One Night In Cologne

I absolutely love Cologne - in fact, I think it might be my favourite city to visit in Germany. It has everything you could want from a weekend away; the romance of the bridge where you can lock your love, a beautiful church that's up there with the best I've ever seen, amazing German food, good bars and nightlife, and a river running through the middle of the city to make it even more picturesque. And then there's the shopping. The first time I went to Cologne, it was for New Years Eve in 2011-12. Some girlfriends had gotten a last minute flight there, because it was the cheapest place to head from London. Having met my now-boyfriend only once, I wrote to him asking if by chance he might be there (he is German, so there was a slight chance). It turned out he and his friends had planned a few days there, which was a really crazy coincidence. But it ended up being the best New Years Eve I ever had, despite the fact that we were all insanely broke and cold, and we spent the night in a club where they only spoke Russian.

So this time around, I wanted to see it all again, just to make sure it really had been that amazing and it wasn't just the romance happening on the side that made me love the city so much. And thankfully, it was still as great as I remembered. Walking out of the station, you are immediately faced with this amazing monstrosity -

this is literally outside the main station

I've seen a lot of churches in Europe, from Sagrada La Familia to Notre Dame and Lake Bled's Church of the Assumption. But this one is equal with the church in Rennes, France (which still had bullet holes in the walls in the shape of bodies from the war) as the most beautiful, interesting and picturesque one I've come across. I'm far from religious (I believe there's as much chance that we came from the Cookie Monster as Jesus's dad) but I still find churches to be a very spiritual and calming place.

The other attraction I love so much about Cologne is the bridge where you can lock your love. This is by no means specifically a German tradition, with bridges across Europe and the world doing the same. But Cologne is absolutely heaving with locks - I read that the railway operator who uses the bridge was threatening to throw them away at one point, but the residents protested and got the move cancelled - and looking at them can keep you amused for hours as you search for your name, look at how long each of these couples have been together and wonder what might have happened to them since.

Some opposing views on love here

Having spent a vast majority of the day looking around, and taking in a spot of shopping, there was only one thing to do - get a schnitzel and a cocktail for lunch by the river.

The Saturday night was our initial reason for coming to Cologne; my German friend from Magdeburg had found out about a paint throwing party and was just as keen as me to go to a nightclub simply for the reason of throwing different coloured paint everywhere. And the night provided exactly that - at 1:40am we were allowed to pick up the bottles of paint we had purchased and proceed to do literally whatever we wanted with them. At one stage, as a girl came up behind us and essentially assaulted our entire faces with blue paint, I wondered if in any other situation this would be acceptable behaviour.

Just before the blue paint assault on our faces took place

It was a great night, made even better by the currywurst van out the front which we took full advantage of when we were ready to go home. I really can't recommend Cologne enough - everything about it is just so relaxing, and lovely, and quintessentially German. Before I left on my train back to Frankfurt the sun came out, and I got one last look at this as I got ready for the trip home...

Meanwhile, the boy spent the weekend in Paris, after getting a free trip from a friend who pulled out. It was an all-inclusive weekend where the bus takes you friday night, you arrive Saturday morning for two days then the bus gets you back to Frankfurt for work on Monday morning. With the hotel, it normally costs €70 in total, and includes a tour. Did I mention that the travel options from Frankfurt make me absolutely love living here!?!?!

Till next time xx