Christmas Markets, Cologne, Germany: 15th-17th December 2006

In the month leading up to Christmas, Cologne puts on some of the biggest (if not the biggest) Christmas markets in Europe.There are around 7 or 8 separate markets, ranging from some beneath the massive Cathedral (The Dom), on a boat in the Rheine, and a Medieval Christmas market.Diana and I headed over for a couple of days before she went back to Australia for a few weeks, and had a great time wandering around these fantastic little markets.The weather was quite grey but we managed to postpone our climb of the huge tower in The Dom until Sunday morning when the weather was reasonably sunny.On the Saturday night we had dinner at Osman 30, on the 30th floor of a new tower in the Mediapark, which included a main course of goose and Chestnut soup (suprisingly good!).It was a nice relaxing weekend before Christmas, and somehow it just makes more sense to celebrate Christmas in the cold.