Train station at the Colone-Bonn airport. Clean and bright.

All trains go to the Haupthbahnhof, or central rail station. This is the view you get when you step outside the station. Cologne Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Europe and Germany's most popular tourist attraction.

This is the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, or the museum of the city of Cologne, from my hotel. Though I had to look it up later to find out; at the time it was just the cool German building with the golden winged car on the roof.

Anyone know what the patterns on the shutters are for?

Right, so history lesson on a brass plate. Cologne is the name of a men's fragrance, which is named after the city. But the city's name comes from the Roman word for "colony." Specifically, COLONIA CLAUDIA ARA AGRIPPINENSIUM. It was the most important Colony north of the Alps.

This is Cologne Cathedral from near my hotel. Here's an exercise: look at the twin spires of the cathedral and note the little bulbous sculptures at the top of each one ...

... and this is one of those tiny sculptures on the ground in front of the cathedral. Just to provide a sense of scale.

The cathedral is so popular that virtually everyone in town is in front of it, including Spider-Man.

Another performer at Cologne Cathedral.

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Some bits of the cathedral are relatively new, as there seems to have been a minor refurbishment to parts of the facade.

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You can climb up the spires, and midway to the top is the belfry. The central bell is the largest free-hanging bell in ... Europe? the world? I forget. But it's big.

The view from the top. This is the plaza in front of the Roman museum, and St Martin's church, and the Rhine snaking away behind it.

The central spire is much newer than the rest of the cathedral. The rest was built between the thirteenth and ninteent centuries (yes, that's 600 years - they lost interest for a while). The spire was almost certainly added in the 1960s or 70s. Curiously there are people in it, though I noticed no signs indicating you could ascend the central spire. Must be VIPs. Behind the spire you can see the Hohenzollern Bridge, an arched railway bridge that crosses the Rhine.

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Inside one of the twin spires.

Again, the central spire and the Hohenzollern Bridge.

This decorative stonework bears the date 1875, close to the completion of the cathedral. In the distance is the good brauhaus district amongst some of the cold city's older buildings.

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And this is a glass of Kolsch at Früh brauhaus, in the old area of town. Kolsch is the tradition beer of Cologne, and it is always served in small, thin glasses like this one. It is a crisp, light beer that is ideal for summer. It is traditionally served with sausages, sausages, sausages and more Kolsch.

The old city.

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The Hohenzollern Bridge and the cathedral. The bridge was destroyed by the Allies in the second world war, along with much of the city, however it was rebuilt exactly as it was. The cathedral was spared in part because it was an ideal landmark.

The Hohenzollern Bridge.

This guy lives on the Hohenzollern Bridge.

Another view of Cologne Cathedral as the sun sets.

Because I plan my vacations very carefully the day of my arrival in Cologne was the famous Kolner Lichter, an evening of fireworks and celebration. (Actually I arrived, found a brochure and said "Ooh look, fireworks!") The banks of the river were at least as crowded as those of the Charles in Boston on Independence Day, which is my official metric of fireworks crowds.

Not only was it crowded, but the city provided plenty of beer and sausages to keep the masses happy. At the bottom of this photo, by the river, is one of the beer stands, where (and I was extremely impressed by this) they served beer in glasses. To a crowd of thousands of people. A drinks stand in any other country I can think of would have sold beer in plastic cups. Note the crowds on the bridge.

The city after the fireworks.

The morning after the fireworks I decided to record that I was in Cologne. So here I am at the town hall.

This is like dessert in a glass: a dunkel hefeweizen. Actually a beer style from Bavaria, but available everywhere.

This is a unique idea: the Schokoladen museum, or chocolate museum.

It was built in the 90s and much of the information about chocoloate still refers to German Marks as the currency. The architecture is a mix of ninteenth century and sleek modern, with a spiral staircase that has a Wonka-esque tube elevator. otherwise .

There is a greenhouse in the museum. This is a set of "airlock" doors that prevents the warm air from escaping. The point is to show you cocoa trees in their natural climate.

These are real machines powering a mineature chocolate factory, though they look like they belong on a set of the original Star Trek.

This woman serves liquid chocolate on small biscuits. Behind her is a chocolate fountian.

Do you see what's coming out of this machine? Yes, they're Lindt chocolate truffles! I watched them being made. The Oompa-Loompas were nowhere to be seen.

It rained after I left the chocolate museum, but I walked around the south end of the city and found this rather nice medieval house.

The Hohenzollern Bridge at night.

And the Cathedral ...

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St. Martin's church on Rhine bankside the next morning. This was taken from a cruise ship that sails south from Cologne.

Other tourists like myself. Believe it or not, most of these people are actual, genuine Germans. I was surprised at how many tourists were from within Germany, as opposed to America and Britain. I heard very little English during the four days I was in the country.

Sailing underneath a bridge called the Severinsbrücke.

This is at my destination, Konigswinter. Trust me, it really is. Though it briefly felt like Britain.

The Drachenstrasse in Konigswinter leads from the Rhine to the mountain called Drachenfels, so named because it was supposedly once inhabited by a dragon.

There is a funicular train that runs up Drachenfels to the panoramic viewpoint and medieval castle ruins at the top.

The view of the Rhineland to the north. In the distance is Cologne. The tallest building to the right is the cathedral.

The Rhineland to the south.

The castle. Not a great deal is left except for half of the keep and a few walls like this one. The Counts of Drachenfels had a dragon as their coat of arms, and this was because of the saga of Siegfried, who legend says killed the dragon. I didn't see the dragon's cave, but that might have something to do with the amount of quarrying that went on around the pinnacle of the mountain. Bits of the pinnacle were in danger of collapse because of the removal of stone, much of which went to build the cathedral, so engineers have built a concrete and cable brace around the mountain to keep it together.

An arched doorway into the castle.

A vineyard on the side of Drachenfels.

Konigswinter is a very nice town with some seventeenth-century brauhauses and a nice market street. I would have enjoyed staying longer, but decided to go to Bonn on the way back to Cologne. But I took one walk through the town center and snapped some photos.

The Rhine at Konigswinter.

Konigswinter from the river, with the mountain rising over it.

This is the front of the house in which Beethoven was born, in the city of Bonn, which is also south of Cologne on the Rhine.

The plaque.

And the statue. The city is rather proud of its favorite son.

The city's University is in a beautiful building ...

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This is the return to Bonn of the boat I took during the morning. Behind it are a United Nations buildings and another newer building. The UN building is probably there because Bonn was the capital of Germany during the Cold War, when the east was communist. It even has a presidential residence from that period overlooking the river.

On the way back up the Rhine I caught some rather nice sunset photos ...

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Cologne at Sunset.

An industrial area south of the city.

St. Martin's church and the cathedral.

I found this by accident the last morning I was in Cologne. This was a Roman Tower that was later incorporated into a monestary, which is why it is in superb condition. The other Roman era buildings in Cologne are ruins, but the tower looks more or less as it always has.

The Haupthbahnhof. I find it impressive how beautiful public buildings throughout Europe can be. This is just a train station, but the design of it is really fantastic.

The platforms of Cologne's Haupthbahnhof.

I always get window seats on airplanes; on my way back to London I caught this warning on the wing. Does anyone else find this funny in this context? Might be just me.

Oh yeah. This is London. Shame it wasn't a sunny day, but not a bad view.