Located in North Rhine–Westphalia, Cologne is Germany‘s oldest city and the country’s fourth largest metropolis (in terms of size and population), but also one of the main university and tourist centers.
Cologne is a city of contrasts, where you can find both religion and non-conformism, a cosmopolitan and at the same time romantic city. In addition, the architecture attracts tourists from all over the world. In short, Cologne has no shortage of visitors, regardless of the season. We visited it in December and I can say that it was quite crowded and hectic from the first hour of the morning until the evening.
To visit the city, we opted for a 24-hour city card (Köln Card). Of course, the 24 hours were not enough to see everything we set out to do (we are always in a hurry and want to see as much as possible in the shortest possible time). Cologne is more of a city-break city than a city you can see in one day, but we will definitely return with love. We ordered our card online from the official website and picked it up at the tourist information center – Köln Tourismus GmbH– located in front of the great cathedral and the central station. The price was 9€/person and as facilities we had free public transport and discounts between 20% and 50% at museums, restaurants and various guided tours. The discount leaflet can be downloaded in PDF format from the website mentioned above.
Probably the most famous tourist attraction is the Cologne Cathedral – the second tallest church in Germany – after the Ulm Cathedral – with a height of 157 m. No matter how hard you try to fit the dome into a single photo, you won’t succeed or it will be quite difficult to do so.
The cathedral was built in Gothic style over 225 years and is a center of pilgrimage as it houses the relics of the Three Wise Men . The interior of the cathedral is as impressive as the exterior. Stained glass windows depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments , statues, the organ or the Gero Crucifix dating from 965–970 are just some of the beauties you can admire. Access is free inside the cathedral.
The south tower of the cathedral can be visited, and the view of the city makes up for climbing the 509 circular steps. For visiting the tower, we had a discount with Köln Card and paid 3€/person.
Another well-known attraction is the Hohenzollern Bridge (HohenzollernbrĂĽcke) – originally built for both rail and car transport. After its destruction in 1945 and its reconstruction, it became accessible only for rail and pedestrian traffic. It is the most heavily used railway bridge in Germany, with more than 1200 trains a day crossing it. The bridge is built over the river Rhine and has a total length of 409 m. Since 2008, being inspired by the Pont des Arts – the famous bridge in Paris where tourists used to catch a “love lock” and throw the key into the Seine, many couples started picking locks here too, on the fence between the pedestrian area and the railway. The Dutch band Nits dedicated a song to this, the track being called “Love Locks“.
Although I had heard that the Christmas markets close immediately after December 26th, in Cologne it was still open on the 30th. So if you choose to spend the end of the year in Cologne, you can taste the famous bratwurst or warm up with mulled wine.
Like any sweet lover, I also visited the Chocolate Museum, located near the old town. The museum is housed in a glass and aluminum building built on 3 levels, where you can walk through the history of chocolate. An interesting thing is that when you buy the ticket, you are also given a Lindt chocolate which you will later see how it is designed and packaged.
You can also create your own chocolate recipe, for a fee of course. Fill in a form where you choose the type of chocolate you want (white, milk or dark) and 4 ingredients from fruits, hazelnuts, nuts, pistachios, jellies or cayenne pepper, and then wait between 35 minutes and an hour, depending on the number requests. The chocolate is made before your eyes and then left in the fridge to harden. I say it’s worth both the money and the time you wait for it to be ready. The ticket cost €6.5/person (reduced price with Köln Card).
As you can tell from our articles, we have a fascination for tall buildings and towers and the view from the top, and Germany is known for its television towers turned tourist attractions.
Colonius – Cologne’s television tower is 266 m high – the seventh tallest in the country, being closed to visitors due to lack of funding and the area in which it is placed, far from the tourist area of ​​the city. Nevertheless, we ventured to go and see it, at least for a collection picture.
In addition to these attractions, the city has about 40 museums, monuments and baroque buildings, churches, parks, an impressive botanical garden that houses over 12,000 floristic species, a zoo, terraces, bars or cafes. You can also opt for a cruise on the Rhine or a walk along the river promenade.
In conclusion, we highly recommend that you visit this welcoming and lively city, regardless of the season, and give it a few days to impress yourself with all that it has to show.
We leave you to enjoy the pictures taken by us and we await your feedback.
If you liked our Cologne tour, you might also like our DĂĽsseldorf tour.
(Cologne – December 2016)
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