Christmastime in Cologne

When people talk about Christmas Markets, Germany is the place that comes to mind.  Since we didn't know if we'd get another chance, we decided to fly off to Germany and experience it for ourselves.  We flew out the day after school dismissed for Christmas break and spent 3 whole days exploring Cologne, which is one of the most popular Christmas Market towns (it gets 4 million visitors each year). There are seven markets in Cologne, and we visited them all!

Day one:

We started bright and early at the Cologne Cathedral.  Some stats to help you understand how magnificent this building is:

• World Heritage Site
• Tallest twin-spired church in the world
• Second tallest church in Europe
• Third tallest church in the world
• Largest façade of any church in the world

Impressed yet?  The carvings around the doors and the stained glass throughout are stunning.  We spent some time enjoying the cathedral until the Christmas market opened.

Our first market was just outside the Cathedral, and set expectations high for the whole trip!  There were so many stalls, including a bunch with food.  We spent some time meandering though the market, stopping for some bratwurst for lunch.

We walked through a few more amazing markets (Alter Market and the Harbour Market, and a couple more that didn't seem to have names) on our way to the Lindt Chocolate Museum.  I'm so glad we went on our first day, when there was virtually no line- we were near it again on another day and the line was out the door!  This was a fun museum, even though we've done a chocolate museum before in Paris.  The first part is all about the history of chocolate and all kinds of information about the cocoa bean- where it grows, how it's harvested and transported, etc.  The second part is the factory portion, where you get to walk around and see each of the machines that processes the chocolate into the final product.  This was also where they had a massive chocolate fountain (with taste tests, yum!) and a machine that gave out samples.  They also had glass walls where we could see the chocolatiers customizing chocolate bars for customers and making other chocolate masterpieces. And of course at the end there's a large shop full of goodies in tempting foil wrappers :)

It was dark by the time we finished at the Chocolate museum, so we found a restaurant for dinner and meandered back through the markets on our way back to our Airbnb.  They were so pretty lit up at night!

Day two:

Again, we had a bit of time before the markets opened in the morning, so we stopped by the Lego store, where the boys had a blast posing with Santa and checking out all the lego sets.  They were even handed a catalogue each as we left, which they held onto all day and thumbed through at every opportunity haha.

Our first market of the day was the Angels Market.  It was Saturday, so it was packed with people, so it was a little more stressful than the markets the day before, but it was still great. We got some kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) with applesauce, which was amazing.

Three more markets (Rudolfplatz, Heavenue-which only had a couple stalls open, and Stadtgarten) and a café stop rounded out the day nicely.

Day three:

Since we had been through all the Christmas markets in Cologne on days 1 and 2, we decided to spend at least the first part of day 3 in other areas of the city. We headed back to the Cathedral, but went behind it to the Hohenzollern Bridge, which is covered in locks. The boys loved looking at all of them, pointing out the different shapes, sizes, colors, etc. We were not the only ones there, but from the other side we could see that it was getting busier as the morning went on so I'm glad we went first thing in the morning.

From the other side of the Rhine we stopped to take some iconic Cologne photos and enjoyed a riverside walk.

We crossed back over the river at the next bridge and meandered back through some of our favorite markets, eating a late lunch at the Alter Markt (which was our favorite market, for the atmosphere) and picking up some last souvenirs. It was a very relaxed afternoon- since we had checked off everything on our "must-see" list, we were able to take things slow for the rest of the day and just enjoy it all. Back at the apartment, we carefully packed up our purchases and got ready for our flight home early the next morning.

It was a short trip, but I think it was perfect. We made it to every Christmas market in the city (several more than once), the most iconic places, and the Chocolate museum. We fit it in after school broke up for the holidays and we were home before Christmas Eve. I can't think of any better way to spend those days!

*Also published on our travel blog: Kimblers Abroad*