My home town Köln (Cologne)

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Until the beginning of 2003 I lived in Cologne, the city where I was born. Even if I now live in Bonn, I still think that Cologne is worth a trip. So I want to show you here some photos that I took in my home town Cologne. If you are interested to see some pictures of my new home town Bonn, please have a look at the following page: www.bonnensia.de/bonn.

If you want to see a photo in better quality (larger), then just click on the pic.

Both tourists and inhabitants of Cologne can't ignore the famous Cologne Cathedral (especially if you are a photographer). Therefore I start with a typical view of the Cologne skyline. Even if the sense of these buildings is questionable, the architecture of Cologne Cathedral and Grand-Saint-Martin is really interesting. I took the photo from a Rhine bridge.

Next to the cathedral is the Roman Germanic Museum. Because of an exhibition they had this funny dinosaur in front of the museum. I took the photo in the evening light by using a flash. So it really is no photo montage.

The roof platform of the cathedral is normally not accessible for the public. But if you have the chance to go there, then you have this interesting view to the north of Colonge, across the central station, as the left picture shows.

The right photo shows annother view from the cathedral, to the north east. Even for the most inhabitants of Cologne this is an unknown view. In the near you see again the station, behind it there is the bus station and the river Rhine with the Zoo Bridge in the background.

This picture is from the Rhine flood in the beginning of the year 1995. You see the "Pegel" of Cologne, that shows how high the water level is. The short hand shows the meters, and the long hand shows with each scale 10 centimeters. So on the picture you see a water level of 10.68 meters (that is 35 feet). With this height many parts of the historic center of Cologne are inundated, also dwelling-houses in the south of Cologne.

And two more photos from the center of Cologne. On the right you see a view that is a little unusual: This horseman stands in front of the Hohenzollern bridge, which is the biggest train bridge in Cologne. And the tent-like blue building in the background is the "Musical Dome".

Before we leave the "Altstadt" (historical old city center) of Cologne we have a last view across some houses of the "Altstadt" to the church Grand-Saint-Martin, you've already seen on the first picture. The "Altstadt" is nice especially in the evenings, because you can go to the many pubs there to drink the famous beer of Cologne (called "Kölsch").

As we go from there to the west, we pass the "Schildergasse" which is a pedestrian area with many shops and stores. Then we come to the "Neumarkt". This tower stands at the north side of "Neumarkt" and it's named Tower of Richmodis. The two horses on top of the tower have to do with a tale about Richmodis and her husband Mengis von Aducht. This tale could also be found on the internet, for example on the following pages:

 www.sagen.at
 www.ingisworld.de
 www.kbs-koeln.de

If we go again west (or take a bus), then we come to the "Chapel Art Center" in the Moltke street, which is a nice combination of an old tower and new glass architecture. Very interesting for every photographer.

The front of the "Chapel Art Center" mirrors the other side of the street in a very nice way.

From here our photo trip goes in the southern parts of Cologne. At the "Sachsenring" you can see this old building, named "Ulrepforte". The tower was once part of a windmill - that explains it's extraordinary shape:

But now it's time for a trip to a suburb of Cologne, to see some green. With tram (streetcar, light rail) you can go to the terminal station Thielenbruch. There they have modernized this old hall wich was used to repair trams. Now it looks very nice and it's used now as the terminal station of the tram lines 3 and 18. It's interesting that you enter or leave the hall through a part of an old tram, as you can see on the left picture. There in Thielenbuch you can also make a nice walk through the forest. A pony farm with a cafe is also there. And not to forget: the tram museum, that is open only once a month.