What’s it like to go to a precious stones fair with your pre-schooler?
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Lyons Cub loves everything shiny and glittery. He has a lighted hanging glass shelf filled with glass figurines, sea shells, and semi-precious stones that he regards as his treasure. Every time we go to a Christmas market, we buy something for his shelf, and this year, his Advent calendar was home made and contained one tiny glass figurine or semi-precious stone per door.
But he had never attended a trade fair with lots of exhibits and precious stones and fossils of different countries. Therefore, this October, we took the train to Cologne to visit the EDELSTEINTAGE KOELN. It takes place every half year. I found it rather small, with booths on two floors, and great for families with children, who would easily tire out at a huge fair with many halls and buildings. This fair was just right for Lyons Cub’s first-ever visit, and he enjoyed the jewelry, stones, corals, rocks, polished and unpolished things, and especially the fossils.
He was amazed at pyrite, which looks like gold, and the geodes that look ugly and round on the outside and bear the most beautiful, spiky crystals on the inside.
The place was easy to find, in Martinstraße 29-37, where one can walk from Cologne train station. The way back, I even carried my son on my back because he was tired after all the walking, and it was totally feasible 😉 The only thing we didn’t like was that it opened exactly at 11 a.m., and we were not let in any sooner when we arrived a few minutes early. We had to stand outside in the cold with some other early birds. They could at least have let us into the warm building. Since we were freezing, we went into a bakery opposite the street and had a hot cocoa and a breakfast roll. Thus, next time, we will plan for that and come exactly at 11 a.m.
The audience seems to have been mostly women, some collectors, and a few people who love stones for their esoteric and healing qualities. We met a nice young lady and got into talking about attending the next precious stones fair in the city of Dortmund. We didn’t make it anymore this year, but perhaps in the years to come.
When mommy was a little girl, she and her sister got semi-precious rocks with succulents glued to them, which we needed to spray with water about once a week. I remember that mine sat on a rock crystal and my sister’s on an amethyst. My son doesn’t know it yet, but he will also get an amethyst with a succulent sitting on it (that we got from a local garden center) in one of his Advent calendar doors.
Lyons Cub bought a turquoise bracelet for himself and one with light blue stones for mommy. For grandma, we got a llama made of jade. If I were a millionaire, I’m sure I would have had to buy him many more things, but since that was not possible, he settled on a few semi-precious stones. In addition, a couple of nice vendors saw his love for colored rocks and presented him with a few specimen for free, which was very exciting. There was just so much to see, one could have stayed forever!
To sum up, it was a great family excursion which I highly recommend — the only problem is if you have children who always want everything they see 😉
In February 2024, we went once more to the Cologne semi-precious stones fair, this time with Lyons Cub’s niece and nephew. My son collects his rocks and geodes in a glass shelf. Look at some of our goodies:
