Hey everyone, I want to tell you about my recent trip to Cologne. To be honest I was surprised to find myself there too. Everything happened so out of the blue. Even though it was a Monday, the streets were packed. People were dressed incredibly light, but the weather wasn't actually that warm. It was around +7 or +8 degrees when I arrived. I started walking towards the Rhine river and had to cross a bridge. The towers of the old city, basically the old city gates, are lined up in a semicircle. I didn't head towards those gates though, because if I did, I would've missed the train I needed to catch. A funny thing happened when I got there. The train driver welcomed us saying, Welcome to California. He literally said California, not Cologne. I guess he said it because it was a bit sunny that day.
There's a traditional local beer that everyone drinks in the city. I had tried the bottled version before and liked it. Normally we prefer unfiltered, full-bodied beers, but this one is the exact opposite super light, honestly just like soda. Overall it's your classic city. I haven't seen anything extraordinary just yet. Cologne cathedral is great, but for me, my true love is Strasbourg in France, which isn't within Germany's borders anymore. The cathedral there is beautiful. It's a bit smaller than the one in Cologne or maybe just about the same size. The reason I praise Strasbourg so much is because it has this huge, breathtaking stained-glass window. Plus it's completely surrounded by half-timbered fachwerk houses.
After a while I reached the Rhine River. The Hohenzollern bridge is where the red S-Bahn passes through. The view from here is amazing. You can see beautiful little towers. It's quite lovely. However the bricks on the tower look a bit too neat and new, as if they were built much later.
I walked toward the Hohenzollern bridge. The Cologne cathedral was right there in front of us again. Looking at it from afar, it stands dark and majestic. The area we were in is the old town. I actually needed to go inside and I did manage to catch the edge of it. There are lots of unpruned sycamore trees here, which is really beautiful. I’ve been disappointed in some places where trees are pruned down to almost nothing. They end up looking bald and ugly for 6-7 months. But the ones here are wonderful, casting a nice shadow even without their leaves. I crossed over to the other side of the Rhine.
You might ask, what’s the point of coming to a city so abruptly, rushing through it and leaving? Personally I think it has its own perks. New places and new cities fill me with energy. Just walking down unfamiliar streets is enough for me. Actually they’ve built galvanized roofs in a spot that would otherwise offer a stunning view of the cathedral over the river, blocking half the view. Just typical strange decisions by local governments and it's definitely not unique to this place.
Then I crossed to the other side, where the high-speed trains pass through. The bridge here is also considered a tourist spot. But to be completely honest, judging by the reviews of people who have visited, there isn’t much to do other than seeing the cathedral. The other side seemed a bit quieter or maybe it just felt that way to me. Seagulls were flying around. I was lucky that the weather wasn't at least zero degrees and showed a little sun. The promenade here is quite sweet. In the summer it could be really pleasant to sit around here and eat a brezel or some cake. The wind was blowing like crazy, but the views were beautiful. I hadn't seen wind like this since Hamburg. The nice thing about Stuttgart is that the air is almost always completely still. Coming to windy cities like this makes you uncomfortable. Cold or hot is fine, but wind is the thing I hate most. You never know how to dress. One minute you're hot, the next you're cold. It would've been much better without the wind.
Meanwhile I kept checking the time and the Deutsche bahn app was saying my next train was delayed. This meant I could walk for another 5 minutes. The train I arrived on was also delayed by 10 minutes, so it balanced out. I'd already seen everything I wanted to see anyway. There are 5-6 different historic city gates scattered around the old town and they all look different.
Generally things are quiet around here. I think the square here was one of the well-known ones, but the navigation was working terribly. I opened the map and it didn't even show my location. It just indicated that I was in Cologne. I don't get this navigation issue in some cities. In Hamburg it kept showing my direction 180 degrees backwards too. I never have this problem in Stuttgart. It clearly shows where I'm walking. Here there was just a fixed dot on the screen. I use Google Maps and a Google phone, but the result isn't great.
I passed by the Town hall. The biggest advantage of this place is that other cities like Bonn, Düsseldorf and Duisburg are close to Cologne and they all form a massive metropolitan area. I could see where the old gates were on the city map. There are tons of gates and churches. I only explored a small part of it. But on the other hand, seeing the famous Cologne Cathedral wasn't a bad idea at all, I was really happy about that.
There are signs dating back to 1318, but these areas have definitely been completely rebuilt. Still there are nice cobblestone paths and some spots are quite charming. Of course, this charm thing is very subjective. There are many cities in Germany that are charming like this. I've almost reached the station because it's right behind the Cologne Cathedral anyway. I rushed through very quickly and circled around everywhere I wanted to see right away. When you buy a ticket for highspeed trains in Germany (or board without a ticket in my case), you only purchase the right to travel. You aren't guaranteed a seat. So when I got on the train, I had to find an unreserved empty seat. Even while we are traveling, someone can reserve that seat online for a nominal fee of about 5-7 euros. If a seat is reserved, no one can move that person. It's their right. But in some exceptional cases like mine, you can just jump right on the train and go.
Sometimes tourists who have never traveled before go to popular places like Paris, only to find out that except for a few nice spots with a view of the Eiffel tower, the rest of the place isn't that great. Rats running around, parking lots everywhere, cyclists riding right at you. But those aesthetic bloggers on social media never show that side of things. Of course, people don't really like seeing reality. They want everything to look beautiful because there are already enough things in their own lives that aren't perfect. Still traveling is a lot of fun either way. By the way I didn't see a proper big chain supermarket along the way where I could grab a quick snack. And just like that I've walked right up to the front of the station. So we're wrapping up this post about Cologne here. See you on new trips.
