Travel Log: Low Countries - Part 4: Köln / Cologne
In which we quickly dip into Germany because, well, it was right there...
When Matt was planning this trip, he saw that Germany was very close to the other places he’d already planned for us to stop. And Lizzy has been asking to have pretzels in the land that created them, so Köln/Cologne was added. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of the city though it did give us a chance to have some German foo and see the very famous cathedral.
Sunday, 3 August - En Route to Köln via Brussels
We grabbed an Uber before 9 to take us to the train station. After a quick stop to pick up breakfast and drinks, we boarded a train to Brussels Centrum. We accidentally took spots in the quiet car which most of us were fine with, though it wasn’t on purpose.
Of zero surprise to anyone, we went on the walking tour of town after depositing our bags into lockers in the train station. Our wandering took us to a really neat looking shopping mall that reminded me of the shopping arcades in Paris. Lunch was at our first food fall / food court of the trip where we all got to chose what we wanted to eat - garlic shrimp and sangria for my mom, pizza and AMAZING samosas for me, pastrami (yes, really) sandwich for Matt, and carbonara for Lizzy.
Our tour ended with going through the Old Masters galleries. My mom, Lizzy, and I walked through it quickly then sat and relaxed in the “forum” part of the museum.
After killing some time in the train station, it was time to take our longer train (about 2 hours) to Köln. No quiet car this time. I enjoyed the time to do some journaling and relaxed. Upon arrival Köln, we walked to our hotel to drop things off and eventually went out to a beer hall. Turns out, Kolsch beer is from Köln and they serve it in small, 0.2 L (about 7 oz) portions so you beer is always ice cold. (They have an N/A version in 0.33 L bottles.)
Monday, 4 August - Around Köln
We did our usual slow start before heading out on the walking tour. After stopping at two different bakeries in search of a pretzel for Lizzy, we had our baked good as we walked around. Well, more like followed Matt as he walked around. Of course, our very first stop was at the cathedral. Lunch was at a restaurant associated with a Munich brewery we loved.
At some point, Matt and Lizzy went off to go the Museum of Roman-German History, currently under construction though some of the artifacts were on display in another space. My mom and I wandered around the very busy shopping district. As like much of Europe, Köln doesn’t have very many public restrooms though we realized, after I’d already paid 6 Euros for a soda, that the Five Guys had free restrooms so they were located up a ton of stairs (which, also realized too late, you could get to via a lift).
Tuesday, 5 August - Brühl
Matt spent the day exploring over in Achen while the girls went to the small town of Brühl. While being a small town, it’s host to two very fancy houses owned by the same family. We chose to tour the main house and not the “hunting cabin” which required a tour. After the tour, we walked around town and had lunch at an Italian restaurant I found online.
Once we got back to Köln, we went on a panoramic boat tour town the Reine which was rather lovely. It had the usual corny narration to point out landmarks though it was given live by a very enthusiastic guide. We got some drinks and light snacks on board.
Dinner was at the oldest beerhall in town.
Where We Stayed
Classik Hotel Antonius - we rented two one-bedroom appointments which had a barely-there kitchen but a nice sized living room in addition to the actual bedroom
Where We Went
Brussels - Old Masters Museum
Brussels - neat shopping mall (Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert)
Brussels food hall - Wolf Food Sharing Market
Beer hall - Früh
Museum of Roman-German History
Augustiner am Heumarkt
Köln Cathedral
Brühl - Schlösser Brühl