After finishing up our Cathedral tour in Cologne, Germany on Easter Sunday last year we headed back to the ship for a bite to eat and then headed to the Schokloaden Museum which was just a short walk down the street from where our ship was docked. Now in case you didn’t figure out what this place was from the title of the post, this a Chocolate Factory and Museum. And it was open on Easter Sunday, Oh My!
When we got there we saw all these tents and vendors set up. It was a German Antique Flea Market! Chocolate and Antiques? Yes, Please! It was about 5 pm and the Museum closed at 6 so we thought we had better hurry inside. Well, when got inside, the wonderful smell of chocolate was more than we could contain. They had a huge gift shop and we decided rather than tour the museum and factory we would just see what was available in the gift shop.
We were in luck! They had marked all of their Easter chocolate down (half and over half off) so we stocked up. I mean, we were literally like kids in a candy shop, err, adults acting like kids in a chocolate shop. June was able to get all kinds of wonderful treats for her nieces and Jerry and I stocked up on goodies for ourselves.
I found these wonderful German Chocolate Bar Easter Tins. I was in love. The images were just adorable and I knew I could keep the tins and decorate with them for years to come. I am so happy that I found these. Of course, we also got lots of chocolate to keep us going during our trip. But, we were really lucky to hit them at just the right time. We really scored some great deals on some delicious chocolate!
We came back out and decided before hitting the vendors at the Flea Market to take a hike up those stairs at the end of the museum to take in one last view of Cologne. If you look at the upper right of the picture above, you see the stairs I am talking about.
The museum has an observation deck many stories up where you have a wonderful view of Cologne. Here you can see the longships docked at the pier. Ours is the ship in the back, the Viking Ingvi. And you can see the towers of the Dom, or Cathedral and Great St. Martins’s Church.
And across the Rhine was an amusement park and more of Cologne to see and explore, had we chosen to do so. It was a beautiful day and the view from the observation deck at the museum was wonderful.
We headed back down to the Flea Market and June and I wanted to take everything home. June and I oohed and aahhed over all the dishes.
The vintage textiles!
I loved these little samplers!
The antique dolls and toys!
Steiff Bears and Noah’s Ark animals!
I loved these old wooden spools and the crate they were in!
And I could have found lots of uses for these vintage metal tubs! They would make wonderful planters in the garden.
But we would have needed a couple dozen of these vintage suitcases to carry home all of the treasures we wanted that day.
But don’t think I came home empty handed! I did score these fabulous vintage brooches from a nice man who said he gave me a deal and not to tell his wife! How funny! I fell in love with them immediately and the price was definitely right. They are nice and heavy and all are in very good condition. I hope to make them in to some necklaces soon.
After shopping we headed back to the ship and had dinner on the Aquavit Terrace again. We were joined by four other couples and it was a great way to meet new people in such an intimate setting. Dinner was again wonderful, I tried an avocado spread on my potato (not a huge fan of avocados) and enjoyed it. And we had German Chocolate Cake for desert.
There was a Pub Hop Tour that night in Cologne, as we were docked there until midnight, and we could have also toured the city at night, but we were exhausted. It had been a wonderfully long day and we all decided to relax in the lounge for a while and listen to our onboard entertainment. The ship has a piano player that cruises with us the entire time and he is always playing in the lounge, so there is always something going on.
Then we all headed down to our cabins to get some rest. We had another huge day ahead of us tomorrow.
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
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