48 Hours In: Cologne

WHY GO NOW?

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WHY GO NOW?

Eating, drinking and shopping: those seem to be the main interests of the locals in what is arguably Germany's friendliest big city. The breadth and depth of cuisine overturns the notion that eating out in Germany can be a bleak prospect, and the local beer should win over the most devoted oenophile. Cologne's cultural wealth, also transcends the citywide reconstruction that is taking place.

TOUCH DOWN

British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com) and Lufthansa (08457 737 747; www.lufthansa.com) fly from Heathrow to Cologne-Bonn airport; easyJet (0871 750 0100; www.easyJet.com) flies from Liverpool and Gatwick; Germanwings (0870 252 12 50; www.germanwings.com) flies from Edinburgh, Gatwick and Stansted (and Birmingham from 14 April); and Hapag-Lloyd Express (0870 606 0 519; www.hlx.com) flies from Manchester. Cologne airport's rail station, beneath Terminal 2, has frequent trains taking 14 minutes to the handsome Hauptbahnhof (1); fare €2.10 (£1.50). A taxi to the centre costs about €25 (£17). By rail, the fastest connection from Eurostar (08705 186 186) gets you from London Waterloo via Brussels to Cologne in five hours. The lowest fare is £69 return.

GET YOUR BEARINGS

The Hauptbahnhof (1) is just across from the Dom (2), the magnificent cathedral that acts as a focus wherever you are in the city. Handily located between them on Trankgasse is the tourist office (3), Köln Tourismus (00 49 221 2213 0400; www.koeln.de). It opens 9am-9pm, Monday-Saturday, and 10am-6pm on Sundays. The rambling Altstadt (old town) spreads south from here. To the west lies a busy shopping district, and beyond it the main nightlife areas for those who wish to escape the Altstadt: the Latin quarter and the Belgian quarter.

Cologne is a city designed for walking - except for a few locations where main roads intrude - but if you wish to hop aboard a tram or U-bahn (underground train), trips in the central area cost €1.25 (£0.90).

CHECK IN

The Hotel im Wasserturm (4) occupies a large and historic water tower at Kaygasse 2 (00 49 221 200 80; www.hotel-im-wasserturm.de). The rooms themselves are meticulously minimalist, and the structure astounding. Rooms normally go for around €230 (£164) without breakfast, but prices fall at weekends; you may be able to get a double for €190 (£136), including a five-star breakfast. If you prefer to pay around half as much, and get a more central location, the Hotel Cristall (5) at Ursulaplatz 9 (00 49 221 163 00; www.hotelcristall.de) is crisply stylish and offers weekend rates of around €79 (£56) including an impressive breakfast. The drawback is that half the rooms face on to a busy dual carriageway. The budget choice is Station Backpackers (6) at Marzellenstrasse 44 (00 49 221 912 5301; www.hostel-cologne.de), which shares premises with the German Rail lost property office. Doubles cost €50 (£35), or a bed in a dorm just €16 (£11.50). Prices include free internet access; breakfast is extra.

TAKE A VIEW

Climb the bell tower of the Dom (2) any day between 9am and 4pm, for which you pay €2 (£1.40). The 509 steps are challenging, though you can pause halfway up to admire the glocken. You can rest again at the foot of the metal staircase that was erected to ease congestion. From the public gallery at a height of 97m, you get a fine view of the old town - and some ungainly modern buildings, erected after the Second World War when 90 per cent of the city was destroyed.

WINDOW SHOPPING

Hohe Strasse and Schildergasse are the main shopping streets, with the big Kaufhof department store (7) at the point where they meet. For electronics, head for Media Markt (8) at the corner of Hohe Strasse and Minoritenstrasse - the biggest electronics store in Europe. Designer stores are sprinkled along Mittelstrasse, which runs between Neumarkt (9) and Rudolfplatz (10) - site of an öko (organic) food market every Wednesday and Saturday.

LUNCH ON THE RUN

If you find yourself feeling peckish at Rudolfplatz, head south into the Latin quarter, a studenty area with lots of cheap eating options. For the local speciality, Kölsche pizza, try Filmdose (11) at Zulpicherstrasse 39 (00 49 221 239 643); a pizza made with a potato-flour base will cost around €6 (£4.30). Across the road, Magnus is a more sophisticated and expensive location.

TAKE A HIKE

Start a tour around the Altstadt facing the main west entrance of the Dom (2), where you will find a replica of the finials (huge stone ornaments) that sit atop the towers. Aim diagonally to your right past the south transept and Dom-Hotel and across the somewhat bleak square to Am Hof. At the Artotech (12) on the corner of Unter Taschenmacher turn right, past the Bier Museum then left into the Alter Market which forms the hub of the city. Locate the Gaffel Haus (13) and head along Lintgasse, the start of a warren of cobbled lanes. It emerges at Fischmarkt (14), with a fine pastel-painted façade. Turn right along Buttermarkt and right again along Salzgasse - where Cologne's highest concentration of eating and drinking venues can be found. Go west past Heumarkt into Rathausplatz (15). On the far corner you will see the Farina complex at Obenmarspforten 21, where eau de cologne was first concocted in 1709. The glass pavilion in the middle of the square covers the underground remains of the medieval Jewish bath, or mikwe, which is thought to date from when the Jewish community thrived in this area. Conclude your walk at the Rathaus (town hall) in the north-east corner of the square. If your timing is good, you may catch the glockenspiel performance from the tower each day at 9am, noon, 3pm or 6pm.

CULTURAL AFTERNOON

Rathausplatz (15) is the location for the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (00 49 221 221 276 94; www.museenkoeln.de), a dramatic new structure housing art from medieval to 19th-century in uplifting surroundings. It opens from 10am-6pm daily except Monday; but from 11am at weekends and to 8pm on Thursdays; admission €5.80 (£4.20). The Museum Ludwig (16), adjacent to the Dom at Bischofsgartenstrasse 1 (00 49 221 221 261 65; www.museum-ludwig.de) is awkwardly designed but full of modern art works by the likes of Dali and Warhol - a special exhibition, just opened, is devoted to Chocolate Art. The museum is open 10am-6pm from Tuesday to Sunday, until 11pm on the first Friday of the month, admission €7.50 (£5.40).

AN APERITIF

Kölsch beer is one of the tastiest in Germany, light and well-hopped. The locals celebrate this fact by supporting an absurd number of beer halls. The best beer is Gaffel, whose home ground is the Gaffel Haus (13) on Alter Markt. But the atmosphere is likely to be even jollier at a couple of bierkellers south of the cathedral: the Früh am Dom (17) and Brauhaus Sion (12) (00 49 221 257 8540; www.brauhaus-sion.de) .

DINING WITH THE LOCALS

Stay on at the Brauhaus Sion (12), which has also functioned as a restaurant since 1912. Dine on an odd meat dish: sauerbraten is beef marinated for what seems like months, and which melts in your mouth in minutes. A large plateful costs €12.50 (£9).

SUNDAY MORNING: GO TO CHURCH

The Dom (2) owes its magnificence to the relics of the Magi, which promoted Cologne to the premier league of pilgrimage destinations. Begin by admiring the dramatic, soaring façade, then walk in to be overwhelmed by the sense of space. The wise men's remains occupy the casket that glitters from the east end as soon as you enter at the west door. Construction of the cathedral began in the 13th century, and ended 125 years ago. When finished, it was the tallest building in Europe - until the Eiffel Tower was completed nine years later. It opens 7.30am-7pm daily, admission free.

OUT TO BRUNCH

At the Cafe Fleur (18) at Lindenstrasse 10 (00 49 221 244 897), Le Grand breakfast (on offer to 3pm) consists of three different kinds of sausage, cheese, egg, vegetables, jam and honey with lashings of bread for €7.50 (£5.40), which should see you through the rest of Sunday. To splash out, the fancy Konrad's restaurant in the Hilton (19) on Marzellenstrasse (00 49 221 130 71 2450) has a Sunday lunch from noon; €39 (£28) including wine.

TAKE A RIDE

Western Europe's most important waterway provides an excellent alternative view of the city. Competing companies offer one-hour tours from just north of the Höhenzollernbrücke railway bridge (20) for around €6 (£4.50). You will see the smarter areas downstream (north) and the handsome Altstadt, and wonder when the jaded warehouses upstream will be revitalised. Answer: very soon, given the demand for riverside apartments.

A WALK IN THE PARK

Cologne has plenty of open space. The most unusual outdoor attraction is the Media-Park (21), a collusion of space-age structures around an artificial lake.

THE ICING ON THE CAKE

The Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum (22) sounds like another worthy art gallery. In fact, it is a chocolate museum, and a marketing exercise for the cocoa industry by the river at Rheinauhafen 1a (00 49 221 931 8880; www.schokoladenmuseum.de). You learn the story of chocolate from bean to bar; visit the greenhouses in which the museum's cocoa beans grow; and see liquid chocolate gush from a fountain. It opens 10am-6pm from Tuesday to Friday, 11am-7pm at weekends, €5.50 (£4).

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