Exploring Cologne, Germany in Winter

Cologne is the largest state in the largest city in the North Rhine Westphalia and the fourth most populated city in Germany. It's a really pretty and peaceful city where you can travel at your own pace. My recommendation is that you can actually spend a day in the Cologne and here are the places that I've been to. I did not spend anything on the entrance fee so it was quite nice to go around the tourist spot as most of it were free. If you are planning to travel around Germany, here's a link where you can find the Best Places to Visit in Germany.

18th - 20th December 2016
The journey continue from Luxembourg to Cologne in Germany. We took a train there. We left to the train station in the morning on the 19th December. We didn't read German so we didn't know the timetable for that day was different. We waited for awhile but the train didn't come and there was only 40 minutes left before our train depart. Somehow, phone calls didn't works so we went to the Grocery store nearby to make a phone call to book a taxi. The people there were so nice and try to help us out with it.

We made it! To the train station but that was just the beginning of everything. So, we got on the train and arrive at Cologne. The moment we step out of the train station, Wu Ping realise that his DSLR camera wasn't with him. Man.. boy did we all panic because it cost him a few thousand ringgit for that. We head back to the train station and reported lost and found. Called all the way to Luxembourg station as the train was heading back there. For some reason, we manage to get hold of them and lucky for us, they found the camera. The only catch was that the collection point is where we had to travel all the way back to Luxembourg to collect it. Well, Wu Ping bought a ticket to go back the next day.

Cologne Train Station

We felt so much better and hence, continue on to explore the city. We did the Mandatory Christmas Market duty. Christmas Market actually originated from Germany but now its just everywhere. And thats why we pick Germany as one of our stops just to visit the Christmas Market. Apparently Cologne was one of the top 3 that was in the list. Boy.. it was pretty.

Group Photo featuring Stranger 

So where else did I visited in Cologne? Here are the few places that I've visited there!

Cologne Cathedral

It's a Catholic Cathedral and it's beautiful. Even the external architecture is amazing. Its beautiful at night. Unfortunately they had a bit refurbishing hence, the pictures...

Great St Martin Church

The church is a Romanesque Catholic church in Cologne. Its foundation rest on the remnants of a Roman Chapel, build on what was then an island in the Rhine which was later transformed into a Benedictine Monastery. It's located within the city and would definitely come across it while you are exploring the city.

Rhine Garden

This was a park along the Rhine River and it's actually really nice especially with a good weather to chill along the river. The whole area is quite instaworthy. You get the view of the famous Hohenzollern Bridge as your background.

Hohenzollern Bridge

This is a bridge crossing the Rhine river in Cologne. I always have a thing for bridges so wherever I go, if there is bridges I'll definitely be there. And one thing about bridges in Europe, they always have the "lock bridge".

The view you will get crossing the bridge, This was taken at about noon-ish. 

These were the four main places we actually went around exploring during our time there which can be done in a day.

What happened during the trip?
So.. after our dinner on the first day, Wu Ping mention that he wasn't feeling very well. Google for all his symptoms and realise he had the "Traveller's Disease" which is a stomach infection. We were suppose to head to Copenhagen the next day at night. So, Kah Yee decided that she would go in his place to collect his camera. I volunteered but clearly voted out due to my limping leg. Things sure didn't go well during our visit here this time.

We were suppose to take flight but did not make it. I stayed back to look after Wu Ping. Somehow, things didn't go well for us because Jie Yvin missed her flight to Copenhagen that night as well. Man.. we were so sad and down because nothing was going right. She rebooked her flight for the next day while I was still waiting for Wu Ping to recover to see if we could continue our Europe Tour or head back to London. He felt so much better the next day so we bought our flight ticket and head over to Copenhagen. Well, it was such a pretty city at night. Since we were suppose to take our flight to Prague on the 21st December (next morning on the night we arrive at Denmark), I had only that night to explore the city.

Well of course I had to visit the famous tourist place Nyhavn, the colourful house at the waterfront and canal. They still look pretty at night and this was the only place I manage to go. Well, this gives me a reason to come back here again for a longer tour.

Although it was very unfortunate that we did not manage to see more of Copenhagen and our 1.5 days in Germany became 3 full days, we manage to explore Cologne more. It's such a peaceful city even with tourist. It's not crowded and nice to visit. We had a good weather of the third day so we really enjoyed and Wu Ping recovered too so that was amazing. We kept praying for things to get better where we don't miss anymore flights or anymore bad event happening. And things after that was just perfect. We enjoyed Prague and Budapest so much. Everything was great after that. Oh! We even got the camera back thanks to Kah Yee. She left that day to London as she has stuff on while we continue our trip.

Sometimes, its things like this that you experience allows you to tell a story. It might not be great but we manage to still finish what was planned! :) I am not going to deny that it hurt so much on my wallet due to the last minute tickets and unplanned stay!

If you are following this trip, be sure to check out my visit at Luxembourg and the trips after to Prague and Budapest
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