Cologne, Germany

Cologne, Dusseldorf and Aachen; two major cities and a town on the west side of Germany close to its border with Belgium. This was where we spent our recent 5 day trip and boy was it cold!


The main interest of the trip were the Christmas markets in Cologne, which is one of the most famous places for Christmas markets in Europe. Irene was so keen for this trip that she booked it almost 6 months in advance and have been looking forward to it ever since.


We initially wanted to have a seven day trip but my boss wasn't too keen for me to be away around this time of the year and so we cut it down to five days. This turned out to be for the better as Cologne and the Christmas markets turned out to be smaller than we anticipated and we ended up having enough time to make some side trips Aachen and Dusseldorf.


Given the time of the year, everywhere we went had a Christmas theme and multiple Christmas markets. As a result, we ended up visiting over 10 Christmas markets on this trip. Although you can find some unique stores at each market, most of the stores are more or less the same so the main appeal, at least for me, were the food.

It was not that the food was different at each market, though there were some unique food stores at some markets, but that the food were so good that you can never get enough of it, no matter which market you were at. As a result, we ended up eating numerous potato scallop type things, sausages, nuts, and other unhealthy stuff. We also drank a lot of mulled wine and punch.


Apart from the street food at the Christmas markets, we also wanted to try the genuine German beer haus food – the type like Lowenbrau in Sydney but without the stuff that allows Lowenbrau to inflate their prices. This proved to be a harder feat than first thought.

At first, we tried to make a booking at the beer haus recommended on the free tourist map that we got but unfortunately they were all booked out. Then back at the hotel, we found on the internet that those recommended beer haus are actually tourist traps and so were glad that we didn't end up booking. Instead, we found a few other recommended beer haus, some of which weren't too far from where we were staying. So on one of the mornings, we rocked up to try and make a booking. However, the language barrier made it slightly difficult and in the end, we were told to come back that night and "maybe" there will be a table.

Expecting the worst, we rocked up and waited at the door to be served. The waiter said to wait a moment and shortly afterwards, took us to a table that had a reserved sign. The fact that he didn't ask us for the number of guests and that they provided us with English menus (nothing to do with the beer haus – website, waiters, etc – had any English and so I was surprised to have been given an English menu) suggested that the waiter actually remembered us from the morning and reserved a table for us.

Having an English menu made life a lot easier and Irene ended up ordering a Pork Knuckle while I ordered a Pork Schnitzel. We ended up sharing the meal as usual, which was a good thing because the knuckle was HUGE! As we ordered our food relatively early (other guests tend to drink a while before ordering) the other guests were surprised to see the huge knuckle when it was placed in front of Irene. Whether it was the huge knuckle or the fact that it was for Irene, we don't know.


That dining experience was well worth the effort. I always enjoy immersing myself in different cultural experiences and definitely got a good dose of that at the beer haus. During the night, we saw groups of local German drink, eat, sing and socialise; and the price of the food and beer , and the lack of English with the waiters, made the experience all the more authentic.

This was the longest Europe trip since we've come to the UK and is the one that we've come back with the most "battle scars" (the type that you exchange with money). For me, the two main treasures that I brought back was a really nice looking wooden fountain pen, and a nice watch winder, which I've been in search of for a long wihle!


It was definitely a great trip – full of memories, experiences and goodies!