Dec 10, 2024 4 min read

Day 3 - Köln and the first Christmas Markets

Today was WILD (lol not really). We awoke as we sailed through Dusseldorf. Did you know Sergeant Schultz is from Dusseldorf? I know nothing. Overnight we sailed through basically the entire Market Garden campaign area. Nick woke up at 4 and could not fall back asleep. Perhaps we were passing through Arnhem and it was a bridge too far.

After lunch, we landed in Cologne, or Köln, which basically means "colony." We then went on a kinda lame but also kinda informative walking tour that walked us through all of 4 blocks. Its funny because we specifically took the tour that was not for those with limited mobility, and yet people were complaining our tour guide walked too fast.

We went to the cathedral which is massive but rather sparse inside.

THEN then fun began- market time. Köln has 5-7 Christmas Markets. Amsterdam had zero (something about Spain and protestants and Rembrandt). After a very secular Amsterdam, we are pleased to announce we are now 100% in the Christmas mood.

Here's some photos, followed by FAQ:

How many Christmas markets did you go to?

Like 5? It wasn't clear how they were divided. I think one we went to was actually 3.

Did you get the mulled wine?

Yes we have 10 glühwein mugs now. Recall this is our first day. I suspect we'll have like 20 mugs at the end. Also this is how I devised we went to 5 markets. There are other fun drinks too, like white wine or hot chocolate, but most of these contain some sort of almond extract. German Christmas is like 70% nuts and nut products.

How was your German?

Meh. If you ask something in german they respond in german so that kinda sucked because I would immediately lose wtf we were talking about so I had to sheepishly ask to switch to english. I ordered glühwein at the last market in german 100% and nobody suspected a thing, so that was fun!!!

Are the markets different from each other?

This is actually kinda funny because our cruise population (upon eavesdropping in the lounge) thought they were all similar. But in our opinion, the third one we went to was the best. Most of the markets were food or drink focused (one was basically a giant beer/wine fest with no other food or gift booths, but it had a mega 2 story booth you could drink on). The third one had all arts and crafts and fun gifts. It even had an organ grinder! A couple had ferris wheels, ice skating, and german curling (eisstockschießen). We were a little worried initially about the markets all being goods-less, but we are now hopeful we will find niche crafts and things to bring back home in the coming days!

Did you miss anything?

Yeah, we didn't really explore outside of the markets. There were some museums and we didn't get to drink any Kolsch (there is a very specific way to drink it here involving two coasters and tiny glasses). But thats what river cruising is for- finding out new things for next time (for us at least. We learned some people on this cruise are like 12-time river cruisers).

Here are some more photos. We tried to make an album to share but the internet is too spotty to make it work well.