Cologne tips, please

Old Dec 8th, 2022, 09:42 AM
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I went to the Duftmuseum im Farina Haus, and I think it is different from 4711. Not being familiar with either, I saw it on Google Maps and then read about it. I just found this blog post that discusses both and breaks down the difference: https://thirstyjourneys.com/history-of-cologne-perfume/

One thing I forgot to mention is that they do not have a public restroom at Farina! You would think with a tour... However, I was early for the tour and went down the street to a lovely cafe for a quick glass of wine and relief.
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Old Dec 8th, 2022, 09:43 AM
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I went to the Duftmuseum im Farina Haus, and I think it is different from 4711. Not being familiar with either, I saw it on Google Maps and then read about it. I just found this blog post that discusses both and breaks down the difference: https://thirstyjourneys.com/history-of-cologne-perfume/

One thing I forgot to mention is that they do not have a public restroom at Farina! You would think with a tour... However, I was early for the tour and went down the street to a lovely cafe for a quick glass of wine and relief.
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Old Dec 8th, 2022, 12:11 PM
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Oh what an interesting story in your link, Flwrhead, now I think we might go see Farina over 4711. While I think it's probably not that hard to source 4711 wherever you live, I am sure I will probably never bump into Farina anywhere else, and nice to test the 'original'. Thanks also for the tip about the restroom, nice to have advance warning.

I wish I had more than a day in Cologne now, there are so many good tips here!

Lavandula
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Old Feb 10th, 2023, 04:53 PM
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Just reporting back - I am not going to do a full-blown trip report - we spent two half-days in Cologne in mid-January and it wasn't enough time to do everything we wanted to. I think I would have liked about 3 days, but we had an appointment to see someone in Brussels on the 16th and so we didn't want to spend much time on the way there.

We walked past the cathedral on the way to our accommodation - and then never got back there (silently cursing). But we did do some good things. First of all our accommodation: Cologne CityClass Residence am Dom, at the Alter Markt. A small hotel which has sister hotels nearby also. Very close to the cathedral, the shopping district and several museums. We were able to walk everywhere. Truth to tell, the Alter Markt area is a little grotty by day. I thought, help, where have we landed, when I first saw the area in the morning. However as the day went on I saw past that and by night the area comes alive and there are many nice restaurants and bars. There is a coin shop just next door to the hotel with some interesting things in the window, but when we came back to buy Dad a souvenir, it was closed. We also saw some people dressed for carnival a little early, I think it was a party. But as I said, close to everywhere and actually the hotel itself was very good, although I had only booked us a small room. As it was just overnight we didn't need more.

When we arrived in Germany I quickly worked out that my old gloves did not fit my hands any more, surprise, and I needed some new ones, so we went to the shopping district in Cologne. The weather was still mild (about 11 - 12 degrees by day), so I didn't need gloves that badly yet. Our last winter trip was in about 2016???? I don't remember, but some time ago. So shopping it was. I introduced my daughter to NewYorker which is a chain which has inexpensive clothes for young people, and she bought a few items, and then we worked our way over to Galeria Kaufhof, a big department store where I found a pair of gloves after some investigation. We also had a look at all the clothing items for Carnival and my daughter took some photos of all the steampunk-style items. Then we had a hot drink in the cafeteria in Kaufhof, a very good hot chocolate and an excellent black tea. We then made our way to the Farina perfume museum, which was just nearby (and Wallraf-Richartz is just across the road from that). We were there at the wrong time for a tour, but they had an English-language tour at 5pm, so we went back to the hotel room for a short time to drop our shopping and examine our loot.

Then we did the Farina tour. I agree with Flwrhead, just fabulous. Farina is a small boutique maker of perfumery, and they take you through different parts of their old house in Cologne, with lectures on the way about their history, as they were the first makers of perfume in Cologne. They don't actually make perfume there any more, but they do have historical displays including a room where they have bottles of different essential oils, and they lined us all up on the benches and passed around little strips of paper that they had dunked in the oils, and had guessing games. It was a lot of fun, even when the docent gave us the wrong oil by accident (vanilla). There was a lot of laughter and everyone seemed to be having a great time. There are also rooms with cases of old documents and books. Afterwards there is a factory shop, but as the perfume my daughter wanted wasn't there, we didn't indulge. As Flwrhead mentioned, they do give you a little sample bottle and we were pleased with that. At this point it was dark and starting to rain, so we went back to the hotel and found that there was quite a good café in the hotel, so we just went there for dinner. My daughter had pizza and also ordered an iced chocolate. However, they brought it out first and it was a full-on ice-cream creation, not just a milk drink as we would have expected from an Australian café, so she pretty much ate that and picked at the pizza afterwards . You live and learn.

The noise from the street was minimal in spite of the Carnival events happening - we did see some people dressed in costumes from the café window - and we slept well. In the morning we had breakfast in the hotel, which we both rated very highly, and went back to pack. We left our luggage in the hotel but then had some time to kill, as nothing was really open before 10. But we made our way to the chocolate museum and waited out the front in the rain. It was in completely the opposite direction to the station, and a longish walk. We saw the mustard museum across the road from the chocolate museum, but didn't have time to get back there, and my daughter was less keen on going there anyway.

The chocolate museum, when it opened, was amazing. It is affiliated with Lindt and has its own mini-factory, although I believe the owner of Stollwerck started the museum. They have tours but as we did not pre-book, we missed out on this, although you can show yourself around very well. I would budget at least two hours for this, maybe longer. They had a room near the beginning, a kind of temperature controlled rainforest with chocolate plants and actually plants from all over the world, not just cocoa. There was a big section dedicated to making people understand about the inequities of chocolate growing and making, and fair-trade, and then the factory. There was also a chocolate fountain and the attendant dipped wafers into the chocolate and handed out samples. There were also samples from the machines. They were very good. Then came an area where they were making chocolate bars by hand. You could request them to make you your 'fantasy' bar; the order form had a number of ingredients that got added to the chocolate and you could watch, but you had to wait till the end to pick it up. It cost about EUR6 - 7. We picked dried strawberry pieces, vanilla and almond chips, and then watched them making chocolate eggs and all kinds of other magical things. After this section there was an area with chocolate-making artefacts from antiquity, from many cultures, both European and Central / South American (I did actually wonder about this - in Australia there is often an outcry about indigenous artefacts that have made their way into foreign museums, as people think they should be returned), and then an area where modern chocolate brands and chocolate 'cult' was treated. It was all very interesting. Then as our fantasy bar was not yet ready, we went to the café and drank a hot chocolate and an iced chocolate. There was food but it was a little early so we did not indulge, and indeed, after all that whipped cream, I couldn't . There was also a shop but as we had bought our fantasy bar, we decided to wait for that. However time was ticking, we hadn't seen the cathedral and I still had hopes of getting there, and the bar still wasn't ready - we did have to wait another half an hour and then, finally ...

By this time there was no time to visit the cathedral before our next train, so we made our way back to the hotel and caught a cab to the station. The taxi driver was a bit cross as we were so close to the station but honestly, it hadn't been fun dragging the bags there and we were some streets away. So we got to the station and managed to find some food and boarded the train for Brussels. Phew!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was our trip to Cologne. Next time will be longer so we can do more museums. And for those who want a half-timbered dream city, well, that's not Cologne, but we were so busy that frankly it did not matter. Germany is just like that - not everything is charming, but everything is interesting.

Lavandula

Last edited by lavandula; Feb 10th, 2023 at 04:57 PM.
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Old Feb 10th, 2023, 05:10 PM
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lavendula, thank you for the report. There is a lot of great information. It sounds like a lovely time with your daughter..
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Old Feb 10th, 2023, 05:30 PM
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I also wanted to report briefly on the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport, as I thought it could be helpful for other people. This was our first stop in Germany, before Cologne. It's at the airport in a building across the road called The Squaire, and is just above the long distance train station (Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof). There is a supermarket (REWE) and a Rossmann (Drogerie, or non-pharmacy drugstore) on the level below it, and a Starbucks, which I would never waste my time on in another country. It is not easy to find from the airport. I had to ask for directions twice and you have to go upstairs in the airport and there is a bridge that takes you there. We booked it as we came via South Korea and the flights from there arrive in Germany late in the day, so I wanted somewhere to crash immediately on arrival.

The rooms are exceptionally small (of course you don't want to spend quality holiday time at an airport), and it is just next to a bigger Hilton, which has a bar / restaurant. Last month the hotels were celebrating Veganuary and so all the meals had a vegan slant (I had a soup, I think it was a fresh pea soup???, my daughter had vegan chilli-loaded fries). The food was quite good. Also the breakfast buffet was good, but expensive at EUR25 a head. It had most of what you'd want, although my daughter wanted hot chocolate and for that you had to order it specially. I did find however that one of the machines in the buffet dispensed hot milk so that was an adequate substitute. The buffet was not vegan.

$64,000 question - would I go back? Yes, if catching a train the next morning as we did. You can just wheel your bags from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the train. And yes if before a flight, but we have friends in Wiesbaden and that city is really pretty close to the airport. We spent our last nights at the Adina Wiesbaden and were driven to the airport by my friend. But if I had to spend significant time doing anything but sleeping, no, the Hilton is too sterile and the room too poky to contemplate spending any time in the room. My new favourite in the area is the Adina Wiesbaden, a super hotel which had a kitchenette and a washer-dryer in the room, as well as a little eating nook. I haven't been to the Adina in Frankfurt but on the back of my experience in Wiesbaden and other Adinas in Australia, that would definitely be a candidate for another time.

Hope this helps you all make decisions about the Frankfurt Airport hotels!

Lavandula
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Old Feb 10th, 2023, 06:45 PM
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Originally Posted by gomiki
lavendula, thank you for the report. There is a lot of great information. It sounds like a lovely time with your daughter..
Thanks gomiki, it was indeed a good trip. There is more I could say about it (we went to Brussels, Luxembourg and Wiesbaden) but some of the trip was taken up by shopping and some was seeing friends, and so it probably isn't so interesting. But for those who want it, I can give some addresses in Brussels as that was more tourist-oriented (restaurants, museums).

I must say - after three years of couch-potato during Covid, a trip where I was the main one lugging bags was very physically punishing although DD did do her best . Next trip I will get fit and look into better walking shoes!

Lavandula

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Old Feb 13th, 2023, 12:13 PM
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What a great trip report! Glad to hear about the chocolate museum, I think it'll be on my list next time!
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Old Feb 13th, 2023, 01:21 PM
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I like that you said 'next time', I think you could keep going back to Cologne and seeing new things. We definitely needed more than a day!

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