Cologne (Yes AGAIN) with MUM

After months of planning Mum finally arrived in London on the 7th December and made her way 

from Heathrow to Ashtead, where I picked her up and gave her some dinner. After dinner mum, J, R (J’s new carer) and I all packed into the car to drive to our accommodation for the night. Thanks to J for ‘driving’ us  We were meant to be staying at the Gatwick Whitehouse Hotel, but they ended up transferring us to a place called the Lawn. It wasn’t too bad, and would be the last private room/bathroom we would have for a while! The next morning we had an early transfer to the airport, ready for an 8am flight to 

Cologne (for the 3rd time since August! Although to be fair the second time was only a transfer at the airport )

Sorry this is skew-whiff, I 'straightened'
it, and then cropped, but the crop didn't
straightened it like I was hoping, and
I was too lazy to try something else :P

After arriving in Cologne mum and I went to the chocolate museum and climbed all those stairs to the top of the cathedral. We also went for a bit of a walk along the Rhein. That night we met up with Kati and Patrick, who took as to their favourite Christmas Market. I got mum to try Gluhwein, which was just as good as I remembered from the last time I was in Cologne at Christmas time (Xmas ‘03 – EIGHT years ago!!) My main aim

in visiting Cologne (other then to visit Kati with mum) was to get another ‘Kolner Dom Weinachtsmarkt’ Mug. I had one from 2003, and wanted a new one!

   

Intricate mosaics

De ja vu?? (sorry it's sideways)

I need to get down there! (where my mug is!!)

Some sort of... nativity?!?.. scene in the cathedral

On the 9th Dec we decided to catch the train out to Bonn, which is about 30mins away…

well it would have been, if we could get the train straight there. There were a problem with the line, so we could only go half way, and then had to catch a bus. So, of course it took longer then it should have, but it wasn’t too bad. In Bonn mum found a cream cheese filled brezel (German for pretzel) – it was sooo tasty!! We went to Beethovenhaus, the house where Beethoven was born, and explored/tried some more food at some more Christmas Markets (I do love the Xmas markets ). In fact most of our cologne trip, no our whole holiday, was a food tour! 

Outside Beethovenhaus

Dampfnudel - yum!!

That night we met up with Andrea and Rolf (friends of Kati), and one of their friend’s, who

took us to another Xmas Market. Here we tried just about every German food imaginable, courtesy of Andrea and Rolf (thank you very much! ), including eierpunsch. It was kind of like drinking hot, thin, alcoholic custard, very nice. Even mum liked it and she hadn’t even been keen to try it, because she doesn’t like eggnog (one of the reasons I get annoyed when ppl won’t try food, because they ‘think’ they won’t like it – how do you know if you won’t even try it!) Needless to say we were VERY full after that.

Gingerbread - mmm

I was trying to get a pic of the moon... damn
trees were in the way, but this looks kinda
cool too... right?!

At about 9.45 I still hadn’t gotten my Cologne Cathedral mug, and the markets close at 10pm! So we rushed back to the cathedral and were looking for a place that was still open/selling mugs. I had to get it tonight as it was our last night in Cologne and we had an early flight back to London the next morning, so there would be no time to get one in the morning. Rolf thought we wanted some more alcohol and was looking for that, so in the meantime mum and I went off and simply bought an empty mug (you pay 5 euros total and then get 2.50 back when you return the mug, or can keep it). So, while it was last minute, I finally got my 2011 xmas mug As it was one of the few things on my ‘to do’ list before I came over here I was happy! (The other being Egypt, and that was my first holiday)

Please note, I didn’t take this pic. I got it off the internet…