Our Favorite Destinations in Cologne (Part 2): Rheinpark

Last Sunday, for our monthversary, we returned to the Rheinpark—a wonderful park at the Rhine, which we had visited during one of our first dates. The park is located at the other side of the river and might be the biggest park in Cologne. To get there, we would always recommend walking over the Zoobrücke which offers wonderful views on the Dom, Cologne's iconic cathedral, and the Hohenzollernbrücke with its thousands of padlocks symbolizing love.

But even if you don't walk across this bridge, the beach in the northern corner of the park has fantastic views! And even though this beach is not in the Caribbean, it is wonderful to stay here for a while—we even saw geese and goslings! (If you want to be more active and/or have children, you'll also find a skate park and a very diverse playground here and at other places in the park.)

Although walking around this park in itself is wonderful, it is also fascinating to watch its diverse visitors and find political street art. And apparently, there also is a tree decorated with pacifiers (we didn't come across it yet) where children (or their parents) leave their pacifiers when they don't need them anymore.

Our personal highlight here is the toy train, though. This small train, mainly targeting children and families, takes its passengers on an approximately two kilometers long route through the park. We had planned to take it for over a year and when we finally sat in our 'compartment' last Sunday, we enjoyed it a lot!

From the main toy train stop, returning to the city via the Hohenzollernbrücke offers more wonderful views on the cathedral and the city. And reading the padlocks on the bridge is so heartwarming and sometimes even inspiring!

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