Hello and welcome, (or should that be WELKOMMEN?), to Paul and Sue's 2007 Cologne German Christmas Market Adventure. On Dec 22nd 2007 we flew out from Heathrow - not exactly on time:

We were fogbound and stuck at the airport for a slight delay - in a huge queue that looked as though it was stretching to Germany itself. The difference in the weather looked like this, (with Heathrow on the left)...

Anyway, once we were there, we were whisked around to the lovely Hotel Flandrische where we have stayed before. After a quick wash and scub up, we walked around the block to out first Cologne Christmas Market at Rudolfplatz:

Rudolfplatz Christmas Market is at the foot the old castle walls as you can see. All the Cologne Christmas markets were very BIG on food and wine. One of the specialities is "gluwein" - as seen being drunk here by a willing volunteer:

Virtually all the Christmas Markets across Cologne consisted of a sequence of timber huts which were decorated in various ways:

The picture above shows some of the cute decorative models, (sometimes animated), that the Christmas huts were decorated with.
So, after a walk around the Rudolfplatz Christmas Market, we headed off in the direction of Cologne Cathedral - known as the DOM...

And just in case you missed the first part of the video there, it started at the original Eau De Cologne store:

And after arriving at the DOM, we then took a trip through the DOM Christmas Market...

Again, the same traditional wooden hut could be seen all over the DOM Cologne Christmas Market stalls...

Not forgetting, of course, that this particular German Christmas market was being done in the shadow of the HUGE cathedral in Cologne....

And as the night time drew in, and visibilty got lower and lower, I had just enough time for one last video before our first day exploring Cologne's Christmas markets had ended...

To catch up on the rest of Paul and Sue's 2007 Cologne German Christmas Market Adventure, please click here.

And if you want to say a few words about the journey so far please leave a comment by clicking here: |

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