Cologne Extreme Day Trip

If you want to get the cheapest deals for EDT, often it means travelling midweek, which for me means taking time off work, so where I can, I prefer weekend trips.

However, for Cologne, I made an exception as it was a trip that was already organised by the lovely Tina White, so I decided to join her, Paul, Linda and her son Matthew for a trip to Germany.

I had been to Germany before, once on a driving trip starting and ending in Berlin without actually spending any time in the country itself, and once an overnight stay in Frankfurt on a trip of a lifetime travelling from Manchester to New York via Frankfurt on a Singapore Airline A380 in business class. Sadly, the Cologne flight wasn’t going to be a luxurious affair, no disrespect to Ryanair.

Again, we met up in the Sporting Chance bar in Terminal 3, our flight out being 07:45. It was really nice to meet more fellow travel enthusiasts. Boarding the flight went smoothly but despite boarding on time, our departure slot was delayed by 20 minutes.

This is a common occurrence in the summer season unfortunately. My understanding was that delays caused by strikes in France by Air Traffic control were having a knock on effect, meaning flights not landing on time. To be honest, 20 minutes is not really a big issue, but when you’re on an Extreme Day Trip, delays to the outbound flight are a big worry. If you’re on an early flight, it’s less likely. Delays in the system compound over the course of the day but there is normally a little bit of slack in the flight plans to anticipate for these kind of minor inconveniences.

Once we landed andcleared customs, we headed to the train station. I chose to purchase a ticket on an app, rather than use the machines, €4.00 single was good value. I did notice that on the train a lot of people had put luggage on the seats, which did make be laugh as there is a stereotype about Germans and beach towels, although to be fair, blocking seats with bags happens in the UK too.

The train only took 20 minutes to get to the centre. The first thing on my agenda for the day was to climb the famous Cologne cathedral. The cathedral was right next to the train station. It looked a little odd to me the way you have this very old cathedral surrounded by newer developments very close together. It was a very impressive building. Myself, Linda and Matthew decided we wanted to do the climb.

We had to walk all the way around the cathedral to find the right entrance for the tower. There were signs in the shop saying you couldn’t buy the tickets from the shop, with a QR code to buy them online.

Jon being Jon, I decided to buy the tickets online but didn’t think to choose the English translation option, so I managed to purchase the wrong tickets for the Cathedral itself instead of the tower. That was particularly stupid as I already had done my research beforehand and knew the tickets should have been €8 each yet paid a higher price for the Cathedral and exhibit inside too.

So, I ended up paying again, this time for the right tickets. It’s 533 steps to the top of Cologne Cathedral and it was a warm day. At work, I regularly walk up and down 6 floors of steps. I’m in much better shape than I used to be so I thought to myself “how hard can it be”.

This is typical of the naïve enthusiasm I throw myself into these kind of situations. Despite having a fear of heights (or to be more accurate, a fear of falling from a great height), I regularly forget that fear and think it’s a good idea right up until faced with the reality of a sheer drop.

It wasn’t so much the number of steps but the fact the steps were quite deep and it was a narrow spiral staircase with people going in both directions. The good thing was, there weren’t that many windows so I only briefly got a view of the height we had climbed. The bad news was, it was quite warm without having many windows and I didn’t think to bring a drink with me.

It was the fact you didn’t know how much further you had to climb and there were very few places to stop to catch your breath without annoying the people behind you waiting to climb. We got to the bell house, which did give us a little bit more time to catch our breath, and I remember thinking to myself, if this thing goes off now, I’m going to have a meltdown. Fortunately it didn’t.

There was still further the climb though. We eventually reached an open area, where you could sit and catch your breath. I was quite thirsty by that point and Linda very kindly gave me a bottle of water, that I very much appreciated.

I thought I had finally made it, but I was wrong. The “final boss” was yet to come. From that point on, there was a metal staircase, that was completely exposed so you could see how high you were and how easy it would be to fall.

Matthew was very kind, he knew I was struggling with the height. In truth, I was refusing to look anywhere other than at my own feet, so he was encouraging me and telling me how many more flights we had to go. Once I was up to the top, I was actually ok because there was a mesh grid all the way around so you couldn’t accidentally fall to your death. The mesh did make it harder to take photos, but we managed it.

By that point our legs felt like jelly but the view was worth it and I felt a sense of accomplishment. The journey down seemed much easier, and as we passed people going up I was encouraging them, telling them not long now, which probably made no sense to the German speakers.

By the time we got down, I picked up the customary fridge magnet of the cathedral itself and we went to find the rest of the gang who were endulging in a bit of shopping.

We had booked a boat tour for 3pm, so we headed in the general direction of the river Rhein, found a cafe to enjoy the local Kolsch beer and chatted. Time went quite quickly, we headed to the pier to catch our boat but it turned out the same boat operator ran lots of different boat trips and we went to the wrong pier, then we were directed to another pier, which also turned out to be the wrong one. It was my fault, we should have confirmed the correct pier before going for a drink, but we watched our boat depart without us on it.

What made it worse was the last trip of the day was cancelled, otherwise we could have switched onto that one. So, the morale of the story is make sure you confirm you know where you’re going and give yourself plenty of time in case you make a mistake.

We decided to head to the Lindt chocolate museum instead. It was a mini factory where they show you how the chocolate is made, so they can sell it to you later. They give you free samples. The technique worked well on me as I spend about £50 on various chocolate souvenirs to take back home.

Not content with just the view from the top of the cathedral, I decided to take a ferris wheel ride, right next to the chocolate museum. I think I got about 5 loops because it was very quiet.

After that, we went for a walk around the old town, admiring the architecture and finding a spot for a meal. I had a pretzel. I like to try something authentic when abroad but the main meals would have been too much for me. It was nice and warm, and the butter melted straight away on top.

Finally it was time to start making our way back to the airport. Although it felt like we packed in a lot, it didn’t feel like the day was rushed, it was perfectly balanced.

We got talking to a guy from Egypt who was studying in Germany. He was very interested in our trip and he was really nice and friendly. It really is the people you meet along the way that makes these trips worthwhile.

Cologne airport impressed me. There were lots of different food options closer to the gates. We did have to wait a while before they’d let us go through EES and into the area where the gates were, which was a little frustrating but it didn’t impact our flight. Linda very kindly dropped me off home, saving me a late night taxi ride.

I would say Cologne is a perfect place for an EDT. The transport to and from the airport is fast and efficient. It’s quite compact and there’s a lot to do. I can imagine it would be great in the winter months with Christmas markets. It has given me a taste for exploring other parts of Germany in the future.