Christmas Market - Cologne (Köln)

Finally, I will show you the Christmas market in Cologne (Köln in German). The city is about 45 minutes south of Duisburgo by train.

I think the city is the prettiest when you can enjoy these markets. It has 7 distributed in the most central area of the city, where some of the most emblematic buildings and tourist areas are found. I will write them down here:

-The cathedral market.

-The elves market.

-Neumarkt Christmas market.

- Rudolfplatz market.

-The port market.

-The gay Christmas market.

-The garden market.

As soon as you leave the train station, you will see the famous Cologne cathedral and there you will find the first street market. From the viewpoint of the cathedral you can see the stalls filling the whole square:

A few meters from the cathedral, wandering through the streets you will find the Elves Market, or in German “Heimat der Heinzel”. Of course and you wouldn't expect any less from this city, all of the street markets have a great turn out from locals and tourists.

This market is located in the square “Alter Markt”. Through this market you will reach another square called “Heumarkt” which is very close to the river, which in this city is also the Rhine. In turn, this square has a number of stalls, but the most memorable is it's ice skating rink. Without a doubt it is the biggest and prettiest in Germany.

And at night, the lights illuminate it and it makes it seem like a completely different place. The image is taken from a wooden footbridge that crosses the ice rink, and this time with the other area of the square and the cathedral dimly lit in the background.

From here, leave the square and continue along the river bank in the opposite direction to the cathedral and in about 10 minutes you will get to the next market, which is the port market, “Hafen Weihnachtsmarkt”. It is exceptionally large and it is on the promenade and next to the chocolate museum, which is over the metal bridge in the next picture.

This market has a special feature which is that they sell more seafood than in other markets. There is a wide variety of fish to choose from and eat in a sandwich, fried, raw, etc...

To visit the four market stall restaurants, I recommend that you go back along the river until the last bridge “Deutzer Brüke”, and from here, continue perpendicular to the river on the street “Cacilienstraße”. After a few minutes you will reach the market “Neumarkt”, and continuing on the same street for five minutes you will come across the other two markets which are practically right next to each other: the gay market and “RodolfPlatz” market. In order to get into it, go through the gate that we in the following image, “Hahnen Gate”:

The last Christmas market is a little further away from the rest. It is next to the park “Innerer Grüngürtel”, which is were it gets its name, the garden Christmas market.

To finish I would like to show you this last picture:

They are figures carved into tree trunks. Some of them very good that are on the street that joins the squares “Alter Markt” and “Heumarkt”. A lot of them are Christmas scenes and there is even a Nativity scene. And of course they are surrounded by the typical Christmas trees that decorate the city.