Date: May 18, 2010
Time: 9.00 – 3.00 a.m.
Meeting point: Info-Stand Essener Marketing Gesellschaft, Foyer CongressCenter West

Cologne was founded by the Romans in the year 38 BC and is now Germany’s fourth-largest city. It lies on the mighty River Rhine and, if the weather is good, a boat trip is an absolute “must”, because you can sit back and enjoy some wonderful views of the old city over a glass of traditional Cologne beer (“Kölsch”). The city’s most famous tourist attraction – indeed the top tourist attraction in the whole country – is the magnificent gothic Cologne Cathedral with its two mighty towers almost 160 m high. The foundation stone was laid in 1248 and since then the building has undergone a continual series of rebuilding, extensions and renovations.

Cologne is home to more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries. Just a few steps away from the Cathedral stands the Ludwig Museum, a brand new temple of Modern Art, featuring masterpieces by Pablo Picasso and others. If your taste is for chocolate rather than Chagall, don’t miss a visit to the Chocolate Museum where you can wander through three millennia of chocolate history and sample the mouth-watering results. Women will probably be equally interested in the Fragrance Museum in the Farina House, where they can soak up the essence of countless seductive scents. A visit to the historic Town Hall is well worth your while. Erected in 1569/73 it has a fabulous Renaissance loggia, and a grotesque figure pops out from the tower clock on the hour to stick his tongue out at the gaping visitors.

Cologne is a shopper’s paradise. The “Schildergasse“ is Europe’s most popular shopping mall, out-ranking even London’s Oxford Street. Along with the adjoining Hohe Strasse, it offers a huge selection of department stores and chic boutiques to cater for all tastes. Afterwards you can relax in one of the many international restaurants, or simply enjoy a “Kölsch” in any of the hundred or more traditional beer taverns.