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General information

• Cologne is the 4th biggest city of Germany with nearly one million inhabitans. Located 51°N, 6°E, at the Rhine River. Founded by the Romans.
• Cologne's famous Cathedral is one of the most visited sights in Germany.
• Also famous is the Carnival and the local beer called Kölsch.

• Touristy map of the inner city

• Cologne has an International Airport

• For more general information, view Cologne on Wikipedia, available in Dutch, in English, in French, in German, in Italian, in Polish, in Portoguese, in Spanish, and in Swedish.

• Check also the Google Map of Cologne

Tips

Finding Hosts

• Cologne seems to be a very wanted spot for couchsurfers. Local public transportation connects Cologne quite well with the outskirts. So it could be a good idea to broaden your couchsearch to a 10-20km circle in order to find hosts in the surrounding suburbs who are not so overrun with requests, even if their cities are called Leverkusen, Bergisch Gladbach, Brühl, Frechen or Wesseling, they're really not far from Cologne. Info about door-to-door connections, timetables and ticket tariffs can be found at http://www.vrsinfo.de
• Travelers who like to think a bit more complicated in order to slowly build up something simple can try and learn about how to contribute and eventually profit from a beta-stage local couchpooling network here.

Wifi Spots

• This is a list of wireless hotspots.

Cheap food

• There is always a variety of cheap food at the university cafeteria

CouchSurfing Community

• 2008-12-21 the couchsearch found 1901 Couchsurfers in Cologne. A good way to meet couchsurfers in Cologne are the meetings.

• Visit and join the Cologne Group to get to know us!

Meetings

Monthly Meetups (We are currenty establishing monthly meetups on the 15th of each month.)

• January 15th 2009
• February 15th 2009
• March 15th 2009
• ...

Upcoming Events (by date)

• 3rd Jan: Meat and Great

Come "meat" some new friends at the Wurst Crawl! We will be making our way around Cologne, sampling the wurst of Germany. I'll put a schedule of places once the date's a little closer. No vegetarians allowed! Unless you're the kind of vegetarian who enjoys watching people eat a lot of mystery meat.

• 19th-24th Feb: Cologne Carnival 2009

Dozens of different things to do at a hundred different places (pubs mainly...) - and yet it's always exactly the same: dress up, * go to a pub (maybe watch a parade first to collect a bag full of the candies they throw!) and then start drinking so that you can * endure the typical Colognean Carnival music that you'll be exposed non-stop to for up to 5 days in a row... Also it seems to increase chances to get laid or at least find somebody to make out with ;-D Which doesn't concern us at all, of course, since CS is not dating site (he noted with utmost indignation)!!!

Additionally to announcements in the Cologne Group, the very latest info is now always available at one glance in a google calendar. You can contribute or modify it follow these instructions.

Got any other helpful links? Tell us here!

Past Meetings

• Christmas-Market-Crawl 2008

5th-7th Dec 2008 Xmas Market Crawl

• Carneval 2007:

14th - 20th Feb 2007 Carnival in Cologne There's a Carnival Guide for visitors on the official homepage of Cologne, also available in French, Dutch, and certainly German... get smart about the festival its places and habits a little ahead so you can smoothly mingle with the party folks right when you arrive.

• Christmas party meeting 2006:

8th - 10th December 2006 Christmas party meeting

Who wants to help organize CS meetings in and around Cologne?

Please send a CSmail to one or more of the persons listed below or post in the Cologne group if you are interested in meetings or have a suggestion.

• Ulf Kleinings -- frequently organizes meetings, moderator (or animator) of the Cologne group.
• Finn Kölzer -- motivated host and surfer,city ambassador, organizing meetups and events.

• YOU? -- got a hot tip? an idea? a good location? or just curious? Click here and join us!

Public Transportation

• Cologne has a tight-knit web of tram/underground stations (map) and bus lines (map).
• You can plan your route by address, point of interest, or by station at the timetable information:

Tariff tips: Tickets within the city area (including even the airport) are called Zone 1b. At Bundesbahn ticket machines type the direction code 2000 to get them. Buy bulk to save: If you are a group of 2-5, consider saving money with a 1b group daypass for 9,50 Euros. Single daypasses are 6,40 Euro, single rides 2,30 Euro. For trips beyond the city borders view the tariff info and the complete tariff table (pdf).

Other Transport Discounts The Welcome Ticket available for 24, 48 or 72 hrs, offers free inner city rides as above plus discounts on many sights and activities.

Regular tickets of theaters, philharmony, opera, zoo, sport events and trade fair usually include the bus/tram ticket for the date of their validity, so watch out for the vrs logo on event tickets:

In Case of Emergency

• EMERGENCY NUMBERS

Emergency operator: 112 Police : 110 Emergency Doctor/Ambulance: 19222

• HOSPITALS

Again, should you need to get yourself medical attention, ...TO BE COMPLETED...

• EMBASSIES & CONSULATES

There are however several country consulates in the city, should you need any help or information. The countries represented are currently: Bangladesh, Switzerland, China, Italy, Monaco, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Norway & Pakistan. ...TO BE COMPLETED...

• LAST MINUTE HOSTEL

...TO BE COPLETED...

• YOUR LOCAL CS AMBASSADORS

If you have any questions that are not asnwered through this list, nor this wiki page for Manchester, you may want to ask the nearest CS ambassador. Current Köln's resident CS ambassadors are:

• Ulf Kleinnings Global Ambassador
• Finn Kölzer City Ambassador
• Cori Carl Nomadic Ambassador

You can also seek advice to the Bonn ambassador, Tom Asten

Hosts only

In der Hot Hosts Cologne Gruppe gibt es die Möglichkeit, wie an einem schwarzen Brett die Couch-Anfragen, die wir ablehnen mußten, zu posten, um dem Anfrager trotzdem weiter zu helfen und manchem Gastgeber im Kölner Umland, der vielleicht gerne öfter Gäste hätte, auch noch einen Gefallen zu tun. Hier können wir ein lokales Gastgebernetzwerk bilden. Schreibt Euch also ein, wenn Ihr zuviel oder zu wenig Anfragen bekommt.

This group is ONLY for hosts from Cologne and nearby, to forward untaken couch requests on an internal message board. Travellers don't post here, but in the Cologne group, if ever. As a traveller looking for a couch can, however, ask the people you contact to forward your request to the Hot Hosts in case they cannot host you. Remember to provide them the group link, as they might not necessarily know about it yet. Information is power!

See Also

• Special travel info about Cologne look at Wikitravel and the Hitchhiking Wikia.

• wikipedia:Cologne
• wikitravel:Cologne

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