You leave the station and the cathedral is already there
Most cities make you look for their landmark. Cologne puts it next to the platform: step out of the Hauptbahnhof and the Dom fills the sky, 157 metres of it. Drivers get the same view from underneath — the city's own garage, Tiefgarage Am Dom, is under the square beside it.
It was the tallest building in the world from 1880 until 1884. I still find it hard to take in from close up, so I walk across the Hohenzollern bridge and look back.
Sunday is free, except where the crowds are
Street parking in Cologne is free on Sundays and public holidays — with three exceptions, and they are exactly where visitors go. Around the LANXESS arena, the Zoo and the Koelnmesse you pay on those days too, from 9:00 until 18:00 or 23:00 depending on the street.
The second trap is the sticker. The Umweltzone covers 137 km² on both banks of the Rhine, and every car needs the green Feinstaubplakette, foreign plates and electric cars included. Driving in without it is €100 plus fees. I buy mine before I leave home; it is tied to the number plate and never expires.
A 0.2-litre glass that keeps coming back
Kölsch is served in slim 0.2-litre Stangen, carried round on a ring-shaped tray, the Kranz. The waiter — the Köbes — keeps the tally with pencil marks on your beer mat. At FRÜH am Dom, a brewery house since 1904, the ritual is the whole point; I sit down, and the first glass arrives before I have asked.
Find the blue band before you feed the machine
The €5 day ticket is sold only at machines with a blue band. Machines with a red band also take cards; the rest want coins. Selected machines have a Brötchentaste — a button that prints 15 minutes free for a quick errand.
A rise to €5 an hour and €30 a day has been proposed and has sat before the council since February 2025. As of September 2026 it has not been adopted. I read the machine rather than the news.
A paid cathedral, 533 steps, and a cable car over the Rhine
Cologne Cathedral — sightseeing is paid since 1 July 2026; press reports give €12 for adults, under-13s free. Open to visitors Monday to Saturday 10:00–17:45, Sunday 13:30–16:30. The tower is 533 steps and €8, to a platform about 100 metres up.
Museum Ludwig — €13.50, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, first Thursday until 22:00.
Römisch-Germanisches Museum — the Roman collection, temporarily in the Belgisches Haus while its building on the Roncalliplatz is renovated. €6.
Schokoladenmuseum — €17.50 on weekdays, €19 at weekends, daily 10:00–18:00.
Kölner Seilbahn — the cable car between the Rheinpark and the Zoo, €5.50 one way, €9.50 return, until November.
Halve Hahn is not half a chicken
At FRÜH am Dom the menu reads like a joke played on visitors. Halve Hahn is a rye roll with a thick slice of cheese. Himmel un Ääd — heaven and earth — is apple and potato with black pudding. Open Monday to Thursday 11:00–23:00, Friday to midnight, Saturday 10:00–24:00, Sunday 10:00–23:00.
The beer has a treaty. On 6 March 1986 twenty-four brewers signed the Kölsch Konvention at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, opposite the Dom: pale, top-fermented, clear, and brewed in Cologne. The hotel still parks guests' cars in the Dom garage, at €35 a night.
Marathon, angels and the fifth season
The Köln Marathon is on 4 October 2026. The course closes from about 07:00 until evening, and the start area in Deutz from 20:00 the night before. The Markt der Engel on the Neumarkt runs 16 November to 23 December 2026.
Carnival is the city's fifth season. Weiberfastnacht is Thursday 4 February 2027 and Rosenmontag is 8 February 2027, when the parade runs for more than eight kilometres and throws about 300 tonnes of sweets. I do not bring a car into the centre that week. gamescom fills the Koelnmesse in late August 2027.
What's on
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 4 October 2026 | Köln Marathon — the course closed from about 07:00; the Deutz start area from 20:00 the evening before |
| 16 November – 23 December 2026 | Markt der Engel on the Neumarkt, closed 22 November |
| 4 February 2027 | Weiberfastnacht — carnival street party begins |
| 8 February 2027 | Rosenmontag — the parade, more than 8 km long; keep the car out of the centre |
| Late August 2027 | gamescom at the Koelnmesse |