First thing in the morning, I walked to nearby grocery store to shop for food and drinking water. The chocolate biscuits are good stuff and so are the salami, corn bread and paprika cheese. After dropping off my food supply in the hostel, I walked to Cologne tourist office just opposite the cathedral to get information about Bonn and Aachen. Found out that Germany mostly "close" from 24th Dec afternoon and on Christmas day. Most museums are closed on Monday too.
Of course, I had to see the Cologne Cathedral (Kolner Dom) first. The cathedral was first founded in 1248 but only fully completed by 1880. Napoleon actually once used it as prison and horse stable! Thousands of tourist throng into the cathedral daily. It is the biggest cathedral in Germany. Inside the lofty central nave, each pillar has the sculptures of Saints. There is Gero Crucifix (970AD) and the shrine of the Three Magi. I planned to go back there for the Christmas Eve mass and to visit the treasury and south tower on the following Monday.
While waiting for the Christmas markets to open at 11am and to hide from the cold rain, I visited Ludwig Museum. It is an impressive modern art museum and took me 3 hour plus to cover all. There is pop art, contemporary art, expressionism, surrealism, nouveau realisme, 19th century photographs from Japan and China, collections of Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein with his pixelated drawings like comic strips, collections of Lucy McKenzie and A.R Penck, exhibition on Australian aborigines art and La Boheme ( 19th and 20th century photographs) and Suchan Kinoshita "In 10 minutes". I personally like the work of Otto Dix, Rudolph Schlichter, George Schrimpf, Franz Radziwill, Otto Freundlich's zincographs and Alexander Rodtschenko's fotomontage. I would have enjoyed myself more in this museum had I not been watched like hawk by the dedicated Museum workers. They are dead serious people. It feels like a child in a playground that cannot play as he likes because the discipline teacher is just breathing over his neck...
After buying the expensive ticket, the staff did not even offer me a brochure till I ask for it. Neither did she inform me that no photography allowed or my bag needed to be stowed away in the locker. Hence, I was stopped at the entrance and I had to find a locker for my bag. I was sounded by the staff when I snapped few photos (fair enough), when I accidentally stepped on a platform that held the work of art (exaggerated response), and when I took out my phone to write memo (are they serious?)...They are that strict...so much so I dared not to touch the art work of Suchan Kinoshita which I suspect is meant for touching because it is an art of motion, visual, sound and interaction in 10minutes. But there was no instruction in English and the staff was watching with unfriendly stare.
As I was hiding inside the museum, the rain stopped but just as I exited the museum, the snowfall started. Drat! Armed with my umbrella, I braved the snow and walked towards Altstadt (Old town) to get to the Christmas Market near Alter Markt(Home of the Heinzel Christmas Mrkt). The walk along the Rhine River would have been more pleasant had it not because of the snow...In summer, there is cable car and river cruise along the famous river but during winter, the cable car stops operating and the river cruise is reduced to 2-3 times a day. There are many pubs facing the river too.
I had my lunch in the Christmas market in Alter Markt...it was a foot long grilled pork with chilli sauce, bread and pickled green chilli. So juicy, tender and yummy!. It is something like shish kebab but I forgot its German name. The Christmas market sells all sort of trinkets like winter hat, shoes, scarfs, lamps, accessories, wooden sculptures and there are myriads choice of food. You can imagine how bloated my stomach/ bladder was by end of the day...
Christmas Market near Alter Mkt
Angel Market
Next, I walked along Hoho strasse and Schildergasse (the shopping meccas) to reach Neumarkt. I was frequently distracted by the shops and I did hop in and out of them to keep warm (to give myself more reasons to window shop :p) It was fun even if I did not buy anything...at least not on that day. Trying on clothes made me tired ...it took 10minutes to undress and redress because I wore 5-6 layers to battle the cold weather...Phew! Saved money because too lazy to try on clothes at the end. Drank a cup of gluhwein(mulled wine) and it did keep me warm and happy!
Neumarkt Angel's Christmas Market is my favourite Christmas market in Cologne. It is massive and lots of food too. Though I was not hungry, I was seduced by the sight of reibekuchen, Rhineland's potato fritters. It was hot and crispy and in the cold winter night, it just tasted so good! It was time to walk more to burn the calorie so that I could stomach more in the next market.
The Rudolphplatz Fairytale Christmas Market is of much smaller scale. Nevertheless, I bought sweet dessert here (chocolate strawberry wafers) and had a foot long bockwurst (sausage) with ample amount of chilli sauce and mustard!
Lastly, I walked back to the Cologne Cathedral Christmas Market. Though it was near closing time at 10pm, people were in high spirit and showed no sign of leaving. Most visitors gravitate towards the gluhwein stalls. I bought a chocolate and peanut butter fudge and drank hot chocolate with Bailey here. Well, there was just few drops of Bailey because it has finished and I got discounted price from that.
Cologne Cathedral
I loved the Angel Market too, but I think that the Gnome Market had the best atmosphere. We ended up going back there so many times, not to buy anything, just to stand and listen to the band, sometimes just the crowd. I remember my Dad saying "Stop here and just close your eyes for a second". And when we did that, the atmosphere really came home to you. It was that lovely "busy" kind of sound, people were laughing, chattering and if you did hear someone shouting, it was because they were calling someone over, not because they were angry. You didn't hear a single angry sound and I loved that.
ReplyDeleteI also have a soft spot for the market that's on the river boat, the one that sells antiques and second-hand decorations. To be honest, I wasn't that fussed about going to that one but I'm so glad I did. There, sitting waiting for me, was a set of decorations that I thought I'd never be able to have. My Mum has an identical set and I thought I'd never be able to find a set like it because they're so old. I was, quite honestly, like a kid at Christmas when I saw this set on that boat in Cologne. I did have to snaffle them out from under the nose of someone else who wanted them badly but I have few regrets on that score. I will treasure them for the rest of my life.
There are other Christmas markets I want to go to in Germany and Vienna's on the cards too, but I can't imagine them knocking Cologne off the top spot. Cologne was so wonderful in its own right but finding those decorations? That was the icing on the cake. :)