SaraEMiller
Dallas
A question about this place:
Answers:
gneer
Köln
I live near Cologne and never saw it as a touristical place to go. However, the matching Wikipedia article might be a good starting point for your investigations. Also you might want to see cities nearby, including Bonn, but also Frechen, Hürth, Brühl, Leverkusen, Dormagen, Pulheim – each having a German Wikipedia article (mentioning noteworthy places) too.
Somewhere, there’s the Pope’s Hill where they celebrated World Youth Day 2005; in Brühl there’s a pair of castles worth to see – while in Cologne you might stay for weeks to see every single church. You might want to see the Alter Markt of Cologne if you’re interested in a part of Cologne’s old town. Around Pulheim there are several mills, also maybe worth a look; at least sad to miss if you’d been there and learn about them only afterwards.
Alternatively, places to visit in Cologne, you might figure out by having a look into the local event calendar magazines like Kölner (koelner.de) or Stadtrevue (stadtrevue.de), both in German.
SaraEMiller
Dallas
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your response. I have been to the more touristy areas in Germany, so I thought Koln might be a different experience… Also, I can remember waking up on an overnight train from Berlin to Amsterdam and seeing the cathedral, rising up out of the darkness… so that’s how I ended up choosing Koln. I love to wander around the smaller towns in Germany, so I will definitely explore your suggestions further!
gneer
Köln
Nice way to pick a city. :) And pretty nice how you describe it, too.
However, be glad you didn’t see the cathedral in daylight. – I see it every morning when commuting to work, and finally decided it’s quite nasty. ... We’ve got an ongoing discussion here on whether the muslims shall be allowed to build a quite large mosque with high towers, and on the other hand there’s the cathedral and the UNESCO’s demand that there may be no other building around topping the height of the cathedral.
My conclusion was, the cathedral is a real logo for Cologne. But why shouldn’t be there any other? Like a mosque? Cologne has so very many churches, it won’t hurt, I think. And, maybe, they might manage to keep the mosque’s stone white. I think, for the cathedral, they’ve given up that one already. The stone’s getting black so quickly, you almost can see it going on. It’s because of the exhaust gas of the cars.
Another hint for diving into Cologne might be to “surf a couch” of someone living here. There’s a quite active Couchsurfing.com group around for the Cologne/Bonn area. Although that community does not belong to Robot Co-Op (43places etc), I suggest to take that chance very much. Once, I surfed a couch in Braunschweig and it was a great experience and chance to learn about that city and city life.
