Cologne - Koln

Day One - Cologne

We arrived safely firstly in Singapore then Frankfurt and finally Cologne. The cold didn't hit me until we were trying to find our accommodation and my gloves were still packed in my suitcase.  Wow.  Knowing it will be cold and actually experiencing it are two totally different things.  We found our hotel which isn't far from the train station (I can hear the rumbling click-clacking as I type this) and five minutes walk from the beautiful Dom cathedral.  We were lucky enough to have one room ready for us at 9.30am and so we dumped our stuff and went exploring.
We hit our first Christmas markets an hour later.  The top shelves and roofs of the market stalls are really pretty - which is mostly all we could see with the crush of people there.  We literally were shuffling an inch forward at a time.  Apparently this is the norm for a weekend (Saturday today) and to expect similar tomorrow.  Needless to say we will be hitting a tour or museum tomorrow and check out the other markets on Monday once everyone goes back to work.
Mostly people were calm moving around which is helpful to us as we haven't had much sleep since Friday morning and hadn't been horizontal in 38 hours.  Though if I had stepped in front of someone and they'd slapped my face I doubt I would have felt it.  In places the crowds thinned and we got a good look at what was for sale. There are some beautiful things to buy (and I would have if I didn't need to carry it across Europe and had more money).  The Godfreys didn't disappoint and hit practically very food stall that wasn't selling cheese or salami.  Boy Kamahl and those kids can eat.  Mum and I limited ourselves to bretzels (giant soft pretzels - which you probably worked out) and some Baileys coated almonds (so good!!).  I won't list all the the food the Godfreys tried - I don't have the space...  There is some interesting German names for things such as the stall called "Shmuck aus Holz" - say that five times fast.
The time seemed to freeze from the cold as well as my butt.  It felt like hours but it was only 12:30pm when we squeezed out of Cologne's main Christmas market. We wandered down to see the Rhein and were suddenly grateful for the crowds we had left behind - they blocked the wind and warmed the air. I caught myself wishing that the temperature it was (probably 5 degrees) had been the "cold enough for snow". Maybe I will have adjusted to the weather by January when it really is cold enough for snow.
By this time we were getting grumpier (kids, not me) and colder (ok mostly me) so we stopped by another market (perhaps just for the Godfreys to buy more food...) and headed back to our hotel.  I was very proud of myself for going outside without a scarf and beanie and with only 1 singlet, 1 jumper and 1 jacket (tough girl!!!) but I was happy to discover I hadn't lost my thighs to frostbite as I'd long since lost feeling in them despite wearing thermals. I probably wouldn't have minded losing a portion of my backside though - I would have been able to indulge in the pistachio nougat that was so tempting.
We rested (I wrote this) before heading back out to eat tea and see the lights.  There was just as many people around so mum and I had a quick tour to admire the gorgeous lights (see photo below if technology is working for me) and back to the hotel to bring the Godfreys more food as they had been sleeping and didn't want to get up.  Mum and I were loving being in Germany but kind of wished it was an acceptable time to go to bed.

Thanks for reading.