Cologne

[pishhead]

We hired one for my stag do in Munich a few years ago. Great fun, especially as I got to play barman.

Re Cologne, it's true about them waiting for the green man. Our group got shouted at by some locals for jay walking.

It's the same all over Germany really.

 

[MongoJerry]

Had a great time there back in Sept last year on a 2 night stag weekend. Took in a Bayer Leverkusen game as only 15/20 min train ride from the central station and in higher league than Cologne. The 12 floors of pasha are enlightening!! Best club by a mile was Das Bootshaus which is a taxi ride away in a warehouse in a boatyard. Try the cable car over the river between the Zoo and park with a few tins and admire the nudist gathering beneath. Great traditional beer halls a plenty. Got flights with GermanWings from Heathrow. Worth getting a local take you around the student drinking haunts on first night. Ours was arranged in the UK with Maximise and we only booked this bit with them. Two hot girls took is around the locals bars and met us at hotel. Recommend the Ibis hotel right next door to the central train station and DOM. Great location and cheap with plenty of twin rooms.

 

[BlockDpete]

Been a couple of times to Cologne and always enjoyed it (as I do most German cities)

Try and fit it a boat tour on the Rhine, a nice relaxing way to spend a couple of hours, plus you can have a beer too.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Amazed this has got to 23 posts without mention of the famous Currywurst.

Oh, and on the eau de cologne front: it's the ultimate tourist tat. Shops flogging it are everywhere in Köln. Avoid.

 

[ElectricNaz]

If you're looking for an amazing hostel to stay in - Die Wohngemeinschaft is AMAZING and probably the best hostel i've ever stayed in. The bar downstairs is epic and the rooms are unique.

Claudius Therme spa is also a great experience. It's a mixed nudey spa (oi oi) but some of the girls there looked fantastic! The saunas are amazing, and the outside pools are proporly relaxing!

Also Dom is great, when you walk down the river there are some really nice bars (but expensive) the cheapest and best bars are the ones in the center.

Restaurant wise, I found this gem http://www.el-inca.de/ it's a Latin restaurant, really tiny but excellent quality and service. If you just want somewhere cheap and easy to watch the football, then http://www.joe-champs.de/11/ is probably one of the better places - good mixed crowd there, half locals half touristy.

Getting around is pretty easy too, went to see Dusseldorf play against Bochum and it was fairly cheap, and very easy to get to from the Cologne central train station. Can easily get to Holland, Belgium, France or Northern German from there.

Touristy wise, the Lindt museum is okay and the boat tours are decent. The zoo was alright as well, as long as you pick a day when Lions aren't escaping and eating zookeepers.

Don't Jay-Walk. Ever. The police will appear out of no where and you will get a talking to / arrested.

 

[Randsta]

Great travel advise as always cheers guys or danke

 

[Man of Harveys]

The police will appear out of no where and you will get a talking to / arrested.

Perhaps but they are very nice. Or at least my uncle Heinz-Wilhelm - who's a copper in Cologne - certainly is. Getting nicked by as big an Anglophile as him would be a blast.

 

[mccraque]

I love Koln - one of my favourite cities.

Definitely worth a trip to the Rheinenergie if Koln are at home. They even have beer sellers that bring booze TO YOUR SEAT (none of this dashing off 5 mins before half time nonsense).

The river bars are nice - a bit touristy but I love it down there. And the squares one road back. There's a little irish bar (as much as I hate irish bars when away...but this one is different) that's warm and friendly - Barney O'Varleys for all of your footy needs (I've watched the Albion in there before).

Next to the HBF main station there's a fantastic Brauhaus - with it's own brewery....Order a grillehaxe.... 1kg of pork knuckle covered in crackling. the best meal ever....

Shopping centre is great, and if you head away from the river, keep walking, the pedestrianised part becomes a series of shopping streets that leads you toward the Rudolfplatz area. Again - a load more shops and bars here. More of a going out/non local area. Rudolzplatz has some great bars....but be a little careful. There's some pretty full on gaybars around here. There was a shirtless musclebound gent that took quite a shine to me. Much to the amusement of Mrs McCraque.

Friesenplatz (off Rudolfplatz) is another bar filled street (off Rudolfplatz) - also superb, and more local than the tourist river area.

All of the above is within about 1.5 miles of the river....so not far to walk.

Rheinpark is worth a stroll - you can take a cable car to the zoo from there, or decent if you have your running gear with you. Next to Rheinpark they have fashioned a beach bar on the side of the Rhein. It only opens from May to end Aug - but has sand, loungers, DJ's and is a great way to spend an afternoon in the sun.

Sundaymornings - Rheinterrasen - they offer an all you can eat brunch from about 11am to 4pm....but get there early as this is very popular and queues develop before opening.

I think that covers my best parts of the city......

Edit - Stasi Museum is quite a thought provoking place - and also, worth a taxi out to the south side of the city (Haus Am See) - a big restaurant, bar, gardens and boating lake....really pretty and green.

 

[desprateseagull]

the street stall hotdogs were a bit weird. probably made from real dogs.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Amazed this has got to 23 posts without mention of the famous Currywurst.

Currywurst is a Berlin invention and more associated with the capital city than Koln though. You can certainly find them outside the Hauptstadt but I'm not sure you'd refer to them as famous.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Currywurst is a Berlin invention and more associated with the capital city than Koln though.

Oh.

The bloody liars. When I was in Köln, they said it was all theirs.

Shocking

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Claudius Therme spa is also a great experience. It's a mixed nudey spa (oi oi) but some of the girls there looked fantastic! The saunas are amazing, and the outside pools are proporly relaxing!

Ah ha. This is the semi-open one at one end of that 1950s cable car over the Rhine yes? I've been there...and concur with your comments.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Oh.

The bloody liars. When I was in Köln, they said it was all theirs.

Shocking

Nah, it's ours. As is the kebab (doner meat in a bread pocket) allegedly.

 

[mccraque]

Koln currywurst is better than the Berlin one. The Berlin version is just a chopped sausage with a sprinkle of curry powder. The Koeln one is covered in SAUCE.

 

[Seagull1989]

Have to agree with the recommendations for Kölsch to drink. Its a really nice beer. Think the lindt chocolate factory is also in Köln and worth a visit

 

[Man of Harveys]

Koln currywurst is better than the Berlin one. The Berlin version is just a chopped sausage with a sprinkle of curry powder. The Koeln one is covered in SAUCE.

This is true. There's a small place in some square in Cologne that simple defined currywurst heaven. The opportunities to land a big fat sausage in your mouth are everywhere in that city, apparently.

 

[ElectricNaz]

Ah ha. This is the semi-open one at one end of that 1950s cable car over the Rhine yes? I've been there...and concur with your comments.

Yes, thats the one. Slighty strange bathing nude with casual tourists above your head in a cable car, but oh well!

Id also add - go at a weekend. You'll get the college aged girls there... i'd imagine during the week it's full of the oldies! I went on a Saturday

 

[Springal]

We stayed in Cologne for the 2006 World cup. We turned up on a Sunday (I think) all the camp sites were full, so a friendly council worker told us to plonk ourselves down by the river, for 1 night only, but then try and find space in a camping place. A few more people took our lead later that evening, by the morning there were thousands of tents, all by the river. The council very kindly put about 50 loos down for us. Excellent it was! Bathing in the River Rhein every morning, mooning the tourist boats as they went past.

And to think it was 8 years ago