Koln (Cologne) Germany Suggestions

Have you seen Rick's 17 pages in his book?Here's a link to a prior discussion of the Koln Dom: click

The city is so big, which area do you want to stay, what's your budget for a hotel and what's the hotel standard you're looking for? Without this kind of information I'd suggest the downtown Marriott or Renaissance hotels for location and service level, if you want to stay in an old and re-modeled water tower (the rooms really are inside) than the hotel Wasserturm might be your thing... check with www.hrs.com and www.hotel.de and www.ehotel.de.

Check on www.hotel-muller-koeln.de It is not expensive with a great breakfast in a nice basement room.Steves says 3 star quality with 2star prices because it has no elevator.

If you like beer. There are many different Kolsch brews in Koln that you can visit. Those are always fun to stop in for a quick beer. They come in small glasses probably about 5-6 ounces at the most, but be sure to put your drink mat over your glass when you are done or they will keep bringing them to you. Fruh, Reisdorf or Gaffel you can't go wrong. Mmmmm Kolsch!! Prost!!

Short Rhine cruise--wine, castles at every turn. What's not to like?

Hi Tracy:

I stayed at Pension Brandenburg is walking distance from the Train Station opposite to the Cathedral, It was back in 1999, for that time for a double room it cost approximately $82.00 CDN per night with share bathroom, but very clean, a buffet Breakfast is included.

What time of the year you are going ?

If you like Ice Hockey Cologne has a Hockey Team & prices are very affordable unfortunately when I was there the team was not playing home. I have attended Ice Hockey Games in other German Cities & prices are very affordable 15.00 Euro for standing room & 30 for regular seats, Standing room is better as you have a chance to get to know the locals.

Cruise along the Rhine, wine sampling.
Suggestion in the morning take the Train or Hydrofoil to Koblenz where the Rhine & Mossel river meet & come back in the slow boat to Cologne.
If you want more details for the Hotel you can e-mail me at [email protected].

Hope this helps.

Pilar

Toronto, ON Canada

The normal glass for a Kolsh beer is a tall thin .2 liter glass.

I was in Koln once on business and the Rathaus had an open house. We got to see the treasures (original pieces of the building that weren't destroyed by bombs) and meet the Uberbergermeister. He gave me an autographed picture and one of those .2 liter glasses with his picture on it.

It was perfect. I had asked my aide what she wanted me to bring her back from Germany, her response was, "A man." She got the autographed picture and glass (okay so I'm cheap). LOL!

Seriously, try the Kolsch, it's not brewed anywhere else. Visit the Dom, the Roman museum, the Rathaus and wander the old town area around them. The statue of two Laurel and Hardy like characters are from funny medieval stories. There is a great indoor/outdoor restaurant next to a fountain depicting an old fairy tale (trolls?) that's great but I can't recall the name of the restaurant or fountain. "Wiener Art" on a menu means it's the house specialty.

We went here by train as a side trip from our Rhine base.

We hopped off in Remagen to pay our respects at the bridge and visited the small peace musuem.
Hopped back on to Koln.

Here we had sandwiches & drinks at Starbucks. Their outdoor cafe faces side stairs of Cathedral and just outside train station.

Then showed up at 230pm for English guided tour of the Cathedral, pay the guide directly. This is followed by a 20 minute film in Dom Forum. Excellent tour!

We were lazy & took the little Schoko-Express train from TI area to the Chocolate Museum and store located on the river promenade. They give out alot of samples, yummy, and we did a self tour. Then walked the Old Town back to center, ending at Chicago Bar & Grill for dinner.

Koln was great even with the American food day.

Here is my TripAdvisor review of the Brandenburger Hof in Cologne, I can't recommend it highly enough:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187371-d239121-r2886024-Brandenburger_Hof-Cologne_North_Rhine_Westphalia.html