Cologne, Germany December 30, 2025 - January 2, 2026
Tuesday, December 29, 2025
If half the fun is “getting there,” we’re bound to have a barrel of fun in Cologne.
It all started when we (mostly I) decided to call for a 7-passenger Uber rather than take the bus that stops directly in front of our apartment. It’s only a bit more than a mile to the railway station but with our mountain of baggage I figured Uber would be better. But, it took almost 20 minutes for them to find such a vehicle and get it to us. Then, the driver didn’t take us to the station but somewhere downtown. I had to give the driver my iPhone so he could get us there. We arrived with exactly two minutes to spare.
But wait, there’s more. We had a 10-minute connection from the regional train to the inter-city train in Frankfort - only a few tracks away, very doable even for us antiquinarians. Our train, however, was delayed and we got to our train to Cologne just as it pulled out. The nice folks at Duetsche Bahn recognized the fault was theirs and booked us on a train 45 minutes later.
The trains in Germany live up to their billing - clean, quite, smooth and fast, even if not exactly on time every time. It ain’t the MBTA and Amtrack, that’s for sure.
Coming into Kôln (German for Cologne), the trains crosses the Rhine River and stops practically at the front door of the Cologne Cathedral. A 10-minutes later walk around the Cathedral brought us to our hotel. We checked our bags and headed out to lunch at a near-by noodle shop and then on to the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (the RJM).It’s a museum that shares a building with the Schnütgen. The RJM had a special exhibit of black-and-white photographs of the Amazon regions populated by indigineous peoples, many of whom have limited or no contact with outsiders. The pictures of the forests, mountains and winding rivers were stunning. Even better were the portraits of indigineous peoples.
One factoid I found interesting: the Amazon dumps something like 18 billion liters of fresh water into the Atlantic every day (or is it every hour? I forget.}. The trees in the Amazon basin such up moisture from the ground, convert it to water vapor and release 20 billion liters of water into the air in the same time interval. Of course, much of the tree water returns to earth via violent storms.
The other RJM exhibits take on the premise that indigenous cultures, i.e., non-Western cultures, produced art equal to that of the “civilized” imperialist invaders - missionaries and those who came to exploit the regions’ natural resources. Much of the material on display came from missionaries who came to convert indigenous people to civilized ways.
Back to the hotel (our room has a nice view of the Cathedral) to check in, an hour’s nap and out we went to find a restaurant for dinner. We ended up at a Argentinian steak house on the banks of the Rhine (go figure). Good schnitzel and steaks. Then back to the hotel with wights of the Cathedral lighting the way.
By the way,, traveling with Alex, Kat and Hope is a real joy. They’re so good to put up with us old timers the way they do. Doug and Judy’ aren’t hard to take either!
Tomorrow, most museums are closed for New Years but not the Chocolate Museum!
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Breakfast at a bakery, as has become our custom, and then off down the river (south) to the Chocolate Museum. The museum is located on an island just a few meters off the main river bank, connected by a bridge said to be the oldest in Cologne. There are other attractions on the island, including a large Ferris wheel, but we didn’t go beyond the museum because it was spitting rain, which made the 35 degree air feel even colder.
The museum covers chocolate from nuts to finished product. Much of the world’s chocolate bean production comes from Western Africa and to a smaller extent from South America. The museum makes a point of the poverty and injustice that chocolate growers and harvesters suffer under. They describe and demonstrate the machinery used to convert chocolate fruit into seeds and then into a powdered or liquified form suitable for candy bars. And yes, most chocolate candy is 50% sugar.
The four oldsters had sandwiches and drinks in the museum cafe. The young folk went to a Hope-friendly pasta-and-pizza place for their lunch.
Judy and I decided to make a quick pass through the Cathedral before heading back to the hotel for siesta time. The Cologne Cathedral, the third largest in the world, is truly magnificent, especially its stained glass. Its big claim to fame is possession of the bones of the three magi who brought the gold, francencense and myhr to Jesus. It was taken as spoils of war from Milan back in the 12th century.
We all left for dinner at 5 PM and went to one of the few Christmas markets still in operation. It was festive, full of interesting products and food and full of vendors dressed in interesting costumes. Unfortunately, no food matched Hope’s pallet. So we walked on and eventually found a great place near the river that specialized in Italian and German food. I shared a margarita pizza with Hope. She finished off our chocolate ice cream before I could get my spoon in edgewise.
We’re back in our hotel room, waiting for the magic hour when, we hope, fireworks will erupt over the cathedral in front of us. If not, too bad. We’re not heading out on this damp and windy knew Years’s evening.
And yes, there are fireworks up and down the Rhine, and it’s only 10 PM. Bursting over the blue arcs that delimit the roof of the near-by railroad station. Even more at midnight - the biggest fireworks display we’ve ever seen.
Thursday, January 1, 2026
Another visit to the Cathedral on a cold and rainy day. This time with the whole family and a trip down to the vault under the sanctuary. How did they ever build such a large and complex building in the first place?
Friday, January 2, 2026
Farewell to Alex and Hope who will stay for another day and then return to Dereieich to see the new kitchen, the installation of which Kat has been supervising. The four of us are off to Amsterdam by train. A skiff of snow on the ground as we pass through Düsseldorf and a half-dozen other towns on the way. Our VRBO is on a canal just a few doors away from the Ann Frank house. Unfortunately, the House is booked into the middle of next week. We did go to the Tulip Museum just up the street. And best of all, there’s a pancake house just beyond Ann Frank’s for lunch. Dinner was crackers and cheese brought back by Doug and Judy.
Saturday, January 3, 2026
I’m sick, having contracted Doug’s cold (he’s recovered now). His was in his head, mine in my lungs. Judy and I found the Amsterdam Tourist Clinic a 20 minute Uber ride away. The doc said I’m running a fever and had something bad sounding in my right lung. Prescribe an antibiotic and I picked up a cough syrup. The whole adventure took a little over and hour, $150 for the doctor visit, $50 for the meds and $40 for the Uber rides. Uber insisted in picking us in Amsterdam’s famous Red Light District. Eyes forward!
The cough medicine seems to have quieted the cough a bit. We’ll see how the antibiotic does in a couple of days.
No pictures today unless Judy or Doug has some to share.