Leeds to Mannheim

Wie geht’s?

With my first midterm and presentation getting closer, most of my spare time in Mannheim has been spent revising. I did, however, still manage to fit in a long weekend trip to Cologne and Dusseldorf. This was the last full weekend trip I have planned (at the moment) for this semester and I’m very pleased I went. One of the best bits about this trip compared to my previous ones is that the travel was all by train! It was so much comfier and shorter than any of the bus trips I’ve been on. We left Mannheim at lunchtime and were in Koln by mid-afternoon.

The first thing we did after checking in to our hostel was head towards the Schokolademuseum for some cake. Both me and Sam had brought a home-made tea with us, so we sat by the river and ate before going inside the museum’s café for dessert. There was so many amazing looking (but pretty expensive) cakes to choose from. I went for a chocolate mousse torte and Sam had the Schokoladekirschetorte (chocolate cherry cake). Both were lovely, and the menu even had a recipe for chocolate souffles in it, so I took a picture ready to make them when I get back to the UK.

After eating we decided to walk round Cologne and see as much as we could. First, we headed to the lock bridge and looked for the oldest lock we could find which was a big one from 1984. Some of the lock inscriptions were adorable. We then walked around the Altstadt, business area and shopping district. Despite only really having 7-hours in Cologne that day I managed to do the most steps since I arrived in Germany; according to my phone I walked 25km. After all that walking, we decided more food was needed so we stopped at a shop that exclusively sold chips and bought a portion each!

When we arrived back at the hostel we discovered we were sharing the room with a German couple who were in their late 50s/ early 60s. This would have been fine but they both insisted in walking round in just their underwear and the man snored so loudly! Fortunately, I’d brought earplugs and did eventually manage to sleep.

The next day we woke up early to head to Dusseldorf. We walked around all morning and barely found anything to look at apart from a street market. At this point we were worried as we were in Dusseldorf till 8pm. However, after stopping in front of the river for a traditional German Currywurst, we decided to set off again and find some real Dusseldorf sights. The first one we went to find was the Schloss Jaegerhof because Sam’s surname is Jaeger so this was basically her palace. After a long walk it turned out to be quite a disappointing place. It wasn’t a big castle as we envisioned but quite a small and very expensive museum.

At that point, we decided to sit in a park, rest our legs and google what else we could do. Fortunately, things picked up from here as we headed to the Altstadt. I can only assume that Dusseldorf sleep till 12 and then all go out because by the time we got to the centre of Altstadt it was absolutely packed. There must have also been a football game in as the pubs were full of Dusseldorf supporters. We headed around the Altstadt and looked at the Rathaus (town hall), statues dedicated to the original unifiers of Germany, souvenir shops, churches and museums. We then walked down Königsallee which earlier had been empty but was now packed full of people. This is basically a very long street of designer shops which most normal people will never be able to afford anything from but it’s fun to look at!

By around 4pm we seemed to have seen all the free things that Dusseldorf had to offer so we thought the best solution was to find cake. We went away from the tourist area, so it wasn’t too expensive and found a nice Eiscafe (ice cream parlour). Sam had Spaghettieis, an invention from Mannheim which is made by squeezing ice-cream through a potato ricer, so it looks like a bowl of spaghetti, and I had a cheesecake. We tried to sit in the café for as long as possible but eventually had to move on. This time we decided to just walk for another half an hour then find somewhere for tea. After all the cake we were craving healthy food, so we settled on a restaurant that worked a bit like subway and served big salad bowls. I had mine with 3 super salads, spinach and falafel which was delicious and made me feel much better about the amount of cake I’d been eating! Once we were full we headed back to the train station to wait for our train. Unfortunately, we later discovered that two trains to Cologne left at the same time and we had ended up on the regional one which makes around 12 stops first and takes 40 minutes longer! However, we eventually got back to Cologne and to our hostel ready for a well-deserved rest.

Our Sunday in Cologne was far too short, and I will definitely go back. We left the hostel at 9 and went to find breakfast. There was some provided by the hostel, but it was just toast and the day before other guests had wrapped most of it in foil and taken it with them! So, we headed to a bakery and bought some pastries which we ate while watching some of the Cologne marathon. We planned to go on a walking tour at 11 so made the time up before then watching the runners and sitting in McDonald’s. The McDonalds we were in was, we assumed, where the tour started. However, it turned out that we were very wrong, and it was another McDonald’s that was a 15-minute walk away (and we had 5 minutes to do it in). We set off jogging through the city, as though we were also in the marathon. Unfortunately, the marathon was also a massive hinderance as it meant there we runners blocking off most of the roads we needed to cross. Finally, a bit late, we made it and, after all that rush, the tour didn’t actually end up leaving until 11:30. Derek met us on the tour and we set off round the city together. This was better than Friday night as it was light, so everything was much easier to see.

The tour was incredibly interesting. We saw all sorts including streets of ‘hipster’ shops, street art, museums and roman ruins. We were told stories about Cologne’s history including how Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones is best on the lady who “founded” the city and why there are so many statues of bums. We also stopped by the original Eau de Cologne shop and got to try the first one ever invented. The tour finished at the Cathedral which was exactly where we needed to be for the next part of the day. By this point we only actually had 2.5 hours left in Cologne and there was still so much we wanted to see. We quickly ran in the train station and grabbed a sandwich for lunch before going into the Cathedral which took 600 years to build! It was magnificent and had beautiful stained-glass windows. Sam and Derek decided they wanted to stay there for the rest of the day, but I really wanted to see the Schokolademuseum properly. So, with 1.5 hours left before the train, I set back off through Cologne with the aim of sampling as much chocolate as possible before 16:45!

The chocolate museum was great and I’m glad I went even if I was alone. There was a whole exhibition about the discovery of cocoa and Fairtrade as well as a section on the history of chocolate in Germany and on chocolate marketing. However, my favourite bit was the room where they were actually making the chocolate. You could see all the processes and watch the staff collecting the finished chocolates at the end to box up. There was even a chance to take a fresh chocolate straight off the production line. The main room also featured a huge Lindt chocolate fountain, which the chefs would dip wafers in to give out to visitors. The final room was a moulding station which showed how they make the famous Lindt bunny. There were also chefs there making people custom chocolate bars! At the end they gave out more chocolates and I was sad to have to leave!

The rest of my week has been spent in Mannheim working once again. On Monday I did go to Zumba though which was fun. I went a couple of weeks ago and the dances were exactly the same but seemed to be so much more difficult. I have potentially just become even less co-ordinated! Last night, I went around to Natalie’s (another English girl studying in Mannheim) with a few others and we had a really lovely girls’ night in with snacks, music and singing to High School Musical.

Although my full weekend trips are done, I do have a day trip to Strasburg in France this Saturday that I’ll write about next time!