We chose Cologne mostly because it’s just one of the destinations Knock fly to that we hadn’t been! I’d never been to Germany either and always wanted to go as my mother used to live and work there. Transfers from the airport to main station were simple and affordable then we had about a 30min walk to our accommodation, the cooly named (why I booked it) Art Rock hotel. The hotel was fine, nicely, centrally located but probably the crappiest breakfast I’ve ever had in a hotel. From there we walked around most of the attractions with no need for transport.

Highlights for me included the incredible (and incredibly tall) cathedral which I may have had a bit of a panic attack going up! The Archaeological tour in the basement is well worth a visit too. We done a beer tour which was class. It got better as it went on as you can imagine! For food, ahem, we visited the Chocolate Museum and got some free food as well as some nice coffee and cakes in the cafe there. We had a nice spin on the big wheel outside too.

A great memory for me was Papa Joe’s jazz and cocktail bar. A fabulously quirky place with live jazz daily from a weird and wonderful bunch of musicians.

When in Germany you must have Schnitzel so we did that and I broke a bit of my tooth on it! It may have been my own fault though not the restaurants..