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Anyone been to Cologne, Germany?

post #1 of 13
4/5/09 at 11:39pm
Thread Starter 
Headed to Cologne/Kohln for work, staying over for 2 weeks. Wondering if there any places that I must check out. Any advice would be great. I plan to check out the cathedrals, and some other sites. But would love some good bar, restaurant info.
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post #2 of 13
4/5/09 at 11:48pm
Spent a lot of time there this past summer. Nice place...definitely see the cathedral.
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post #3 of 13
4/6/09 at 12:14am
you have to see the cathedral. if you can get a book on it, do so, because you can't get everything from what you will see.

the modern art museum is great, world class. there is a roman museum that is fantastic.

around the train station are two brew pubs where they make Kolsh, the local light ale. drink there, and have at least one meal there.

the food court at the train station is nice - basically a good example of german street food.

I would go one weekend to dusseldorf, go to the old town and have a few alt beers - a very differnt type of ale. there are 2 good art museums and a great shopping street in d'dorf - the koningsallee.

you might want to take a boat trip on the rhine.

you can take a day trip to heidleburg, and or frankfurt.


enjoy
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post #4 of 13
4/6/09 at 12:17am
Yes, the cathedral. Also, there's a fun chocolate museum along the river. I think there was a thread with this same question about a year ago.
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post #5 of 13
4/6/09 at 12:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by globetrotter View Post
you have to see the cathedral. if you can get a book on it, do so, because you can't get everything from what you will see.

the modern art museum is great, world class. there is a roman museum that is fantastic.

around the train station are two brew pubs where they make Kolsh, the local light ale. drink there, and have at least one meal there.

the food court at the train station is nice - basically a good example of german street food.

I would go one weekend to dusseldorf, go to the old town and have a few alt beers - a very differnt type of ale. there are 2 good art museums and a great shopping street in d'dorf - the koningsallee.

you might want to take a boat trip on the rhine.

you can take a day trip to heidleburg, and or frankfurt.


enjoy

I would agree with your suggestions. You can also take the train to Dusseldorf just for dinner - it needn't be for a whole weekend if you don't have the time. If you haven't been to Germany, make sure you have dinner a few times at the beer halls and get used to sitting with people you don't know - talk to them too! That's the point...people will be friendly, particularly after a bunch of drinks. Also keep in mind that your waiter will keep your tab running by marking your coaster.

If you want to impress some people, check out and learn the song Viva Colonia by De Hoehner
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post #6 of 13
4/6/09 at 12:24am
not bad place to visit decnt maount of things to do,
i would suggest visting franfurt, but also visit mainz/wiesbaden area. they are small but nice. especially if you can vsit the vinyards outside of wiesbaden, the white wine from the region is excellent.
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post #7 of 13
4/6/09 at 12:24am
The restaurant at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst is pretty good too, IIRC. I would recommend either that hotel or the Dom Hotel as decent places to stay both with good location.
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post #8 of 13
4/6/09 at 2:56am
I was just there last summer, actually right during the eurocup. Apparently Germany ran out of beer that night!

Things to see/do...
Cathedral, definitely. quite amazing both during the day and at night. Read up, it's quite interesting, and this is coming from a guy who's seen a lot of church's in europe. One of my favorites.
Lindt factory, it was closed that day unfortunately :-(
Walk along the river in the evening was very nice
Jewish quarter, including a very old mikvah
Farinahaus, 1709... fascinating, the whole story of the original "Cologne" and the story about the Parfum family.

Some pictures... Just to give you ideas and to show off my skillz with the camera:

Arrival and Departure



The Cathedral:


This shot took forever to get a clearing, sorry, forgot to rotate.



Along the riverbank



Mikvah


Farinahaus



Dinner of dumplings


Perfect moment, Europe in a nutshell

How German!
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post #9 of 13
4/6/09 at 5:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnGalt View Post
You can also take the train to Dusseldorf just for dinner

if you are in cologne never ask for alt bier, if in dusseldorf never ask for kolsch bier. these cities don´t like each other very well. and just a hint, there are many gays, look for the throat before asking out a girl ..
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post #10 of 13
4/6/09 at 12:52pm
Thread Starter 
Great, thanks for the advice guys.

Hopefully I can borrow/rent a bike and get around.

Also, any cigar shops I can check out?

Also hoping that there's an Aldi around, I love foreign grocery stores.
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post #11 of 13
4/6/09 at 1:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlief1975 View Post
Great, thanks for the advice guys.

Hopefully I can borrow/rent a bike and get around.

Also, any cigar shops I can check out?

Also hoping that there's an Aldi around, I love foreign grocery stores.

there's a very good cigar store a few blocks from the train station. I could walk there, but I have no idea what the address is. ask at your hotel.
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post #12 of 13
4/6/09 at 1:47pm
Cologne is a great city. I spent about two weeks there in 2004. Tons of culture and nightlife. My favorite city in Germany.

Don't have too much to recommend that has not been mentioned already except be sure to drink some Kolsch (it is hard to miss).
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post #13 of 13
4/6/09 at 6:35pm
Hi,

I'm German and was living for six months in Cologne. If you are looking for bars and clubs, you can find many of them on the Hohenzollernring (big street). Unfortunately many clubs in Cologne are not very high quality, Cologne has a more lively bar scene. My favorite lounge is the Ivory (http://www.ivorylounge.de) at Friesenplatz, but it can be difficult to get past the bouncers if you are new to the city.
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