Cologne

Cologne is the largest town in the Rhine valley having c. one million inhabitants. It is the cultural and economic centre of the whole area.

You can reach Cologne in less than an hour by car from the Eifel-Camp or very comfortably and without having to switch by train from the train station in Blankenheim (Wald). Taking the train will spare you a difficult search for car parks in Cologne. The duration of the journey is 1 ¼ hours.

In the first place the visitor is usually attracted by the “Kölner Dom”, which is not only famous in Cologne. There are also many Romanesque-style churches and museums. Cologne is ideal for shopping, too, having a pedestrian precinct of several kilometres.

Cologne’s night-life is diverse and full of changes and suitable locations for every taste are present. The old town is considered an attraction for tourists and locals; adolescents enjoy themselves in the “Belgisches Viertel” (Belgian quarter) or in the “Südstadt” (southern town). Many concerts in all music directions provide a change; opera and theatre guarantee high-quality performances.

Highlights in sports are football games of the 1. FC Köln taking place at the newly built stadion, games of the Cologne icehockey club, the local basketball club (first division) and of the VFL Gummersbach, which holds some games at the Kölnarena.

In spring Cologne is dominated by the carnival societies; the carnival procession on the Monday before Shrove Tuesday is the most colourful and largest in Germany.