About Cologne

Why visit Cologne? Why live here? The answer to both questions is the same: there’s every good reason to! Cologne is a vibrant, open and welcoming city. Cologne is also an easy place to live and to visit. It really does do its best to cater to all tastes, ages and interests. Plus getting here from wherever you are is uncomplicated, making it ideal for a visit in itself, a starting point for a longer visit to Germany or Europe, or just to use it as a base.

Cologne also offers one of the most famous and outstanding cathedrals in Europe – 750 years in the making – an attractive old town (Altstadt) to wander through, a promenade on each side of the Rhine, numerous Roman churches, a variety of museums including a chocolate museum for those with a sweet tooth, many different shopping areas with everything you could ever wish to shop for, theatres, cinemas, concert halls, street parades, parks and fountains, a zoo and botanical gardens, a top league football club (most of the time), an ice hockey team – even an American football club – plus many other attractions and sports and leisure options.

I first started this website several years ago but abandoned it due to lack of time. During the coronavirus pandemic lockdown I started walking around my neighbourhood and then further afield and was amazed at just how little I knew of many areas of Cologne despite living here for many years! So you’re invited to discover Cologne here along with me, I’ll just keep adding as I go along and discover more new things.

I also realised from my own trips away and holidays that often it is not the famous monuments that we remember most from our travels but the quirky, one-off unexpected delights or the interactions we have with people. So that’s more of what I am writing about in the blog and what it is like living here, whereas the website itself has the information about where to go and what to see. Please note that this website is a work in progress and I cannot guarantee that the information is 100% accurate as time marches on and things change.

You might be visiting Cologne because the cathedral and/or the city are on your list of things-to-do or maybe you just happen to be passing through or attending a trade fair. Whatever the reason you are here, I hope you find this website of use in planning your visit and deciding what to see and do.