The sun came out to play the next day in Cologne! It’s funny how a little thing like blue skies can change the look of a city so much.
After a quick walk through the city to burn off the breakfast calories, we found ourselves back at Cologne Cathedral, totally determined to climb it!
By the way, you can only pay the admissions fee here in cash, as we found out the hard way so be sure you have you cash on you before you join the queue to climb the cathedral.
I don’t know if it’s just me but when it comes to things like this, I get the strangest ‘performance anxiety’ just before doing it! It’s so irrational but I feel like it comes from me steeling myself for a hard climb.
The climb actually turned out to not be quite okay (plus there’s a break halfway up in the bell tower).
At the top, you’re rewarded with a view over the city but I reckon the best view of the city isn’t actually from the top of the cathedral – the best view of the city is the view that actually has the cathedral in it, something I resolved to find by sunset.
After scaling the cathedral (so to speak), I figured I might as well head into the cathedral to explore it properly after the rushed attempt the night before.
This gothic UNESCO World Heritage site is still every bit as impressive inside as it is outside and is definitely worth setting aside some decent time to explore properly.
Lunch was a bit more laidback on this day and I decided it made sense to do something we hadn’t done since the early days of travelling – have a proper picnic.
The weather was so on-point that it would have been a shame to let it go to waste. Usually, back in London, a good group of us would have arrange for a few great summertime picnics but as we’ve been travelling constantly, it’s one of those simple pleasures I felt I’d missed out on this year so it was the absolutely perfect. I may even have had a mini-snooze right after. 😉
After lunch (and some mooching through the shops), we decided to head over to the riverside to watch the sunset from a pretty vantage viewpoint – KölnTriangle. (The official city website has a list of the 5 best viewpoints in the city which are worth checking out before you arrive in Cologne – see them here).
To get there from the Cathedral, you simply cross the railway bridge over the river (which is not a bad viewpoint in itself).
I got distracted by people watching at the riverfront that I almost missed out the sunset at the top of KölnTriangle. Thankfully, the queues aren’t long and before long, we were at the top, soaking in the amazing view of Cologne as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon with Cologne looking pretty spectacular and definitely ready for the fun night ahead!
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