Halo!
I couldn’t find a travel thread about Germany outside the capital, so thought it might be worth starting one, particularly as I have plans to visit myself (see below).
I’m planning on visiting Cologne in the not too distant future. No doubt I’ll have a wander around the cathedral, but any other suggestions for things to do, where to eat and drink, in the city and surrounding area, would be gratefully received. Thanks!
There were a few posts about Cologne/Köln in this thread
We might be going there briefly at Easter - cheekster 1 wants to ride an ICE train 
We travelled through Germany when we went Interrailing a few years back. Spent a couple of days in Munich and loved it. Would have liked to spend more time in Dresden. Wasn’t madly keen on Stuttgart but I think we were just a bit tired and the weather wasn’t great that day.
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Thank you!
I, too, am looking forward to a ride on an ICE train as well, if I’m honest. Although, I have been on one many years ago (from Stuttgart to Munich and back, strangely enough, given you’ve mentioned both those places).
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Hamburg is fun. Found Köln a bit boring tbh. Loads of it felt like I was in Manchester or something.
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Dresden is dead nice. Can’t really remember much about Köln if I’m being totally honest. Dom is nice, walk across the bridge is nice, not too sure what else I got up to there though.
I’m in Hamburg for a day in April if anyone has any recommendations for stuff to do with kids?
Second this. Went in October and really enjoyed it.
Leipzig is also a lovely small city, and not too far from Dresden either.
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Model village, done
Are the kids musical at all?
Bonn is down the road from cologne and has loads of Beethoven stuff. It’s a nice day out
Are the kids mustard fans at all? The mustard museum in cologne is good fun!
The modern art museums in cologne and Düsseldorf are also both really good
Personally I prefer Düsseldorf over cologne as a city but I’m not too sure how much it has to offer kids (the boat ride up the river is good thought)
Wait are you taking kids? Why did I think that
Oh well, most of the above still stands
In Düsseldorf there is an all you can eat sushi place that is powered by ipads. That is good fun for kids and adults
(Or if you like Japanese food in general the city has some amazing restaurants, there’s a massive Japanese population there)
+1 for model village.
Aside from that, the fish market if you are there for a Sunday morning. It’s like a mini Oktoberfest every week. Outside of Sundays. the whole port area is still worth a visit. Double it up with a walk under the Elbe…
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Cologne is good. Aside from the cathedral, botanical gardens are worth a look. In general, it’s a nice walking city - from the cathedral, a walk over the bridge to the Deutz part of the city is worth it for eating/drinking options, wander along the east bank and then back over the other bridge and through the old town.
Also worth doubling up on a visit to Bonn - if you’re flying, the airport is right in the middle of both cities so easily doable as a double header. Bonn is a lovely small city - incredible to think it was the West German capital for decades. Also has a nice botanical gardens…
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Thank you! I do like a nice botanical garden, tbf, so I’ll definitely check that out.
If you want countryside stuff then I had to visit the bit out near Czechia and it’s really nice for walking and stuff. Fly to Nuremberg and drive or take a train out eastwards.
Can also recommend Lindau as a nice lake destination, and you can nip into Switzerland and Austria from there too. Touristy, but in that classy European way.
Anybody been to Nuremberg? One of the 63 options for our summer holiday is starting there to visit Playmobil world (before the kids are too old for it) then heading for the Alps or Czech republic.
edit: probably should have read the previous post first!
There’s a creepy bar in the main square of Köln that’s got all these old puppets and marionettes playing instruments. You gotta go!
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Loved Dresden but the city map I was given said to avoid certain parts of town on certain days because there are big PEGIDA rallies. 
The best thing about dresden was heading out into Saxon Switzerland, it’s awesome
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