My Passport’s Travels

Good morning, Cologne!

Mom’s feeling a little better, so after breakfast, we headed out to the Cathedral. We skipped the included tour to be as flexible as we wanted, so we enjoyed a stroll along the Rhein.

Turn left at the train station.

Coming upon the cathedral – it’s as magnificent as I remembered. The twin towers soar.

In front was a full-sized replica of the finial on top of each of the towers. It’s almost 10 meters tall.

Once through security and inside, we started exploring the beautiful cathedral.

Organs and the choir:

This mosaic was on the floor:

It’s hard to see, but she’s vacuuming one of the side alters:

The shrine claiming to contain relics from the Magi is beautiful.

They offer this pilgrim’s prayer in many languages.

The alter to the Virgin Mary (you can see her white lace robe):

The cathedral is equipped with technology hearing aids can access and they marked the pews where it was available.

And of course, they’re having a capital campaign!

After the cathedral, Mom decided to head back to the ship. It’s really cold and that’s aggravating her cough. I continued on through a couple of Christmas markets. I was surprised to see the line at the Louis Vuitton store!

First the Weihnachtsmarkt am Kölner Dom (Christmas Market at the Cologne Cathedral).

I felt snack-y, so I stopped at the Raclette stand. The half-circle of cheese is under a heater, getting all bubbly and melty. He’s scraping the cheese off the other half, which just came out from under the heater.

It was so very Christmas-y!

The outdoor nativity at the cathedral was on the edge of the market and the backside of many of the booths had scenes from the nativy as well.

Just outside of the market was the Heinzelmännchenbrunnen fountain.

Next door is the Adventsdorf am Kölner Dom (Advent Village at the Cologne Cathedral).

Heinzels Wintermärchen (Heinzel’s Winter Fairy Tale) – a gnome-themed market. This was my favorite of all the markets – it dealt mainly in hand-crafted goods.

I snacked on a Speck Knödel (bacon dumpling) while watching the 1902 Ferris Wheel spin.

Time for Bratwurst, enjoyed while listening to Andy Williams singing “Holiday Season”, Nat King Cole singing “I Saw Three Ships” and Frank Sinatra singing “My Way” and watching the ice skaters. Loved the ice Marshall’s outfit!

Part of the rink was blocked off for a game that looks like curling and next to the rink was a carousel – with interesting pricing!

A final snack of Apfelringe (rings of cored apple, battered and deep fried)!

I made my way back to the longboat – purchases in hand (among which were a reindeer and tin trees) and enjoyed some time in the lounge with a cup of coffee. I checked the temperature – it’s actually colder back home than here, right now!

I checked in on Mom again and she made a valiant effort, but just wasn’t up to heading back out. She tucked back up in bed and I went down the street to the Kölner Hafen Weihnachtsmarkt Markt am Schokoladenmuseum (the Cologne Harbor Christmas Market at the Chocolate Museum). This was a smaller market, but it has a Riesenrad (Ferris wheel).

After enjoying another Eierpunsch, I hopped aboard for a spin (actually 3 rotations)! The view was lovely from the top – and the piece of Lindt chocolate they gave with the ticket was yummy!

The view from inside my cabin:

On the way out, I stopped for some Pomme Frites (French fries) with Firecracker sauce. I don’t know what it was, other than it was ketchup based, but the sauce was almost too hot for me!

The Einar! I thought the view inside to the dining room (at water level) and lounge (on the deck above) was interesting).

I made it back just in time for dinner, where I sat with the family of ladies again. I enjoyed the Cologne Cheese Soup (with pretzel bread crumbs), the Lombardy Salad ( mixed greens, pear, Gorgonzola, walnuts and cranberry vinaigrette) and Rum Raisin ice cream! We had a fun conversation, the daughter-in-law from Hawaii gave me some restaurant recommendations and I gave them some tips for their family cruise on the Disney Dream next summer.

They invited me to join them upstairs after dinner for Caroling with the Crew – which was delightful! The entire crew (housekeeping and kitchen included) came in their Santa hats and led us in Jingle Bells, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and Feliz Navidad.

Everyone sang their hearts out (probably encouraged a bit by the included wine with dinner and the mug of Glühwein we were all handed at the beginning of the caroling). I was glad the crew was also invited to enjoy the Glühwein with us. After the three carols, a guest stood up and asked us all to sing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” to the crew as a thank you for taking good care of us. We rounded out the evening with the doo-wop version of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.”

After all the fun, I took a quick moment to head up on the sun deck for some final pictures before heading down to bed.