<p>Bumping this up per Nrdsb4’s request.</p>
<p>Am in Cologne now, leaving tomorrow morning.
Perhaps I’m just overtired after 2 weeks of being on the road, but honestly, I would not recommend Cologne as a destination unless there is some compelling reason.</p>
<p>The city itself is rather charmless (though granted, 80% of it was bombed in WWII). Graffiti, homeless, and the architecture (except for the cathedral and churches) was uninspired. The main shopping / pedestrian areas were unimpressive as well. Touristy-looking pubs. Schildergasse – supposedly a huge shopping street - well, big deal, I can find an H&M, a Zara and a McDonald’s anywhere. </p>
<p>The cathedral is oddly placed – it is literally right next to the train station - meaning you can’t stand back and get a true sense for the grandeur of it all. It’s filthy black on the outside - I expect some of that with European cathedrals, of course, but this was a lot. The inside of the cathedral itself is pretty wondrous, I will say that, but the beautiful stained glass windows are so high off the ground you can’t really see them well.</p>
<p>There are some museums around there that are supposed to be good, if you like modern art, and the Roman-Germanic museum was of interest to me. But I felt that beyond the cathedral, there wasn’t much to see or do, and it didn’t have a lot of charm.</p>
<p>Nrsdb4 - I did walk in the hotel that you indicated you’d be staying at and it does look like a lovely hotel. It’s literally right across the street from the cathedral and it’s a good downtown location.</p>
<p>I’ve only been to Berlin and Dusseldorf (earlier this year) and Dusseldorf gets a bad rap compared to Cologne but honestly I thought Dusseldorf was more pleasant to walk around, even though it doesn’t have a grand site like the cathedral. I would highly recommend Berlin - there is lots to see and do.</p>
<p>Sorry not to be more positive – and I’m a pretty upbeat, open to anything traveler – but I had been to Bordeaux, FR and Barcelona, SP just prior to this, and there was no comparison between those cities and Cologne. </p>