It’s been a quiet start to 2026; no real work travel, a relatively calm slate of youth activities and some miserable weather meant that there had not been many occasions to venture outside beyond our immediate neighbourhood, much less further afield. Happily, though, we finally had the chance to tick Köln off the list of ‘places we’d like to visit.’ The occasion/excuse was an opportunity to see The Divine Comedy in a relatively affordable European city we’d not been to, so the chance to combine sampling kölsch fresh from the source with some music and parkrun tourism was one we seized upon.
We also planned to add a little time in Dusseldorf on the way there and back again, as the flights were much cheaper; as it happened, Deutsche Bahn’s mix of regular delays and strikes meant that we had to spend rather more time in and around the Dusseldorf airport than anticipated, but we managed to navigate that fairly well. Ironically, the weather in Dublin was warmer and sunnier than it had been for quite some time (so we were told), while our destination in Germany became much, much colder and wetter than it had been; clearly, we brought the weather with us.
While it was mostly cold and damp on the night we flew in – our arrival in our hotel made rather later than anticipated, thanks to various train cancellations – the next morning it was very, very cold, with a mix of torrential rain and sleet. Ideal conditions, naturally, for a parkrun – but when you have a new parkrun problem opportunity, it’s important to grab it. The hardy volunteers at Aachener Weiher parkrun could not have been more welcoming, even with the ‘challenging’ conditions (just drizzle at first, then the real fun began) – the fact that it was the slowest I’ve run in years, but that I still finished in the top 30 (and was the 4th woman) tells you something about the very light turnout! I couldn’t move my hands at all for the cold by the time I got back to our hotel, and my orthotics were so wet that I needed to take a hairdryer to them, but after a shower and lashings of tea (actual good loose tea – having found an amazing selection at our hotel in Antwerp last year, I chose our hotel in Germany from the same chain for that purpose) along with an amazing breakfast, I was ready to venture back out. For the editorially-minded among you, the use of the singular ‘I’ for the ‘running in awful weather’ portion of the narrative here is very much intentional; the other half of the ‘we’ was comfortably ensconced at our hotel with the aforementioned tea during this interval.
We naturally ‘did’ the cathedral first, and the nominal entrance fee to the treasury was well worth it – a glimpse into the archaeology, as well as all the madder medieval (and even early modern) reliquaries and suchlike. By then, we were certainly thirsty, so began exploring more of the beer-y aspects of town. Using Katie Mather’s excellent introduction as a guide, we particularly enjoyed Pfaffen (not to be confused with Päffgen, which we also visited) and Mühlen Kölsch, though we took in a representative sample of other producers, for science. My one regret is not buying some of the more kitsch clothing options available at Früh’s large giftshop – though as we didn’t make it into their pub, it felt like cheating. That branded hockey jersey, tho…
After some more museum-ing, we made it to see Neil and the boys (and Rosie) again, and were delighted to discover that German gig snack and drink options were so reasonable – two soft pretzels and two quite decent local beers came to a total of €14 – back home in Dublin, a single pint of Guinness or Murphy’s of sometimes-dubious vintage in a plastic cup will run closer to a tenner at most music venues. And it was an excellent show, as always, so well worth the trip.
The next day, we set off for Dusseldorf. Our train there – more or less on time, as it happens – was run by National Express, so we stayed on theme. Once in town, we took in some more museums, but it was really all about exploring the altbier options. We especially enjoyed Zum Schlüssel and Brauerei Im Füchschen, which was our favourite overall. I tend to prefer altbier to kölsch, and so while there was more to see from a general tourism perspective in Köln, it would have been nice to have a bit more time in Dusseldorf, too – both to check out a few breweries that were closed the day we visited, and to investigate Little Tokyo more thoroughly.
Our day in Dusseldorf was somewhat shortened as the impending rail strike the day we were leaving meant that it made more sense to stay at an airport hotel versus one in the city centre, so we opted for an early night. And without going into too much detail, I will say that flying back to Dublin on Paddy’s Day, with revellers from across Europe in specially-curated green outfits makes for an…interesting travel experience; think Temple Bar on a plane, but perhaps don’t think too hard about it.
In summary, a long weekend is nearly perfect to visit one city, but not quite enough time to explore both. Will we need a return trip? Well, there *is* a second parkrun in Köln to try…
