Christmas in Cologne

Advantages: Milka...Lindt...chocolate in general
Disadvantages: cable car shut in winter

...We went to Cologne this December so I could practice my German, we could go to the Christmas markets and we could take some much needed time off work. Actually, scrap that. Those were the reasons we went to Germany. The single reason we went to Cologne in particular was the flight schedules - Tui now fly there from Manchester, and our flights cost less than £70 return including taxes and the credit card fee (alarmingly charged per passenger, not per transaction). I had been to Cologne before, but not since 1991, which is a decent chunk of my life ago. My companion had never been there, nor anywhere else in Germany for that matter. We booked in September, and had been annoying our mutual colleagues ever since, with tales of the heavily-chocolate-infused fun we were going to have. Now everywhere in Germany has fabulous chocolate, but...

zoe_page 07.12.2007 · Read review
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Review of Cologne (Germany)

Heinzelmännchen's Home

Advantages: famous sights, the river Rhine
Disadvantages: none that I could find out in a day

...HEINZELMÄNNCHEN?S HOME The other day I was in Köln am Rhein, the fourth largest German city with nearly one million inhabitants, Cologne on the Rhine for you, Colonia Agrippina for the Old Romans; the wife of Emperor Claudius was born on the banks of the Rhine and elevated her ?colonia? to the status of a city in the year 50 A.D. I don?t know if you associate anything with Köln (the ?ö? is pronounced like the ?u? in burn), Germans think of Carnival, the Cathedral and Eau de Cologne. I don?t know any other city where the main attraction is right beside the train station (or rather vice versa), you leave the building and there, smack bang, is the Cathedral, the two towers are 157m high, it?s not possible not to be impressed. You cross a square and walk up a flight of stairs on which people sit - and unfortunately also eat...

MALU 17.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Cologne (Germany)

Cologne at Christmas

Advantages: Great to visit at Christmas, Lots to do
Disadvantages: Gets very cold in autumn/winter so take warm clothing

...Having relatives who live in Germany, I visit at least once a year and my favourite time of the year is Christmas. There is something about arriving in a city like Cologne or Koln, as it is referred to in German, and visiting their Christmas Markets. They have about eight markets in operation between the end of November up until Christmas day. They are an absolute delight and a must for anyone visiting Cologne, all brimming full of continental delights from hand crafted Christmas decorations and toys to enticing chocolate truffles. There are a number of stalls selling Gluwein, which is the local equivalent of Hot Mulled Wine, the perfect antidote to the cold that seems to creep into every part of your body. As others have noted the Cathedral is the main attraction and very beautiful, but if you have a visual impairment be...

tastymorsel 24.08.2004 · Read review
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Review of Cologne (Germany)

Cologne christmas markets

Advantages: a different way of christmas
Disadvantages: the crowds

...I have never visted Germany before but took a trip to see the Colocgne and Koblenz christmas markets. We went with a tour company which as it happens will be another story and spent only 4 hours in Cologne but it did leave its mark on me. They have 4 christmas markets 2 near the cathedral and 2 just a few minutes walk away.We went to the largest which was a battle to get to as we had to go through the shoppers but when we got to it we were not disappointed. It was not as I imagined but it was brillant, small stalls all around selling christmas things and many many food stalls. On the christmas stalls you could buy many wooden things nativity sets and the wooden displays like windmalls which you put candles in and the heat makes them turn,I got the most brillant handpainted balls and different sorts of baubles for the tree all at good...

tatootart 08.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Cologne (Germany)

Cologne - Das ist meine Stadt

Advantages: siehe text
Disadvantages: siehe text

...Hey there. I am new here; active at ciao-germany though. I am expressing my experiences at ciao.uk, cos i just wanna keep my english up to date. I used to live in America. Speaking German all the times makes me forgetting the english language. So I hope it didnt get so bad. Well, Cologne is the city where i live at. I dont know why they put this picture for that "product", because the most important and popular part is the center of cologne. In the middle of the center, there is the hugest cathedral all over the world - the cologne cathedral. They started to build it in 1248 and it lasted more than 600 years to finish building it up. It is impressive when you look up the cathedral. Imagine how many Japanese people are running around there and taking pictures. That really cracks me up. Inside the cathedral there are the corpses...

Flittarder 01.12.2002 · Read review
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Review of Cologne (Germany)

FOLLOW THE MAGI TO COLOGNE

Advantages: History. Scale. Drama. Art. Views. Free Admission.
Disadvantages: Crowds. Luggage.

...I will refer throughout to the subject of this review as Cologne Cathedral, that being the familiar English term for it. If you wish to carry out further research you will also need to know the German title: "Kolner Dom". Two of my great interests in life are architecture and history; seldom do they merge better and in more spectacular style than in the great churches and cathedrals. Over the years I have enjoyed visiting virtually all of the cathedrals in England - many in Poland during the last seven years too. Since my late teens there had been one cathedral above all others that I had wanted to visit - Cologne. However well one may, or may not, know Cologne, Germany, or even in a much wider sense church architecture, the iconic silhouette of Cologne Cathedral, with its truly colossal twin towers, will probably be familiar to...

RICHADA 10.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Cologne Cathedral (Dom), Cologne

A NIGHT IN THE MUSIC MUSEUM - COLOGNE

Advantages: Position. Clean. Spacious. Parking. Receptionists.
Disadvantages: Facilities.

...the Viktoria has some saving graces, prime amongst them an extremely helpful team of receptionists, I feel that we are unlikely to use it again. We will return to Cologne undoubtedly. On this occasion we had been extraordinarily lucky with the weather - had it been raining constantly, that first night would have been the only one spent in this hotel. Had it been located in an area where there was at least somewhere to eat that may be different, but as far as I am concerned walking for miles trying to find somewhere open to serve a meal on a Sunday night is a most off-putting experience. RICHADA'S HOTEL RATING 70 / 100 - 70 % In order to put that score into some kind of perspective, here are my current hotel rankings - all reviewed and scored using identical criteria: Ringhotel Friederikenhof - Lubeck - Germany - 92% Innkeeper...

RICHADA 07.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Viktoria, Cologne

Cheekychicken said this is boring

Advantages: Many
Disadvantages: None

...When I told Mel (cheekychicken) what I was writing about, her words were, 'Oh right! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!But trust me, I promise, well I hope, it's not boring, well my opinion might be lol, but the place isn't.This is not about Cologne in general, but about the christmas markets there. Two years ago I was fortunate to spend a long weekend in Cologne, germany. It was a few weeks before christmas and the famous christmas markets were in full swing. I'll never forget it, it was wonderful and magical. If you love Christmas, and all the old traditions, then this is the place for you. As I write this, I smile, just at the thought of it all. I feel all warm inside, I can almost smell it, the orange and cinnamon oils, the gingerbread. I can feel the frosty air on my face, but it's warmed from the warm glow of the coals that roast...

Fairy_Kisses 14.12.2002 · Read review
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Review of Cologne (Germany)

A small town in Germany?

Advantages: Compact, cultured, loads to do
Disadvantages: Limited "old town", some may find it lacking vitality

...to be prevented from becoming too powerful again in the future. Although Berlin was also divided, it was seen as imperative that Berlin should be erased from German consciousness as symbolic of what had gone on before and the newly installed West German government agreed that Bonn would be an acceptable capital since it had no connections with the country's controversial past. Bonn was essentially a small town some 20 kilometres south of Cologne. It had little in the way of large buildings necessary to house government institutions but over the decades it became a shining example of a modern and orderly German city with an excellent public transport system and notable architecture, providing its citizens with good housing, open spaces and varied cultural pursuits. Bonn is undoubtedly the "small town in Germany" described by John Le...

fizzytom 20.03.2007 · Read review
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Review of Bonn (Germany)

A great city

Advantages: Good public transport, plenty to see and do
Disadvantages:

...Cologne is a great city, with a great deal to see and do, and plenty of bars and restaurants at relatively cheap prices. Although the airport is a bit out of the centre, it is easily reachable and the public transport network is very good, serving all of the surrounding area. For the young there are a lot of thigns to do, whilst for older people there are lots of shops to satiate the appetite. The cathedral is obviously the main attraction, and it towers over the city. From Cologne it is possible to travel extensively, into France and down to Southern Germany and Switzerland. Although it is probably not big enough to make the main focus of a holiday, it is certainly a good base for four or five days to expolore the surrounding areas, and accommodation is fairly easy to find and relatively inexpensive....

Morgenhund 11.08.2000 · Read review
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