Germany for the summer

Hi,

How much time do you actually have? three weeks, one month, two months, the longer the better with the Pass. Any particular interests, cultural, historical? Depending upon your length of stay, the level of your historical interests, and how far you want "to travel (in) the surrounding areas." (the Lower Rhine, the Ruhr, and Westphalia) I can suggest cities/towns to see related to that interest aside from Köln: Bonn, Wesel am Rhein, Düsseldorf, Ratingen, (accessible by S-Bahn from Düsseldorf Hbf), Duisburg, Kaiserswerth, Dortmund, Kleves, Münster/Westfalen, Paderborn, Minden, etc.

True, you heard correctly on "great things about surrounding areas." It's a matter of setting interest priorities and going after them, esp with your ability to read the language.

Thanks for the response, Fred.

I am here until early August. I have weekends visits to Stuttgart (to see family friends) and Belgium (Brussels and Brugge) with my cousin. I also have a trip planned from July 3 – 22nd. Besides those days, I want to see as much of the area around Köln (Dusseldorf, Dortmund, etc), as well as other well-known cities in Germany and other countries in Europe.
I am interested in most everything. Example - 8 years ago in London I spent all day indulging in a football (soccer) game in London, two days later I was wandering the Louvre for hours on end.

Re language: I am not fluent by any means, but a random older couple sat down with me tonight for dinner and we had a nice conversation, all auf deutsch, with each other. That isn’t to say I understood everything they said, but I had a grasp on most of it.

I spent several months in Koeln 40 years or so ago and found all sorts of things to do within a couple of hours but other than drudge shopping I don't remember doing much in Koeln itself. The trams are pretty well organized.

I note that you say working (pay free) for a dentist so I'm sure you've looked into the implications of that. Under EU law, working (pay free) is still working and unless you have the correct German working visa you can get in some substantial trouble and if your dentist is found out they can get into even bigger trouble. You they can throw out, fine, and ban. The dentist can go to jail and lose their right to practice.

You are sailing close to the wind there....

If you have any interest in hiking, you could check out the Eifel National Park to your west (south of Aachen), or the mountainous Sauerland region to your east.

The lower Rhine and Ruhr valleys are the most densely populated regions of Germany, but not exactly the most scenic.

Hi,

I'm going to assume that you have all the legal aspects, as pointed out above, in order.

My suggestions for those places listed above stem basically from history, eg, Bonn - Beethoven's House. The other places have to do with specialised historical museums/houses, Landesmuseen, memorial sites, military cemeteries, historical statues, etc. If you're interested, great, they are accessible by public transportation and your desire to track them down. You can easily spend 2.5 to 3 hrs perusing these museums. Some have audioguides, (you don't need that anyway !) whereas some don't. That lower Rhine area was influenced by the French, Dutch, Prussians, etc.