Kölle Alaaf! carnival, cathedral, festivals (Coloane)

Member Name: tairrie

Product:	Coloane
Date:	30/11/00 (143 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: interesting city, cathedral, festivals, museums, the Rhine, carnival

Disadvantages: it's in Germany ;-)

Cologne is definitely worth a visit. My grandmother was born and raised there and I don't know how often I've been there on school trips etc.

First of all there's the famous cathedral, a very impressive building (gothic I think) and you can climb the tower for a good view all over cologne if you're not afraid of heights that is. It is situated directly next to the Central Station and you can hardly miss it. The street directly adjecent to the cathedral is Cologne's main shopping mile (Hohe Straße) and usually it's packed, so keep your elbows up!
probably I should add that in Germany shops close rather early (6.30 or 8.00 on weekdays and 2.00 or 4.00 on Saturdays, Sundays they're closed anyway except for a few touristy shops which have a special license.)
With the pound being about 3 something against the Deutschmark at the moment it should also be rather cheap in comparison even though shops on the Hohe Straße will be more expensive than elsewhere in Cologne.
There are several interesting museums around, the Wallraf Richartz museum and the Museum Ludwig (for modern art). The one we always visited on school trips though was the "Römisch Germanisches Museum" (Rman Germanic museum) showing the history of Roman settlements in the Rhine area. Cologne by the way takes its name from Latin "Colonia Agrippiniensis" the name the Romans gave their "colony".
If you're fed up with culture and want to see some action there are a number of good live music venues and clubs (e.g. the Underground or the E-Werk or the Live Music Hall) if you know a bit of German it might be worth having a look at the various city magazines available (often for free) in pubs like for example "coolibry" or "heinz".
In Mid-August there's a festival, the "Bizarre" festival which takes place on a former American airfield (? erm...vocab? nevermind). It's a bit like Reading or Glastonbury. The location is called "Butzweiler Hof". But as the festival has been growing over the ye
ars I'm not 100% sure it won't be moved.
Cologne is also famous of its carnival, in February there's a parade, people dress up, get drunk and hug and kiss each other in the streets...a bizarre experience. It's a custom they throw sweets and stuff from the bandwagons at the parade, that's where an umbrella might come in handy if you hold it up the wrong way around.
For my friend who lives in Cologne it's always a reason to flee from the scene and visit her parents because the city is packed and there whole city is flooded with strange people and horrible carnival music. But if you're not from Cologne and have never seen it before it's definitely good fun! Their official cheer is "Kölle Alaaf!!" (Kölle being Cologne Alaaf...no idea!) and if anyone should ask you for a "Bützsche" they want a kiss. :-)
Taking a walk along the promenades on the banks of the Rhine is nice, too and you can go for boat trips to see the local sites (for example the "Drachenfels") or to Bonn, our former capital.
In the direct vicinity of the cathedral there's a rather new building where a musical is on play called "Gaudi" about the life of the architect who built the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Don't know if it's any good though, never been to see it.
Getting to Cologne is rather easy, there's an airport (Köln/Bonn) and another one in Düsseldorf which is not far away with trains going to Cologne central station. As for accomodation I can't really say much as I live only a two-hour drive from Cologne and if ever I have to stay overnight I can stay at my friend's.
But it's worth a visit, definitely!!

PS: If you speak a bit of German...forget about it, in Cologne you will have some difficulty understanding their regional dialect. Even I have problems at times if I come across someone with a really broad Cologne accent. But then you'll know how I felt the first time I came to Glasgow. :-)))

Summary: