| A city so good you'll want to dab it behind your ears. |
| Cologne (Köln) does spoil its visitors: it heaps on the magnificent architecture, splendid museums, superb theatre and concerts, excellent dance clubs, and enormous department stores, and then, if that wasn't enough, it heaps some great food and beer on top. |
| Weights measures system: | Metric |
Location and surroundings |
| Population: | 965300 inhabitants . |
| Official language: | officialGerman |
| Cologne has cold winters and rainy summers - oddly, the city gets most of its precipitation in the summer months of June and August. Both of which means the nicest weather is in spring - from March to May - and autumn, from September to October. Rain aside, however, July and August are delightful months to visit in terms of temperature. The daytime maximum average temperatures in these months hover around 24°C (75°F). |
| Dec | Nov | Oct | Sep | Aug | Jul | Jun | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan | | Average high temp. | 5 | 9 | 14 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 14 | 13 | 6 | 4 | | Average low temp. | 0 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0 | -1 | | Average rainfall | 52 | 65 | 53 | 55 | 73 | 69 | 75 | 51 | 60 | 10 | 42 | 60 | | AM Humidity | 87 | 87 | 89 | 88 | 85 | 82 | 79 | 80 | 83 | 84 | 84 | 85 | | PM Humidity | 81 | 77 | 69 | 61 | 56 | 56 | 54 | 55 | 59 | 61 | 61 | 77 | | Average sunshine | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Köln-Bonn Airport (www.airport
-cgn.de) offers connections to around 30
European cities.The bus station (Busbahnhof) is just
behind the Hauptbahnhof, on Breslauer
Platz. Eurolines (www.eurolines.com) buses go to
Paris )
and back daily (8 hours; some trips overnight) and
to Warsaw daily (21 hours). Trips
to Prague (12 hours) are scheduled
three times a week.Cologne is a major train hub with regional
and main-line train services to Bonn (40 minutes), Düsseldorf (30
minutes) and Aachen (1 hour)
several times an hour. Superfast ICE trains
make hourly trips to Frankfurt (1.25 hours)
and Berlin (4.25 hours), and every
two hours to Munich (4.5 hours).
Hamburg is served by IC trains (4 hours).Cologne is also a major autobahn hub and
is encircled by the immense Kölner Ring,
with exits to the A1, A3, A4, A57, A555
and A559 leading in all directions. Note
that this ring road can often get jammed with
traffic. | |
| Driving in Cologne can be awful. You can all too easily end up in a tunnel you don't want to be in, or on a bridge you don't want to cross. And most streets in the centre have residential parking only, so you'll often be forced to pay too much for the pleasure of leaving your vehicle. Note that some parking lots close at night and charge an overnight fee, while taxis can be ruinously expensive. It's much better to hire a bike or take public transport. Cologne's mix of buses, trams, and U-Bahn or S-Bahn trains is operated by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg in cooperation with Bonn's system. Buy your tickets (either short-trip or 24-hour) from the orange ticket machines at stations and aboard trams; be sure to stamp them. | |
| Pre-20th century history | Cologne's history begins in ancient times and its origins are inextricably linked with Julia Aggripina, who famously murdered her spouse - only to be murdered in turn by her son, Nero. Julia was born in 15 AD, in a garrison town that had been established 48 years earlier. She eventually became the emperor's wife and persuaded him to rename her birthplace after her - although it didn't take long for 'Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium' to get shortened down to 'Colonia'. In German it's now known as Continue reading. Köln.Throughout the Dark Ages the city gradually became a powerful Catholic archbishopric. Construction on its famous cathedral began in 1248, just 40 years before the archbishops lost power to the guilds at the battle of Worringen. Köln became a Free Imperial City and continued to prosper.The cathedral was left unfinished, but the city remained staunchly Catholic. The French invaded in 1794 and - when the Congress of Vienna ended the occupation - the city was subsumed into Prussia. During the nineteenth century the city industrialised and continued to flourish. After five centuries, the Prussians completed construction of the towering cathedral. Hide. |
| Modern history: | | Cologne's economy was robust enough to ride out the economic downturns between the wars, but could do nothing against Allied bombing. It has been estimated that 95% of central Cologne was destroyed. In the decades following the conflict, enormous effort went into clearing the ruins and rebuilding the city. |
| recent history: | | Today, Cologne is powered by the automotive and pharmaceutical industries; these twin engines have helped it recover from its wounds to become the fourth largest city in Germany. |
 |  | | Chock-full of classy hotels and restaurants | Just small part of enormous Cologne Cathedral; started 1248, finished 1880 | | Brent Winebrenner | David Peevers | | | |
| Kölner Dom | | | Category:religious/spiritual/architectural highlight/Unesco World Heritage | | | |
| | | Teléfono: 02211794 0200 | | | underground rail: Dom/Hauptbahnhof | |
| | Cologne's geographical and spiritual heart
and its main tourist attraction is the magnificent Kölner Dom. With its soaring twin spires, this is the Mt Everest of cathedrals. It's packed with an amazing array of art treasures, and its elegant proportions and dignified ambience leave only the most jaded of visitors untouched. | | _________________________________________________________________________________ | | Gross St Martin | | | Category:religious/spiritual/architectural highlight | | | |
| | | Cologne's medieval heyday is reflected in its wealth of Romanesque churches, which were constructed between 1150 and 1250 and survived largely intact until WWII. About a dozen have been rebuilt since and offer many unique architectural and artistic features. Winning top honours for most handsome exterior is Gross St Martin, whose ensemble of four slender turrets grouped around a central spire towers above Fischmarkt in the Altstadt. | | _________________________________________________________________________________ | | Kölner Dom South Tower | | | | For an exercise fix, climb the 509 steps up the Dom's south tower to the base of the steeple that dwarfed all buildings in Europe until Gustave Eiffel built a certain tower in Paris. A good excuse to take a breather on your way up is the 24-tonne Peter Bell (1923), the largest working bell in the world. As you might imagine, views from the 95m platform are fabulous… | | _________________________________________________________________________________ |
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