regions

Cologne Lowland

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Overview

Wikivoyage guide · 12 sections

▸Introduction544 chars

Cologne Lowland (German: Kölner Bucht) is a region in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, centered around the cities of Cologne and Bonn on the river Rhine. With around 3 million inhabitants, it is one of Germany's most populated areas, and it houses many institutions of national and global stature, including world-renowned universities, federal institutions and business headquarters. Thanks to that and its excellent connectiveness, it sees one of Germany's highest numbers of visitors, both arriving in specific interests and casual tourists.

▸Cities866 chars

1 Bonn - the erstwhile federal capital with a number of museums, cultural institutions and corporate headquarters, and a charming old town where Beethoven was born

2 Brühl - a leisurely town between Cologne and Bonn, home to UNESCO-listed palaces and a major amusement park

3 Cologne (Köln) - the largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia

4 Bad Honnef – the end of the Middle Rhine Valley

5 Königswinter - a hilly summer resort on the Rhine, with a hotel made famous as a residence for the federal government's guests

6 Leverkusen - a new town that boomed in the 19th century around chemical works, now also famous for its football team

7 Sankt Augustin - a town between Siegburg and Bonn, with an unusual castle

8 Siegburg - the seat of the county covering most of the lowland, famous for its ceramic beer pitchers, with a handy high-speed railway station serving Bonn

▸Understand

Facts

Rank

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Coordinates

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Source

WBP almanac

External sources

Wikivoyage Wikipedia

Media

From Wikipedia474 words

Introduction

The Cologne Lowland, also called the Cologne Bay or, less commonly, the Cologne Bight (German: Kölner Bucht, pronounced [ˈkœlnɐ ˈbʊxt] ⓘ), is a densely populated area of Germany lying between the cities of Bonn, Aachen, and Düsseldorf/Neuss. It is situated in the southwest of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and forms the natural southern conclusion of the Lower Rhenish lowlands and the transition to the Rhenish Massif (Rheinische Schiefergebirge or "Rhenish Slate Mountains"). Map of the Cologne Lowland showing its "bight" shape The Cologne Bight is surrounded by the High Fens and the Eifel to the west of the Rhine and by the uplands of Bergisches Land to the east of the Rhine. In the south and southeast the rising Rhine Massif, visible from far off by the silhouette of the Siebengebirge, surround the head of the bight at Königswinter. To the northwest the Cologne Bight opens out into the valleys of the Rhine and the Meuse, in the northeast it is bounded by the Münsterländer Kreidebecken (Münster Chalk Basin) of the Westphalian Bight.

Climate and geology

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While named and centered around Cologne, the region is far more than just the city and its suburbs, with many interesting destinations outside of it, particularly Bonn. Densely populated and urbanized, it is however much less industrialized than Lower Rhine and Ruhr, as well as very green. It provides a nice, relaxed counterbalance to those, and serves as the state's hub for cultural events.

Continually inhabited since ancient Roman times, the region has a rich history, a wealth of monuments of which can be found all over. Furthermore, an exceptional number of museums present the region's history as well, and far beyond that, a startling variety of subjects with world-class exhibits.

▸Talk639 chars

Traditionally, Cologne has had a peculiar dialect, that might be hard to understand to even fluent foreign speakers of German. In practice, however, the language used in everyday matters by most is simply regular Hochdeutsch (standard German), with perhaps a few regionalisms in terms of vocabulary. The presence of a large migrant population from both other regions of Germany and other countries has helped to standardize German.

As Cologne is a university town and an international business and cultural hub, and Bonn the former capital, you will find most people conversant in at least English, and many other languages spoken as well.

▸By plane1,068 chars

The main airport in the region is Cologne-Bonn Konrad Adenauer Airport (CGN IATA) in Cologne, connected to the region's light rail system, as well as Germany's high-speed train system - however only some high-speed trains passing through Cologne stop there. It is also well-connected to other European airports thanks to being the main hub for Eurowings, the low-fare short-haul subsidiary of Germany's flag carrier Lufthansa.

Other airports close by with more traffic, including many intercontinental flights, are Düsseldorf Airport(DUS IATA) and Frankfurt Airport (FRA IATA). As Frankfurt is Germany's main air transportation hub (and a base of flag carrier Lufthansa), you will find direct connections there from all over the world. Thanks to an excellent high speed rail connection directly from the airport to both Cologne and Siegburg/Bonn, it is a very convenient entry point to the region despite being some 200 km away. You can actually travel on the train from FRA using your flight ticket, for more on integrated rail and air tickets see rail air alliances.

▸Get around711 chars

In terms of public transportation, the region is covered by Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg, which provides a unified tariff system across all publicly-owned operators in the region. Those include the Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe, whose Stadtbahn light rail network reaches far beyond the city of Cologne into neighbouring municipalities such as Brühl, Bergisch-Gladbach, Hürth and Leverkusen, and even reaching as far as Bonn. Bonn itself has its own Stadtbahn (with some shared lines with Cologne's), also serving Siegburg and Bad Godesberg. Long distance ICE and IC trains are however not included in the Verkehrsverbünde and thus of little use for local and regional travel but a good way to enter or leave the area.

▸See1,336 chars

The region's concentration of population and afflucene have been features for centuries, which left much heritage throughout and now continues to express itself in the number and quality of cultural institutions, as well as nightlife and culinary scene. Museums are actually quite evenly spread between Cologne and Bonn, due to the latter's federal role. The free-entry Haus der Geschichte in the latter city is worthy of special recommendation, while the former has a museum dedicated to the ancient Roman heritage of the city and area.

In terms of architecture, Cologne has the world-famous cathedral, but other historic buildings have been decimated by wartime destruction. Large royal palaces of Brühl and Bonn can rival the ones in France easily, while smaller towns such as Siegburg and Königswinter bring about a sweetened, affluent version of the photo-album-ready Germany, with the river Rhine, picturesque forested hills and cozy old towns.

The 321 metre high Drachenfels near Königswinter is probably the world's most frequently summited mountain and has been a subject of many romantic poems (including one by Lord Byron) and pieces of art. It is topped by a ruined castle, a newer castle dating to the 19th century and the Nibelungen hall, reminding of the Siegfried legend. It can be reached by a century-old cog railway.

▸Drink1,306 chars

The Cologne region is known for its local beer style called Kölsch, a top-fermented, fair-coloured brew containing just under 5% alcohol. It is very light and smooth, making Germans from other regions who are used to the sharper Pils joke that it's "not even beer". It is usually served in slim 0.2 l glasses (so-called Stange, literally "stick") and should always be drunk freshly tapped as it gets stale very quickly. Waiters typically carry the small Kölsch glasses in a "wreath" (Kranz). In some Kölsch pubs or beer cellars, patrons are served a glass of Kölsch by default if not explicitly ordering a different drink, and are supplied with the next glass as soon as the former is empty, unless they explicitly refuse by putting a beermat on their glass.

Just like the traditional rivalry between Cologne and Düsseldorf, there is a long-cherished aversion of Kölsch drinkers against the Lower Rhine region's Alt beer (top-fermented as well, but darker and more malty flavoured), and vice versa. Ordering an Alt in a pub south of the Kölsch-Alt frontier (that runs through Grevenbroich, Dormagen and Monheim) is considered a gaffe and will be answered with ignorance or a sarcastic comment at best. Reportedly, some Kölsch enthusiasts even replace the Alt key on their computer keyboard by a Kölsch key.

[edit] Asparagus field near Sechtem The Cologne Lowland is among the warmest regions in Germany. While the summers on the upper Rhine are somewhat warmer, winters in the area are so mild that snow remaining on the ground for as much as several days would have been considered rather exceptional in the decades before the onset of the current climatic change. Due to the orographic rainfall on the surrounding mountain ranges the climate is relatively damp as well. In combination with the valuable loess soil, these factors make the Cologne Bight one of the most fertile regions of Germany. About 30 million years ago, parts of the Rhine Massif sank and formed a lowland region. Due to the subtropical climate at that time, there was a luxuriant plant growth of abundant varieties. About 15 million years ago, these plants died out and formed a peat layer up to 270 metres thick. From the pressure of earth layers lying over it, the peat was compressed into lignite (brown coal). The predecessor rivers of today's Rhine dug a broad river bed through the rock. These Rhine forerunners brought debris from the Alps, the Eifel, the Hunsrück, and the Westerwald. Where the water flowed slowly (in the shallow water zones), clay was left behind; where it flowed fast, sand and gravel settled. The shores of the North Sea in those days occasionally reached up to where the cities of Aachen, Erkelenz, and Mönchengladbach are today. The Cologne Lowland is also seismically active today. Part of the Cologne Lowland seen from the north The region is characterised by its agriculture (with orchards and truck farms), by open-pit lignite mining, by the landscapes of the Voreifel and the Bergisches Land as well as by 325 fortresses and castles, which were usually built as water castles.