The busiest tourist stop in Cologne is the Dom or cathedral, a famous landmark that offers a climb of 509 steps to the top of one of its two towers.
KD Rhine River Cruise and Koln-Dusseldorf are touring companies that offer cruises up and down the Rhine River. Guides point out famous landmarks and points of interest.
The Museum Ludwig offers modern art, the Rome-German Museum holds relics from the ancient Roman city that underlies modern Cologne, the German Sport Museum exhibits photos and records of the country's greatest athletes, and the Schokoladenmuseum offers a look at the making of chocolate.
Cologne's winter carnival takes place each February. A street carnival offering all kinds of strange entertainments begins on Weiberfastnacht, the day each year when the city declares women to be in control.
The famous Cologne Unsichtbar, or "Invisible Bar," offers guests the chance to experience a meal in the dark--literally. Diners choose their meal in an entrance room and are then guided to their table with the lights out. The waiter assigned to your table is blind, and guides you around your plate by giving approximate locations of the food, as well as directions to the restrooms. No light of any kind is allowed and cellphones are banned. The restaurant is a charity that helps the city's blind and handicapped.
There are several saunas open for bathing, sweating and general physical relaxation in and around Cologne. Traditional German saunas offer hot sauna rooms, warm pools and cold "plunge pools." They welcome a crowd of old and young, and bathing suits or clothing of any kind are banned. The biggest are Claudius Therme, with indoor and outdoor saunas along the Rhine River, and Neptunbad, which offers saunagoers peaceful surroundings and a beautiful Japanese garden.
There are bars and breweries all over the city, with many famous breweries located in the Altstadt area. The Früh Kölsch brewery, Heller's Brauhaus, and Brauhaus Putz all are worth a visit. Visitors tour the beer factory and sample the product. Friesenstrasse is a street of wall-to-wall bars and brew pubs, but less touristy than the Früh brewery.
For a cross-cultural experience, check out karaoke night every Saturday at Flanagan's Irish pub in the Altstadt. Cologne has several nightclubs and DJ venues open every night, often crowded with dancing, partying tourists and natives. Filmhaus Köln on Maybachstrasse holds the Bodycheck party twice a month. On every other Saturday, drum-and-bass DJ's put on a show at Gebaude club, an old factory on Deutz-Mülheimer Strasse. Cologne's oldest-running electronica "house party" takes place every Tuesday at the Funky Chicken Club on the Rudolfplatz.
