Köln (Day 2) - Schokoladen Museum und Farina Haus

On our second day in Köln, we decided to go to the Chocolate Museum and the Farina Haus, home to the world's oldest fragrance company. We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, then took a leisurely walk along the banks of the mighty Rhine River. It was a grey, drizzly day but we've all become accustomed to that since our move to Deutschland.

Our morning walk took us to the Schokoladen Museum.

One of the first things that you notice when you walk into the building is the cafe, which had plenty of cakes and pastries just waiting to be purchased and enjoyed. We decided to forgo the temptation and went to look at the exhibits. The first floor contained displays that informed visitors about cocoa farming, and the steps they must go through before they can become the edible form that we so thoroughly enjoy. The museum also had a greenhouse that contained a simulated rainforest - complete with cacao trees and humidity. As we walked through the museum, we started to smell the waft of paradise. As it turns out, Lindt has a miniature chocolate factory on site. There were lots of machinery on site, each with various windows from which you can observe the chocolate making process. Needless to say, Gabriel was fascinated by the manufacturing equipment while Jocelyn was getting a sugar high just from the scent of all that chocolate. There was also a kind lady who offered wafer cookies that were dipped into a fountain of melted, warm chocolatey goodness.

The rest of the exhibits were devoted to the history of chocolate consumption, starting from the beginning in Central America to modernity and the global hunger chocolate. After spending way too much time in the gift shop, we decided to take a lunch break. Surprisingly, we didn't gorge ourselves on chocolate so we still had an appetite for lunch.

We had walked by a Vietnamese restaurant named Cyclo the night before, and was intrigued. There have usually been a few Chinese and Thai restaurants in most of the German cities that we have visited, but Vietnamese restaurants have been rare. After we got our fill of noodle soups and pho, we decided to take a stroll along Hohestrasse.

After ducking into a few shops, we decided to go to the Farina Haus, the fragrance museum which was the production site of the original Eau de Cologne.

Johann Maria Farina was the creator of the fragrance, which smells surprisingly quite lovely. I was expecting it to smell more heavy and dated, but it's actually quite a light scent with notes of jasmine and bergamot. We took a CD-guided tour through the museum, which started with some background information on the Farina family and a description of what social life was like during that time period. We also learned about the fragrance's famous patrons. Napoleon is said to have used a bottle a day. It was also known as the fragrance of royalty and upper class, society people. There was also a fragrance chamber and a replica of a distiller that would have been used in the creation process.

We were also led to a display that held quite a number of fakes and imitation fragrances. Amongst these was the 4711, which also marketed itself as the original Eau de Cologne. We learned that the maker of 4711 had initially bought the rights to the Farina name (from a Farina was not related to the fragrance maker). But after several court battles with the Farinas, the imitator changed their product's name to 4711. In fact, 4711 is sold in tourist shops all over the city and I was able to spray a little on my wrist and make a comparison. Suffice it to say, the 4711 does indeed smell different...kind of like house cleaning chemicals.

After our tour, we headed back to the hotel to rest up a little before dinner.