Visiting Köln's Christmas Markets

Last year, Chris and I visited Aachen’s Christmas market and I wrote a bit about it. In the article, I mentioned I was looking forward to similar adventures. Well, it has happened! Last weekend, we went to Köln to visit some of its Christmas markets, and it was amazing!

First, how did we get there? Getting to Köln from Eindhoven is quite simple, even though it requires three trains. We first took a train to Venlo, then a Eurobahn train to Neuss, and finally a REXX train to Köln. It took around 2 hours and a half. Considering the distance, I would expect less trains and slightly faster connection.

It is quite a shame that Eindhoven has no direct connections to Germany, even though the ICE passes through here sometimes. This is something that might be on the cards for the future according to the news I have read, but so far, nothing. I think connecting Eindhoven with somewhere in NRW would be great.

A common topic to last year is, certainly, the food! I had reibekuchen 🥔 again, but also some other interesting things: some sausages in different formats and shapes 🌭, raclette 🧀, and a waffle with cherry 🍒 sauce shaped as the cathedral. I left some pictures below of some of these things, but there were definitely more.

Not only food, but we also had some Glühwein, of course. I have been collecting some mugs from Christmas markets, and Köln was perfect to increase this collection. We went to the Christmas markets at the following locations: Neumarkt, Cathedral, Altstadt, Chocolate Museum, Stadtgarten and Rudolfplatz. It sounds like a lot, but they were quite close by. My favorites were probably the Neumarkt and the Altstadt ones. The one at the park felt cosier though!

We also had time to visit the Chocolate museum, which was quite interesting. They also gave us quite some chocolate during the visit to keep things interesting. It was a great experience and I would definitely recommend going. Not sure which city I will go to next year, maybe Düsseldorf, or Berlin? Happy December! 🎄