I’ve left my mouse at home so blogging is a sod. Treat this as a “contractual obligation” post for my Patronised readers who expect a post and artisanal beer and food matching recommendation daily.
4th November 2022.
Well, that’s tough, as this is a post about Cologne shopping centre as a follow-on to Pauline’s comment the other day.
From the Lommerzheim we headed back west to the Alstadt,
the bridge providing the best views of the trip, both towards the Dom,
and south to what I can only assume are houses on stilts.
Mrs RM had been delighted to find confirmation of what she’d long suspected.*
But I can’t be all bad, as I let her stop for coffee and sticky cake at the first opportunity.
Pauline is right; a lot of central Cologne feels like a giant shopping centre built on a bomb site, and I guess it is.
But it’s pedestrianised, has plenty of musical entertainment,
and seemed genuinely quirky.
Nothing much ornate or medieval, but the shops and cafes were packed, and this was before the Christmas markets.
But where’s the pubs, you demand?
Keep walking.
*Why do they pick on Martins ?
retiredmartin 
They’re just encouraging you to take a bath. Oh, well, maybe that’s not a good thing either.
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As I was about to say. I’m willing to bet he has at least one per year, whether he needs it or not.
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Unless it’s a Czech beer bath?
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Do you speak from experience, Andy ?
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“Pauline is right; a lot of central Cologne feels like a giant shopping centre built on a bomb site.” She is right, but what is interesting to me is they did a good job of building it. We were there two full days with one of those days in Dusseldorf. I can see I would have liked Cologne more if we had stayed there longer. Your posts have been fantastic. It always pays to give a city more time.
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Thanks, Dave. I’ll take compliments from you and Joan. Your comments on the Kolsch and of Cologne pub culture were very instructive.
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We visited on spec with no research (no internets for us at this time ) & it just wasn’t what we expected & was a bit disappointing -I would like to give it another go though -we did thorough research for Munich & had a great time
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You probably already would having read RM’s posts, but you would want to visit Düsseldorf as well. They do make a nice pair. Our day in Düsseldorf was fantastic. We were with the righteous so our weather was perfect.
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Interestingly I was also a bit underwhelmed by Munich (apart from the one pun near the station), but it was a flying visit on a cold day when we didn’t see the gardens and the centre looked a bit plain.
Could say the same about Milan, and I think Manchester takes time to enjoy, too.
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“I think Manchester takes time to enjoy” – if that’s ‘the more time the better’ then yes, certainly.
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How long does it take to get to Stockport?
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You’ve read that article calling Stockport “The Berlin of the UK” this week, haven’t you ?
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I doubt Berliners could cope with the hills.
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“Ich bin ein Stopfordian” as someone famous nearly said.
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And that might have been 1974 when Stockport was allegedly stolen from Cheshire.
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