We had made a day trip to Köln almost two years ago, but I heard that their Christmas market was the market to go to, and Düsseldorf was an added bonus.
Eric was gone for a few days earlier this week, and even though we Facetimed and texted while he was gone, it felt like we had a lot to catch up on. You can roll your eyes about that if you want to.... but it's true.
First things first, Kaffee!
The weather was typical gloomy Germany weather. It was sort of misting all day, so not an all out rain, but just annoying enough to make you have a bad hair day. And if my hair doesn't look cute then I just don't care to take pictures.
Köln had different markets with different themes, each with their own glühwein cup, I'm actually not sure how many markets exactly, but the one market I have been hearing about over and over was their "angel market," and when we found it I knew that was where I wanted to get my glühwein cup!
This man who carries my purse and buys me alcohol whenever I want it.... is my everything.
We went to the markets looking for a small gift for Eric's step-dad and found the perfect gift! But the nice lady who spoke really good English (wait, "really good English" isn't good English, but you get what I'm saying....) explained that our gift would not be ready for 3 hours, but not to worry because we could just walk around the other markets while we waited.... except that we didn't have 3 hours left to spend in Köln, so we had to pass up what we thought would be the perfect gift for Eric's step-dad and instead just sulked our way around Köln with nothing else to do but drink warm delicious wine.
But we did get to watch a man make a hat, another man carve a lot of really cute things, and a man & woman make all sorts of metal art the old fashioned way using an anvil, so it wasn't like we didn't love our precious few hours in Köln, it's just that now we have no idea what to get Eric's step-dad (pouty-face).
The little girl is blocking the view of the man making a hat.
Next, we headed over to Düsseldorf! For me, Düsseldorf was one of those places that if I had never visited I would have totally been fine with that, but I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to get another glühwein cup! And since Düsseldorf is not far from Köln, it was kind of like.... why not?!
But Düsseldorf got the shaft for pictures.... by the time we got there it was starting to get dark and my hair was an awful mess, I didn't want to take pictures, not I didn't care to take pictures, I plain did not want to take pictures. I don't know what my problem is lately. There are enough for you get the idea, but basically, Düsseldorf is like any other German city- amazing shopping, and a cool skyline, but... that's it.
We didn't find anything that struck our fancy the same way that we had in Köln so we walked around, got a glühwein cup, and found a futbol game in a bar along the water and spent the majority of our time sitting under a heater drinking beer.... it was actually a really great evening!
My in-law's are here, guys! They arrived this afternoon all safe & sound, and we have a packed itinerary for their time here, including more Christmas markets! {Are you surprised by that? Because.... you shouldn't be.} We are also planning on celebrating Christmas like we usually do with them in the States, with gifts and our traditional meal of all sorts of
soups, and then a flight out of country to a place we haven't been before!! Nope, I'm not telling you where yet, you'll have to stay tuned because I'm obnoxious like that and I really want you all to keep reading my blog ;o)
So while my blog may be quiet until the first of the year, I promise we won't be, and I'll come back with lots of pictures!
I totally LOVED the Koln Christmas market although it was so busy when we went a couple of years ago. I really liked Koln overall - the cathedral was so pretty, as was the river at night time. It was all snowy and icy when I was there. Enjoy your Chrisfmas cup collecting.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you too!
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