Kolsch und Wurst: A Taste of Cologne Beer Halls

Cologne is full of excellent beer halls, and naturally, visiting one of them was at the top of our tick list - beleive it or not, even higher than climbing 900 odd steps to the top of the Dom. These places all serve the local brew, Kolsch. A very refreshing libation, served only in 200ml skinny glasses and washed down with various hearty Rhenish dishes.

Our hall of choice was Schreckenskammer. This choice was based on the facts that it was the nearest to our hostel (in case of emergencies), was off the tourist highway and frequented mostly by locals, and therefore served the best fodder.

We chose two wurst based dishes - well, you have to don't you? One served straight up with mash and saurkraut (not pretty back in the hotel room - someone open a window, please!), and the other in a 'gypsy' sauce. No, I don't think there were actually any gypsies in it, but still, worth every penny.

The beer etiquette in these places is very simple and user friendly, and with true German efficiency, doesn't require you to either get up to go to the bar or call over the waiter. The man comes around with a holder full of ready poured Kolsch glasses, and if yours is empty, he swaps it for a fresh one and chalks up another mark on your beer mat. If and when you don't want any more, you simply put your beer mat on top of the glass. When you want to go, they just tally up the marks on your beer mat and away you go.

After our fill, we walked (not staggered as you may imagine) home feeling refreshed and satiated yet neither hammered nor bloated, and drifted off to sleep feeling proud that we'd experienced the beer hall with and in the style of locals, and left the tourists down in Altstadt (Old Town)to over-indulge British style and do wee-wees in the street.

Barclay

Cologne

Well we got a two day stop over in Cologne on the way to Istanbul. We got a hostel near the main station, unimaginatively called 'The Station'. It was really nice, and the bloke who worked there was very eager to help. He had all the little phrases at hand, which somehow didn't seem at all natural, e.g. "Could you do me a little favour?" It sounded really odd when he said it in his heavy accent with little / no intonation.

We were staying right next to the Dom, or Cathedral to you lot. It was pretty nice.

I've been here quite a few times before, but always as a young kid. It was no fun at all! Inside is huge, and when I was a kid all I wanted to do was run around and touch stuff. Needless to say, my gran wasn't too thrilled by my desire to do this. As an adult, it was most interesting, and slightly annoying that kids wanted to run around and touch things in such a beautiful place. The structure took a mere 800 years to finish. Not bad considering each stone statue took 10 years to carve.

The Dom is really famous for this:

The Shrine of the Three Magi AKA The Three Wisemen (from the Bible). Their remains are in that shiny box, and people come from all over the Christian world to see it and think about what they want for Christmas.

The next day, we climbed the steps. All 509 of them! We got some good views at the top and we earned our beer and sausages. It was a hard slog, but it was good to get to the top. Here are some of the best bits.