Cologne; Monday, 18 December, 2006

After landing in Dusseldorf and getting the train down to Cologne, I checked into the hotel and then went into town for a wander.

At this time of year the whole of Cologne is covered in Christmas decorations and every few yards there appears to be another Christmas market. After spending quite some time wandering through the market stalls around the Cathedral, I took advantage of having an all zone ticket and got the tram out to Bonn to have a look at their Christmas markets.

After a couple of hours in Bonn I caught the tram back to Cologne and popped by the hotel to pick up some new batteries for the camera before heading back out to the Neumarkt, the largest of the Christmas Markets.

I spent quite a long time wandering through the Neumarkt, before catching the tram along one wore stop to the Heumarkt where there is another market, this one with more emphasis on the hot wine!

From the Heumarkt I wandered down to the Rhine and followed it along to the railway bridge walking past the Fishmarkt, At the Cathedral I climbed up from the river to bridge level, and then walked across the river next to the railway line and back to the hotel.