MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY
Netherlands and West Germany Trip
Day 5 - December 5 2023
We woke up early to catch a morning train for Dusseldorf. Our only option was to take two trains to get there. As we got to our platform, we saw a notice that the train had to adjust the route and was no longer stopping in the city we were supposed to change trains in. Turns out, it was re-routing through Dusseldorf! So, we no longer needed to transfer to a different train.
Only a couple hours later, we were at the central station. We took a subway to the hotel and with another stroke of luck, the room was ready and we could check right in. Once we unpacked and got ready, we headed out for our first Christmas market!
We have a lot planned for our time in Germany, so we did not even give ourselves the full day in our home base! We visited the two larger Christmas markets here before jumping on another train to Cologne.
These were a bit small and not quite as festive as we imagined. However, the Cologne (Koln) Christmas Markets were the ones I (Jess) was most looking forward to. So, we headed back to the train station and took the soonest train to Cologne Central Station, only 25 minutes away.
When we pulled into the station, the famous cathedral was in the background. It is one of the most visited attractions in all of Europe, and the most in Germany. We immediately saw why. We can’t imagine how amazing it must be to see in the daylight, but it looked too incredible to be true even in the evening. Mike kept mentioning how it looked like a picture, a fake backdrop, like in a movie. The cathedral is the base of one of the Christmas markets here.
Already, this Christmas market was way bigger and more festive than the ones in Dusseldorf. We started getting in line for market food immediately.
We could not spend too long at this market, though. The one I was most excited about was just a 5 minute walk away- the Gnomes Market. This market took it over the top. There were hidden gnomes all over, the stalls were highly decorated, and the chandeliers between stalls- I was in actual Christmas heaven. The only thing that could have taken it further? A live Christmas band!! I am not dramatizing, I literally cried tears of joy standing in the drizzle, surrounded by twinkly lights, with the band playing traditional Christmas music, people singing in German and English around, and having gluhwein in our hands. Best. Christmas. Market. Ever.
We continued to shop and drink our way back to the station until 7:30. The trains were less ideal after 8, so we had to get moving. Instead of taking the subway back, we decided to walk from the Dusseldorf central station and get some ramen on the way home. There is a huge Japanese population in Dusseldorf, one of the reasons we chose it as our home base. The ramen was super rich and delicious. I had my heaven at the Christmas market – this was Mike’s heaven.
It’s been a very wet, tiring day. So we decide tomorrow will be a bit slower with a later morning.