The adventure started at 5am Saturday morning, with the Bakerloo tube line (our closest tube line) closed for renovation and every ‘black cab’ in London booked out……so we risked taking a mini-cab (an unlicenced taxi) and with a bit of luck we arrived at Stanstead airport in one piece and on time for the 8am flight.
Stanstead was an experience in itself – with all the budget carriers taking off from here (e.g. easyjet etc) it was a hive of activity. Hen’s parties, bucks weekends as well as the regular travellers (but not a suit in sight). As per usual I was straight back asleep from the moment we boarded the plane whilst Stephen spent the flight trying to learn the entire German phrasebook.
After checking into the Novotel, we hit Cologne city centre for some sight-seeing and shopping. The main attraction in Cologne is ‘The Dom’ (the Cathedral) and it is HUGE! After wandering around the inside of the church and admiring the beautiful statues, tapestries, stained glass and religious icons we decided to take on the challenge of walking the 590 stairs to the top.
'The Dom'
The staircase was narrow and dark and filled with sweating, panting tourists but we eventually made it to the main landing. From there it was just up a small rickety spiral staircase to the top. Although my dislike of heights made for a slow climb we did eventually make it and were rewarded by the spectacular view over Cologne. On the climb down we explored the bell towers and saw the enormous bells we later heard ringing across the town.
The view from the top of 'The Dom'
After the climb we descended underground to discover the Cathedral Treasury. The Cathedral’s prominence was based on its collection of relics from the Saints and the Magi (3 Wisemen) and these were on display housed in beautiful vessels. There were also many spectacular pieces of religious artwork.
For dinner we checked out a German pub called ‘Fruh’ which was next to the Cathedral. After discovering we had no idea what was on the menu, we made some random selections to accompany our ‘Kolsch’ (the local beer)….and surely enough we ended up with sausages, potatoes and cabbage (but it was delicious)!
For day 2 we headed to Bonn (another town about 30min away from Cologne by train). We bought tourists passes (well worth it if you are in the area!!) from the tourist office which basically lets you into any museum/public transport for free and headed off on the ‘Bonn walking tour’.
Bonn is famous for being Beethoven’s birthplace and so stop 1 of the tour was at a statue of him. We also checked out the home he was brought up in which has been turned into a museum of his life and has an adjoining digital museum where you can listen to his works (I was particularly impressed by this).
The statue of Beethoven
· the Bonn Museum which traced the history from Roman times to present day Bonn. Some famous denizens include Karl Marx, Fredrick Nieche and Hans Christian Anderson (as well as Beethoven of course)
· the University – the town is centred around this beautiful building although the bright yellow colour scheme is a bit odd
· The main Cathedral – unlike Cologne’s cathedral which is gothic in style, this one was romantic and much prettier
· a Cathedral – this was a little eerie as we were the only people inside this old gothic style building (where a ten year old Beethoven used to play the organ)
· the arithmetic museum – alright this was really uninspiring unless you get excited about mechanical calculators (yes, even Stephen was underwhelmed!)
The Chocolate Museum Fountain!
After check out Monday we followed the Rhine River towards town until we reached…the Lindt chocolate museum where we learnt all about growing cocoa nuts (they even had a sample indoor rainforest which was just as humid as a real one!), the history of chocolate and saw a small scale chocolate plant. Well worth a visit!We continued on into town and jumped on a Rhine river tour for an hour (no Sydney harbour but it was good to get a flavour for this famous river) before returning to the train station for the airport.
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