Cologne, Germany

Last weekend, I went to Germany for the first time. The German customs officer chuckled when I squealed (just a little one) then bounced up and down (only a little) as he stamped my passport. I explained that it was my first visit to his country and I really love getting new stamps in my passport. This all made him smile. And I was in! Thus began my weekend with nice Germans. Really, pretty much everyone we encountered was very kind and helpful and didn't mind that what little German we knew was incomprehensible to anyone who actually knows German!

Cologne ("Koln" with an umlaut) is a lovely city. It may be the best city in the world because it has a Chocolate Museum. Here I am in front of it, wearing my funky new winter hat bought in June at the Glastonbury festival.



I went on this trip with my friend W. We had a great hotel room with a fantastic view of the huge cathedral.





The hotel had a steam room and sauna. And some nifty shower options in the "Wellness Center". I enjoyed them very much!

We were really there to cruise the Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkts).



The most popular time for people to visit the markets is at night.






The markets are a perfect balance of places to eat a variety of things and drink Gluhwein (with an umlaut "u", it's German mulled wine), the traditional drink of the Christmas markets.

Recipe
(makes 24 glasses)

Ingredients:
2 bottles red wine
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
1 lemon, sliced
20 whole cloves
6 to 8 cinnamon sticks
1 orange, sliced for garnish
Directions:

Mix water, lemon and spices and simmer for an hour. Strain. Heat but do not boil the red wine. Add wine to hot water mixture. Ladle into cups and serve with half a slice of orange.

Our favorite market food was the reibekuchen, potato pancakes. But I managed to find what had to be the best place to get them in all the markets. They were crispy, crunchy fried on the outside, soft on the inside, hot from the cooking oil (not deep fried, shallow) and not greasy at all. You can get them with apple sauce, cranberry sauce (the real stuff, like a real sauce) or malt syrup. The traditional way is with apple sauce, so that's what I had. The first time :)





We also were lucky to have a newly opened Bastian's restaurant/bakery very near our hotel. It's a real bakery. Oh, so yummy things, sweets, breads, rolls! We ate most of our meals there. Here's what our first desserts looked like. They were so huge we both had to take pictures before eating them much to the amusement of the local people sitting all around us. Oh, they taste better than they look!!





So to summarize: Cologne has a big cathedral AND a Chocolate Museum; Germans, even the customs guards, are very nice to strangers; there's yummy food and drink in Christmas markets; the hotel steam room and sauna ROCKED!

That is all.