The highlights of my vacation II

Part II: Köln



Image: borrowed from the abyss of Internet picture of Dom in Köln

Russian version - click here

In Köln I met a friend who has shown me some of the hotspots and also presented with small decants of rare vintage perfumes (worth to mention in a separate entry).

Beauty and Nature shop has a collection of Primavera essential oils and absolutes where I could try some new ones I was not familiar with yet. For some oils and absolutes they have several variations – like several jasmine, rose and neroli oils/absolutes. Surprising was to try a soft and gentle white rose oil. Finally I’ve bought some of them to play with later:
Osmanthus absolute from Australia 5% solution in pure alcohol – reminds me of a combination of tannic note of black tea and sour and sweet dried apricots.
Magnolia blossoms oil from China – with its salty note reminds me of lavender a bit. But it has more aspects to get acquaintance with.
Cacao extract from Peru – perfect chocolate, almost to eat from the bottle.
Tagetes oil (African marigold) 15% solution in pure alcohol – the first impression – coffee with rum, but later I discovered its herbal floral fragrance with a bitter chocolate undertone.

Beauty&Nature
Ehrenstraße 40-42
50762 Köln

The cakes again… I feel like I am in paradise. This time I did try a kind of walnut cake – did they use some ambrosia to make it?

The perfumery I visited was Apropos – a large assortiment of niche perfumery.

Apropos
Mittelstrasse 12
D-50672 Köln
www.apropos-coeln.de

Well, highlights only:

The use of pink feathers instead as blotters…

I did try some Montales:
Blue Amber – a nicely dirty amber – like Ambre Sultan with more animalic notes.
Ginger and musk – nice spicy musky sweetness, like ginger candies. The most of sweetness comes from the synthetic musks. They had a sample of it.
Red aoud – surprisingly similar to Red Vetyver.

Finally I tried Tundra. I know this one and this time it didn’t appear to be special. But after I put it on my skin it began slowly opening and gave me its various facets (berries, fresh water, herbs of tundra etc). In about a half hour it was the only fragrance I could smell (one spray of it has conquered it all). Now it’s on my wishlist too.

I visited the Commes de Garçons boutique that I never could find if I was alone – it’s behind a door from a frosted glass with almost no sign on it (actually you can see only the upper third of small “commes de garcons” sign). They have just several fragrances. The green series I wanted to try was not there.

Friesenwall 5-7
50672 Köln, Germany

Köln has the biggest Gothic cathedral, but less beautiful than one I’ve seen in Aachen.

The house 4711 is a kind of disappointing tourist hotspot now. You can still buy their modern versions of eau de cologne, Tabac, Tosca and several others. You can also visit a small exhibition of their history at glance. But there is nothing left from a spirit of former glory of the House.

Finally traditional German “lunch” (taken at about 18.00, so it has become the main meal of the day). This time I tried a kind of “butcher’s dish” – various kinds of meat with mashed potato and sauerkraut (yes, what else ;-). Simple, heavy and delicious.