Cologne Christmas Market

With the last full weekend before Christmas at our disposal, the Budman and I decided to make one final foray into the Christmas market scene. Thus, on Sunday, we bundled up in coats, hats, scarves, and gloves, and took the train to Cologne to check out that city’s market goings-on. Wow, that winter wind blowing off the Rhein was something else!

Cologne has six Christmas markets, one of which is situated next to the city's gothic cathedral, the Cologne Dom. The cathedral's towers, reaching some 150 meters (490-feet) into the winter sky, made the very large Christmas tree in the middle of the setting appear quite small.











Supposedly, in the four weeks of December during which the markets are open, around 2 million people come to Cologne to enjoy the markets. I’d believe it as the cold weather and weekend snow did not keep the crowds at home yesterday.

In addition to the other four markets located at the Cologne Dom, the Rathaus, Altstadt, and Neumarkt, there was also a floating Christmas market,



and a medieval Christmas market. Being from the Hachie, and experiencing all things related to “Scarbourough Fair”, we’d felt like we “see that and done that before”. You probably get the jest: salespeople wear wool clothes and wooden shoes and pursue medieval chores like blacksmithing. The smell of burning wood wafts through the air, and candles illuminate the setting. It was one of the more happening areas yesterday, but by the time we found it, and hassled with the crowds, we were ready to call it a day.

We perused the city for about 6 hours, ate and drank our usual Christmas market food and beverage items, and as usual, contributed a little to the local economy. The only down side to Cologne’s Christmas markets is that everywhere you turned, there was street work, building renovation, and city infrastructure projects going on. Sorta took away from the festive Christmas market atmosphere, but what is a city gonna do? Maybe this time next year, that will all be completed.