Wife and I have booked a trip to Namibia via Germany for our 30th wedding anniversary. This will be taking place in early November. From Detroit we will fly into Frankfurt and spend three days in Germany. She has kin in Cologne (Koln) that we hope to see. Then we will fly direct via Air Namibia to Windhoek for ~two weeks and have everything organized there.

We've done the Frankfurt connection (twice) and done the Grey Tour of that city. This time we will probably catch a train to Koln and spend a couple nights there.

Anybody have any suggestions as to what to see/do while there? Wife was born there (little town called Konigshoven or something close to that) before being orphaned out to the USA in the late 50's.

Any suggestion for a reasonable hotel to stay in Koln/Cologne?

Matt - Not trying to be a smart a$$, but wouldn't the kin of your wife have a pretty good idea about what to see and do in the area? Unless someone here has spent a lot of time in Cologne lately, the kinfolks would be my go to on this.

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

Are you bringing firearms with you? If so, what are you going to do with them while in Cologne?

Try a Rhine River cruise - many stop at selected castles and villages for shopping or a a wine tasting trip on the Weinstrasse. If you have not seen Koln, the cathedral and historic city is a nice day trip as well. Koln is also only a short drive from Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands so day trips to these countries are also easily done.

November is friggin cold in Germany, and equally hot in Namibia. Are you sure that's when you want to go?

On the average you can expect cold weather at right around freezing at night and in the mid 40s to mid 50s in the daytime in November. It is milder and sunnier in late October and the early days of November becoming more dreary and colder as the month progresses.

The famous cathedral there is, of course, a must. Allow at least four hours. If you are doing any traveling, take the milk run trains, not the express. They're far cheaper, slower, and more scenic, esp. along the river. Incidentally, in Germany it's Coln, or maybe Koln.

Let's see....wife was 4 years old when she left there (Germany) and for all practical purposes will be meeting her remaining kin for the first time, so it's not like they are real close and we can count on them to entertain us. Early November is the best time we can make this trip as we are also working around our PH friend's schedule in Namibia. No, not traveling with any firearms.

Oday450 and Brice, thank you for your useful suggestions.

Sites like this should help - http://www.koeln.de/cologne_to...ation/exploring_city

If you're not going til Nov, you'll have time to do a little studying of basic German which will make the stop-over more interesting and more fun. One way is thru radio Deutsche Welle's on-line course - http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,9572,00.html. As I recall, there is or was also found in Koln a local German dialect.

I once had an invitation to go there to visit a girlfriend. But her reasons for the invite were more serious than my reasons for wanting to see Germany and I never did make it. Maybe someday.