembling industrial-sized cranes overhanging the Rhein in the distance. On the way down, I stopped to view the famous 24-tonne St Petersglocke, apparently the world's largest free standing bell, and was quite glad it didn't ring while I was there.
Next I explored the Cathedral itself, equally impressive from the inside. And very famously (in religious circles at least) it is home to what is believed to be the relics of the Three Wise Men, whose reliquary is the main feature of the Cathedral's altar area at the front. I thought it was quite amazing to possibly be in the presence of the remains of people who would have met the baby Jesus!
After the cathedral, I took a U-Bahn journey westwards to the suburb of Ehrenfeld, and onto the amazing Neptunbad, a German spa and sauna complex. As
mentioned in a number of previous blogs, I'm a big fan of countries with a spa and/or sauna culture, and Germany is certainly one of them. While in Japan I had to uncomfortably get used to the need to be completely naked in their onsen, but at least there they are single-sex. Germany has the same rule of nakedness, but completely mixed! Although I didn't completely get used to this whilst there, I still thoroughly enjoyed my three hours in its range of indoor and outdoor pools, saunas and steam rooms. The sun was still out, so lying on sun loungers in the spa's roof area was a special treat. As were two occasions when I experienced staff members doing special aromatherapy sessions in one of the saunas with around 20 of us, putting herbal water and ice on the stones to create hot steam which they then wafted amongst us with towels and fans. This was quite an experience, seriously hot, but just great! The nakedness made me realise just how, under our facades, clothes and what-have-you, we are all pretty much the same deep down. It also made me realise again how body-image-obsessed the English-speaking world seems to
have become, and it felt a breath of fresh air to be in a place where people were not at all concerned with how they looked.
My final visit for the day was to the Farina Duftmuseum, home to the original factory, and now modern-day shop and guided tour area, of Johann Maria Farina, whose perfumed scents he originally created in the city in 1709 gave rise to what we now know today as Eau de Cologne. It felt like an honour to visit this museum, as in English, the names "Eau de Cologne", “Cologne”, and "perfume" are often interchangeable. When visiting Cologne, I felt I just had to visit the home of the very same Eau de Cologne! The tour was given in English by an actor portraying Italian-born Mr Farina himself, and we were given insights into his background, the perfume-making process and ingredients, and sampled a number of scents ourselves. It was very educational, and great fun. We were given a free sample of Farina's original cologne as we were leaving.
On my way back to the little slice of paradise, I headed along Cologne's famous and mightily impressive Hohenzollernbrücke bridge, covered equally famously in
"Love Locks", padlocks left by thousands of happy couples who have visited over the years. While I have seen a number of places in the world with such padlocking traditions, and while this tradition around the world seems to be growing, this bridge really takes the award I think for most padlocks in the same place. There was so little room anywhere for any more, along the whole 409-metre bridge span, that new padlocks were seemingly being attached to existing padlocks already placed there.
I was heading towards the Köln Triangle building on the opposite bank of the Rhein, with its visitable rooftop, for what I was hoping to finish off the day with - one final view over the Rhein, Hohenzollernbrücke and Cologne Cathedral. Unfortunately I arrived only to find it was closing earlier than usual for the day for some reason at 5.30pm, having got there at 5.35pm...! Darn! Ah well, this did mean I was able to head back to my accommodation earlier than planned, to enjoy another wonderful beer amongst the delightful birdsong in the miniature Garden of Eden – it was a perfect end to an absolutely wonderful day!
I will write up
about the next part of my German adventures in my next blog.
Until then, thanks for reading, and all the best for now!
Alex
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Cologne
This blog makes me want to book a flight to Germany. We were discussing yesterday that we'd like to go back to Germany as we have not seen enough of it. I want to stay in this place. It looks perfect! I think this mid summer break trip will catch on! You are so good with languages. Our friend Brendan is pretty good also. I admit as hard as I try I struggle a great deal. I'm tone deaf and I think that compounds my ability to hear the different tones. Keep exploring.