On a last minute whim, the Hunk and I decided to go on a road trip to Germany. Our destination? Cologne, or Koln. A 3 hour drive from Amsterdam, we decided this was the perfect destination for a short trip to discover a place nestled along the Rhine River and to eat some German food! So, what’s there to do in Cologne?
1. Check out Cologne Views from atop the Triangle
The Triangle, a tall building with viewing deck, is on the East side of the Rhine River and should not be missed when visiting Koln! At 3 Euro per ticket to the top, it’s one of the cheapest viewing decks I’ve ever been to! Viewing the city from atop the Triangle was the first thing we did and it gave us a good perspective of the city!
2. Check out the epic Kolner Dom
The Kolner Dom is hard to miss! The Cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Germany and is the jewel of the city! Standing over 150 metres tall, with twin spires, the church actually has the largest facade in the world and attracts over 20,000 tourists each and every day!
The Cathedral also gets lit up at night which, lets face it – took my breath away. It is just so huge and so intricate and so impressive – with the lights it is purely stunning.
The jewel inside of the Cathedral is the Shrine of the Three Kings, which is said to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men! Not sure why their remains would be in Germany, but still, the Shrine is gold and gorgeous and cannot be missed!
I really enjoyed the beautiful stained glass windows. I’m a big fan of checking these out when visiting churches on my travels, and these are some of the most stunning and brightly coloured I’ve ever seen!
Important: It costs just 3 Euros to visit – what a bargain!
3. Walk the Love Lock Bridge
The Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne is COVERED in padlocks! This is much larger than the bridge in Paris ever was, and it is completely covered from one side to the other, with no room for any more locks! People have gotten quite creative with their padlock placements, hooking them onto other beams out of arms reach or making padlock on padlock on padlock strings to get the job done!
Lover come here to prove their love for eachother, locking their love together, and then throwing the key into the Rhine River below. Quite romantic if you ask me!
It is also the best place to get your ‘Cologne’ photograph from! Here’s mine!
4. Walk around the cobbled streets of the Old Town
Cologne’s Old Town is very pretty! The cobblestones are everywhere, not one road is of updated bitumen. There are many narrow alleyways leading inbetween the broad pedestrian zone along the Rhine to the Markt squares, lined with traditional architecture.
There are many pubs and bars in Cologne, lining these quaint streets. In fact, over 70 pubs and they say ‘countless bars!’ So the great thing is you can always find a nice spot to relax with the local beer of choice ‘Kolsch’ and people watch while in Cologne!
5. Have a Kolsch by the Colourful Houses
Kolsch is the local beer of Cologne/Koln, and if you are in Cologne, why drink anything else?!!
After walking around in your tourist shoes, it is so nice to take a break in a setting like the colourful houses along the Rhine for an ice cold Kolsch! And if you are lucky like us, you’ll get a free Hari Krishna performance.
6. Eat food glorious food
I don’t know about you, but I like food! And when in Germany, I am only eating typical German cuisine. For dinner, we chose to eat at Gilden Im Zims, a great Brauhaus with plenty of tables outside and numerous underground levels inside.
I highly recommend the Pork Knuckle – it was outta this world good!
When in Germany, you can’t go past eating some Currywurst either! Currywurst is a regular bratwurst with a curry sauce on top, within a bread roll…YUMMMM
7. Take a boat cruise along the Rhine River
The Rhine River is one of the most well-known rivers in the world and I have always wanted to take a boat trip along the Rhine. This can now be checked off of the bucketlist as I accomplished this in Koln!
There are a few boat operators along the water front, so we just walked along and found an operator that was leaving in an hour, booked tickets (10 Euros per person) and came back for our journey after some breakfast nearby!
What I found odd was you get placed at restaurant style tables, not just on seats inside or out, to enjoy the view. We ordered coffees for our journey and enjoyed the view from inside by the window. After roughly an hour, the ride was done and we had seen a lot of sights from the water that were slightly too far on foot!
8. Eat Chocolate at the Chocolate Museum
For us, the Chocolate Museum had a 1 hour line to get in, so – we didn’t go inside the museum! And I figured I already know a lot about chocolate, like for instance, how tasty it is. 🙂 Perhaps if this is something you are keen to do get there early because you cannot book tickets in advance online!
Meanwhile, at the Chocolate Museum there is a large chocolate cafe with a chocolate fountain and views along the Rhine. They sell many cakes made from Lindt chocolate, my favourite – so I was really pleased to be surrounded by the stuff! I was gagging to eat and drink everything chocolate, but the hunk explained that we had just eaten and perhaps didn’t need the extra calories.. Complete rookie mistake to have eaten before visiting! So, I gave in and settled for chocolate purchases to be eaten at a later time!
In the chocolate shop you can score free chocolate tastings so don’t miss a few walks around the store for maximum free chocolate consumption!
9. Watch the historic Glockenspiel
So, I had read about this Glockenspiel earlier in the trip and decided we HAD to see it in action! I mean, who doesn’t love a clock and a show at the same time?! Our only opportunity was at 2pm, as the rest of the day was taken up with other activities, like the boat trip on the Rhine!
At 1:48pm we realised it was almost 2pm and I got stressed, because we were over a 12 minute walk away from the clock! So, at a jogging pace, we made our way from the waterside through town towards the 4711 store (Flagship store for the famous eau de cologne).
When we finally arrived, we checked the time and it was exactly 2pm – we made it! But, the Hunk realised the Glockenspiel showed that it was 2:02pm… oh no – we had missed our chance!
However, right as we were down in the dumps and still puffing from jogging through town, the Glockenspiel began chiming! The Glockenspiel plays for about 5 minutes and as expected, was about as exciting as seeing Copenhagen’s ‘Little Mermaid’. It had to be done, but gee it was underwhelming…. We still loved it though!
10. Sniff some Eau de Cologne in Cologne
The ONE THING you must do in Cologne – check out their most famous product – COLOGNE! Yes, the first ever cologne was made by an Italian whilst in Cologne, and so he named it after the city, and the rest is history!
TIP: We saw the Flagship store, 4711, but you can also buy Cologne all over the city. We chose to buy super small bottles from the tourist office, as they were actually the cheapest there than anywhere else we saw.
You can also go to the Cologne Museum – Farina House. It is a great place to learn more about cologne and Mr Farina – the inventor! Other points of interest – the creepy statue as you walk in; sniffing your cologne scent based on your horoscope; and checking out your own birds-eye-view!
Full of cultural activities and known for its museums, Cologne was a hive of activity on the weekend we visited! Not only was it Gamer-Con, but the Philharmonic were performing a big concert, there was a light festival and a Hari Krishna festival too! I guess as one of the cultural hubs of Germany, you can guarantee a great weekend/day trip in this city with deep history!
After a great couple of days in Cologne, we drove back to Amsterdam with full bellies and fond memories of a small city with personality and a lot to do!
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0 thoughts on “10 Things to do in Cologne, Germany”
so good marvs. dying of jealousy of that delicious german food – i need in my life right now xx
It was glorious Sammy & Tim!
I love the smell of Keulen in the morning