Thursday December 12th, 2024
We did not dock until 2pm so we slept in and then went to the port briefing on Friday’s ports. We did run into 2 gentleman, Bruce and Jeff, who were on the world cruise with us. The embarrassing thing is we did not really remember them and they did not really remember us. 4.5 months together and a limited population. We had lunch with them on board and talked about people from the cruise that we knew so we were obviously on the same cruise but paths never crossed.
Lunch with Jeff & Bruce from Cleveland, Ohio.
Cologne is very popular with river ships and I counted at least 14 of them docked when we arrived. Unlike ocean ships, river ships take about 5 minutes to dock and very easy to get off. We had the included walking tour where we ended up at the famous Cologne cathedral which is also where one of the largest Christmas markets is located. We had another excellent guide and he took us through a couple of Brauhaus (beer) houses and talked a lot about pre & post WWII. Most of Cologne was destroyed from Allied bombing but the Cathedral was untouched. When you look at town photos everything is rubble except the Cathedral. There are many theories on why untouched but the most popular is that it was a great landmark for the bombers.
The Cathedral is made of sandstone which is now permanently stained with coal dust from the burning of the coal. Because of the sandstone it cannot be cleaned because the sandstone will erode. My desire to pressure wash it would probably destroy it.
Entrance to one of the Christmas markets.
After the tour we ventured into the first Christmas market. I am not sure what I was expecting and it was definitely crowded but a lot of the stalls were food or drink stalls. There were several stalls with ornaments and some nut crackers and wooden toys.. Lots of ceramic multi colored houses. Also warm socks, scarfs, gloves and hats were quite popular.
Some examples of the items for sale.
We did manage to find a couple of things. We went to 3 of the markets just to enjoy the atmosphere.
Life size carvings. These were not for sale just part of the ambiance.
A great carving in one of the trees bordering the market.
One of the markets had an ice skating rink in it and some had merry go rounds. All had stages for entertainers.What we did notice was that things were duplicated from market to market. We found some different things but it was quite common for merchants to have the same stalls in each market and depending on the size of the market they may have had the same stalls on each side of the market.
You can see that a few people were out and about. Around 6:30 we headed back to the ship to use the restroom and drop off the couple of purchases we had made and then headed back out.
There was a Christmas market in front of the ship and it had a ferris wheel. I thought there might be good views from the top so we bought a ticket and went for a ride.
Our ship is the one of the right in the back since we were docked next to another Viking boat. In the background on the right hand side you can just see the spires from the Cathedral.
Selfie from the ferris wheel.
We made it to 4 of the 7 Christmas markets and again after the first 2 everything was the same. The crowds definitely increased as it got later.
Night time views of the markets.
We headed back toward the ship and found a Brauhaus for dinner and some beer. Kathy had potato soup and I had pork schnitzel with hunter sauce (mushroom gravy). They serve kolsch beer which is comparable to Bud light. They serve it in 7oz glasses on coasters and when it is empty they come by and automatically bring you a new one and take the empty. The wait staff walks around with trays of beers. When they give you a new one they put a tick mark on your coaster to keep track. If you don’t want your beer refilled you put your coaster on top of the glass. After 4 beers each we had enough.
We took a last spin around the markets and then headed back to the ship since all on board was at 10:30. We made it back with 45 minutes to spare.
The above is not a great picture but what you are looking at is hundreds of green parakeets in the trees that line the waterfront. Our guide said that they are not native to the area and either pets that got loose or escaped from a zoo and now there are thousands. They do not seem to mind the cold and they crap all over everything. While I was looking up trying to get a picture I became a great target and got a sample right in the eye. Thank goodness for my glasses.
We dock early on Friday morning in Koblenz and the first walking tour leaves before the sun comes up which is not until 8:30.