Germany
Editorial lede pending for Cologne.
Sightseeing1Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Kölner Dom von Osten.jpg)
Took 632 years to build, was briefly the world's tallest building (1880-84), and somehow still worth the wait.
Sightseeing2Photo: Wikimedia Commons (00 7344 Köln - Hohenzollernbrücke.jpg)
A commuter rail bridge turned love-lock landmark - hundreds of thousands of padlocks, postcard views of the Dom, zero admission.
Culture3Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Museum Ludwig 001.jpg)
One of Europe's great Picasso hoards, plus Pop Art and Russian avant-garde - right at the foot of the Cathedral.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Stollwerck-Imhoff-Schokoladenmuseum.JPG)
A fondue fountain, 3,000 years of cocoa culture, and a chocolate-dipped wafer at the door. The adults enjoy it more.
Culture5Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Koeln wallraff richartz mus.jpg)
Cologne's oldest museum - medieval gold-ground panels, Rembrandt, Renoir, all in one mercifully un-crowded building.
Culture6Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln (2514-16).jpg)
Cologne was Rome's provincial capital on the Rhine. The proof: a 3rd-century Dionysus mosaic still sitting where it was laid.
Culture7Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Farina-Haus Köln (4213-15).jpg)
Johann Maria Farina coined 'Eau de Cologne' here in 1709. The factory never moved. Guided tours run on the hour.
Sightseeing8Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Koeln gross st martin rheinseite.jpg)
The four-towered Romanesque silhouette that has defined the Altstadt skyline since the 12th century. Free to enter.
Sightseeing9Photo: Wikimedia Commons (St. Gereon Köln - Ostseite (2520).jpg)
A late-Roman oval crowned with a soaring 10-sided medieval dome - the boldest of Cologne's 12 Romanesque churches.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Cologne-EL-DE-House-UpperFloorMuseum.JPG)
The Gestapo ran Cologne from this building. The prisoner inscriptions scratched into the basement cells are still here.
Culture11Photo: Wikimedia Commons (St. Kolumba Köln - Diözesanmuseum - Ausgrabungen 1.jpg)
Peter Zumthor wrapped a bombed-out Gothic church in pale grey brick and made silence the exhibit - sacred art meets archaeology.
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Practicalities backfill pending.
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.
— John Masefield, 1902