Dusseldorf (Christmas Market)-Bonn-Bruhl-Cologne | Germany - Three Days Trip

So, we set off on our short three days impromptu trip to Germany this time to explore the Christmas markets and ended up exploring more!! From the time I set foot in Europe it has been on my wish list to see the Christmas markets here and to experience snow fall (which I am still waiting for by the way!!). And what best than the world known Christmas markets of Germany!!

So, coming to the trip... We chose an early morning bus to Dusseldorf and reached there at about 12-30 pm in the afternoon. We had chosen a budget hotel stay very close to the Dusseldorf central so that all the major Christmas markets are within walking distance and easy to explore. We headed off to the hotel as soon as we reached just to drop our bags and immediately started out on our exploration. We walked down from Dusseldorf central to Altstad. On the way was the costliest street in Germany that is Koningsalee.

The start of Christmas markets could be viewed from the end of the street. Walking straight from there we reached the Rhine Promenade..... the landmark of Dusseldorf.

After a refreshing little stroll along the Rhine river on the left we went around on a walk to do justice to the cobble cladded street ever so inviting. While we were strolling we found this lane with beautiful churches adorning the sides accompanied by the soothing ring of the church bells in the air. There is always something about the church bells that makes you stop take a breath and listen to them! 

As the sunlight started receding fast (it being the month of December with shorter days) we started with the Christmas markets. There are about 5 Christmas markets almost placed parrallely to each other in the Altstad area of Dusseldorf. Each of them had their own set of unique decorations, layouts and stalls decorated with bright colourful lights giving it a festive look or should I say Christmasy look!! 

More than shopping I think we focussed on the delicious aroma of German food being the foodies that we are! We started off with this vegan pizza which said tomato plus mozerella sauce and was called flammkuchen. After placing our order when at the counter the person handed over the pizza base (that looked like thick flattened bread) with generous amount of sliced mozerella cheese pieces laid on top and raw cubed tomatoes spread on it with a dash of white pepper sauce and chilli sauce plus oregano. I should confess that I actually wondered seeing it if we chose wrong and really doubted how it would taste. After a bit of a struggle in finding a table nearby to eat when I took the first bite (with low expectations) it was really a delicious surprise!! The flat bread had a garlicky buttery flavour to it which made the whole thing taste so good that we all in no time devoured it fully using both our hands before it got cold. 

Then we tried this which looked like potato Pattie but had a pumpkin flavour to it as well called as Reibekuchen 

And we just had enough space in stomach to try out this rostbratwurst the famous pork sausage bun!! 

And to wash it all down with the must try of Christmas Markets boiling hot spiced up wine.... The Gluhwein and Eierpunsch!!

This marked the end of our day 1 exploration and experiencing of Christmas Markets of Dusseldorf. By the end of it we were so exhausted that we didn't even have energy to plan for the next day!! 

So, day 2 started with us cursing ourselves for waking up late!! We left the hotel only at 9am which meant lesser time by at least an hour for daylight to abandon us. We headed straight to the central station where we found out about this day ticket in which you can cover any city within the Rhine-Westphalia Region with intracity subway trains included. The ticket actually was valid for 5 adults and it still turned out to be reasonable even for the two of us with our five year old (for whom no ticket is needed!). That is when we started planning out the day that is after getting the ticket as we wanted to extract maximum value for the 48 Euros spent on the ticket. After a quick research we decided to cover Bonn Bruhl and Cologne. I wanted to cover Koblenz too but it seemed too ambitious with our five year old so we had to drop that. So there started our day with heading off to Bonn (once the capital of West Germany).

I was adamant on seeing the most visited Drachenburg castle even though it was closed. However S was reluctant...but as it goes that wifey has to rule so the first thing we headed off to was Drachenburg Castle. We took the subway train 66 line to Konigswinter Denkmal station. On getting off at the train stop you can see the castle on the top of the hill. After a little bit of asking around and looking for the signs on the road leading to the cogwheel train station below the railway over bridge we got to know that the cogwheel train was also not running on that day. Now, to look back I am happy it wasn't as the trekking to the castle was so picturesque that it was worth the effort! 

While trekking you come across this point from where you can get a glimpse of this quaint little Konigswinter village perched beside the Rhine river. A sight which has been the inspiration behind many a famous paintings and poems!! You can even see the ruins of the Godesberg castle at a far away point.

The trek trail was very nice with a proper roadway built for the whole climb which further offset S's inhibitions of taking the path and it's safety aspects. After a 30/40 minute of trek on the Drachenfels hills we finally came to the Drachenburg castle and the landmark of the castle.....a new age fairytale castle indeed!! As the history goes .... this new age castle was built by a banker cum broker who never got to live in it!!

After visiting the castle we took back the tram 66 to Bonn central from where we walked around to Bonn Munster.... the church...very beautiful with a touch of Gothic spires adding up to the beauty of the Roman style.

At the other end stood the city hall Altes Rathaus which once housed important political meetings and oath taking.  

Not to miss the Beethoven statue and house, the way to which was decorated with Christmas lights.

The Beethoven house where he had spent his early childhood days has been converted to a Meuseum. Outside there is a nice audio visual placed which gives an interesting  peek view into Beethoven's life.

There were also many eateries placed at the central square area but we didn't have time to try out any food as we had Bruhl next on list to visit. I even spotted an Indian Thali selling outlet at the square and was amazed to see the number of people thronging in there to try the simple veg Indian Thali!

For Christmas, there were small corners done up with lovely decorations of baby Jesus being born in a stable which our five year old loved to see. Also there was a TK Max toys outlet at the central square which had an entire glass section with a make belief jungle with so many stuffed animals  with mechanised movements engineered that even adults cudnt help walking up to it and admiring the decor. We were so hard pressed on time that I just forgot to click snaps of the decor.

Next on our list was the Poppelsdorf palace which was quite a bit off a walk (about 30 min) from the central square of Bonn. Unfortunately the palace was closed for restoration work and we didn't get to see it after all our walking.

Then we headed off taking the train from Bonn Central to Bruhl.

The best part about Bruhl palaces Augustburg and Falkenlust palaces (both UNESCO world heritage sites) are that they are bang opposite to Bruhl central station. You get off the station and they are right in front of you. We were lucky to reach there just in time before day light completely receded. We could only catch a glimpse of the palace gardens and the Christmas market set behind the palace just while they were being closed. 

After Bruhl, our last visit for the day was Cologne Cathedral which also is bang on the Cologne central station. We had visited the cathedral way back on our Europe trip in 2011 during the day time and it was as breathtaking in the floodlights in the night as the first time I had seen it. To think it took 500 odd years to build this masterpiece one of it's kind of a structure!!

Luckily the cathedral was open and we could again after almost 9 years set our foot inside the cathedral.... Just that this time we had our Son with us. I guess for Christmas they had opened up the way to an inner room behind the altar where the remains of the three wisemen are probably kept. We got a chance to see that this time. Also, the cathedral was nicely done up for Christmas with a beautiful Christmas tree on the altar on either side. Also a corner of the cathedral had the stable with baby Jesus in a cradle which was done on a larger scale and captivated my Son. He also couldn't take his eyes off the tall skyscraping Gothic spires of the cathedral and kept casting back his glance while we walked away back to the Cologne central station.

We went back to Dusseldorf from Cologne Central and hit back the Christmas markets taking the subway straight to Altstad as none of us had the strength to walk anymore for the day. After hogging all that we could we marked the end of our short Christmasy 2019 trip with another dash of Gluhwein!! Cheers to 2020 ....to my first travel post and for many more to come :)!!