Tuesday 30 November 2010

Auf Wiedersehen Cologne

It's official - it's nearly Christmas!  I didn't believe it until we went to Germany for the weekend but now I am well and truly in the Christmas mood.
The markets there were fantastic, there are several of them and each has a different theme.  I'm struggling to catch up with getting back to work, filling up empty fridges, emptying full laundry baskets and unpacking suitcases so for now I will just pass on a few clips of our visit.
 How enormous is this cathedral?!  Absolutely huge, what an amazing piece of architecture.  The main markets were around here.
 The market stalls had some lovely gifts for sale, these little pottery houses are typical of the buildings in this area.


It got a bit chilly walking around, we had to keep stopping for Gluhwein to warm us up ;-) 
Each market had it's own style of mug and you could either return the mug when you had finished your drink and get your deposit back or keep the mug as a souvenir.  Needless to say, our baggage allowance doubled under the weight of mugs and mulled wine glasses!  {apologies for the strange face being pulled by our friend Richard, sometimes the gluhwein was hotter than you were expecting and if you took a mouthful without testing it ......well, the face says it all}
chocolate ;-)
so a trip to the chocolate museum was a must.  Just look at this fancy chocolate fountain - yum!
It was SO cold while we were out there, about -6 degrees and it started snowing heavily on the morning we were coming home.  I was a little concerned that our flight may be delayed or cancelled, but when it arrived at Koln/Bonn airport, they had an 'elephant' to spray de-icer on the wings. 

So that's a very quick resume of what I've been up to over the weekend, trust me, there will be more to share in days to come.  Don't say you weren't warned!

10 comments:

Ruth said...

Oh, lucky you! I LOVE Cologne and the Christmas markets. I lived in Germany for 4 years when I was in my 20s and that time has definately influenced my Christmas decoration habits!

scrappyjacky said...

One day I'm definately going to get to a European christmas market.

Cheri said...

great photos!

Maria Ontiveros said...

Sounds like such fun. Love that picture of the Cathedral. It reminds me of the book Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
Rinda

Denise said...

Glad you had a lovely and safe journey home,look forward to seeing the next installment of photos xx

Denise said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amy said...

Ooh, good! I am glad there will be more to come -it looks like a great weekend away Deb :-)

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

Now that looks like it was a lot of fun.

I'm so glad you are posting larger photos, and I love that you are using hearts in your post. :o)!!!

Sian said...

Very, very envious here! It looks like you had a fabulous time. One of these years I'm going to get there

Rachel Brett said...

What a fab trip, it looks so festive :)