Sights in North Rhine Westphalia
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Kölner Dom
Cologne's geographical and spiritual heart - and its single-biggest tourist draw - is the magnificent Kölner Dom. With its soaring twin spires, this is the Mt Everest of cathedrals, jam-packed with art and treasures. Its loftiness and dignified ambience leave only the most jaded of visitors untouched.
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Documentation Centre
Cologne's Third Reich history is poignantly documented in the Documentation Centre. In the basement of the building was the local Gestapo prison where scores of people were interrogated, tortured and killed. Inscriptions on the basement cell walls offer a gut-wrenching record of the emotional and physical pain endured by inmates.
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Rheinuferpromenade
Burgplatz marks the beginning of the Rheinuferpromenade, whose cafés and benches fill with people in fine weather, creating an almost Mediterranean flair. It follows the Rhine all the way to the Rheinpark and the 240m Rheinturm (Rhine Tower) with a viewing platform and revolving restaurant at 172m. Just beyond are the Landtag (the state parliament) and the old harbour, which has been redeveloped into the Medienhafen (Media Harbour), a spectacular showcase of contemporary architecture.
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Wallraf-Richartz-Museum
A famous collection of paintings from the 13th to the 19th centuries, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum occupies a postmodern cube designed by the late OM Ungers. Works are presented chronologically, with the oldest on the 1st floor where standouts include brilliant examples from the Cologne School, known for its distinctive use of colour. Upstairs are Dutch and Flemish artists, including Rembrandt and Rubens, Italians such as Canaletto and Spaniards such as Murillo. The 3rd floor focuses on the 19th century, with evocative works by Caspar David Friedrich and Lovis Corinth. Thanks to a permanent loan from Swiss collector Gérard Corboud, there's also a respectable collection of …
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Kolumba
The building encases the ruins of the late-Gothic church St Kolumba, layers of foundations going back to Roman times and the Madonna in the Ruins chapel, built on the site in 1950. It's yet another magnificent design by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, 2009 winner of the Pritzker Prize, the 'architectural Oscar'. Exhibits span the arc of religious artistry from the early days of Christianity to the present. Coptic textiles, Gothic reliquary and medieval painting are juxtaposed with works by Bauhaus legend Andor Weiniger and edgy room installations. The overall effect is contemplative rather than instructive, inspirational rather than historical.
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Römisch-Germanisches Museum
Anyone even remotely interested in Roman history should not skip the extraordinary Römisch-Germanisches Museum, adjacent to the Dom. Sculptures and ruins displayed outside are merely the overture to a full symphony of Roman artefacts found along the Rhine. Highlights include the giant Poblicius tomb (AD 30-40), the magnificent 3rd-century Dionysus mosaic around which the museum was built, and astonishingly well-preserved glass items. Insight into daily Roman life is gained from such items as toys, tweezers, lamps and jewellery, the designs of which have changed surprisingly little since.
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Museum Am Ostwall
Once one of Dortmund's largest and most famous breweries, the defunct Union Brauerei is a protected landmark being reinvented as a 'centre for art and creativity'. Three upper floors are the new home of the Museum am Ostwall, an art-world star thanks to its far-reaching collection of all major 20th- and 21st-century genres - expressionism to art informel, fluxus to op art to concrete art. For laypeople this translates into works by Macke, Nolde, Beuys and Paik, and living artists including Jochen Gerz and Anna and Bernhard Blume. It's expected to open in May 2010.
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Zollern II/IV Coal Mine
The Zollern II/IV Coal Mine was considered a 'model mine' when operation began in 1902. It boasted state-of-the-art technology and fantastic architecture, including an art nouveau machine hall and a castle-like administration building adorned with gables and onion-domed towers. An innovative exhibit documents the harsh realities of life as a miner, with plenty of interactive and child-oriented programs. To get here, take the U47 from Hauptbahnhof to Dortmund-Huckarde Bushof, then bus 462 direction Dortmund-Marten to Industriemuseum Zollern.
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Rathaus
Aachen's Rathaus, a splendid Gothic pile festooned with 50 life-size statues of German rulers, including the 30 kings crowned in town. It was built in the 14th century atop the foundations of Charlemagne's palace of which only the eastern tower, the Granusturm, survives. Inside, the undisputed highlights are the Kaisersaal with its epic 19th-century frescoes by Alfred Rethel and the replicas of the imperial insignia : a crown, orb and sword (the originals are in Vienna).
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Pleasure Palace and Gardens
Elector Carl Theodor was a man of deep pockets and good taste, as reflected in his exquisite pleasure palace and gardens, where he came to relax and frolic. Designed by Frenchman Nicolas de Pigage, the three-winged palace centres on the Corps de Logis, the former residential tract, where tours (in German) offer a glimpse of the elector's lifestyle. The other wings contain an old-school natural history museum (adult/concession €5/3) and a vaguely interesting museum of European garden history (adult/concession €5/3).
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Ruhr Museum
Visit the former coal washing plant, which now provides an edgy setting for the Ruhr Museum. Exhibits span the history of the Ruhr Region in an easily accessible and engaging fashion. Just as the coal was transported on conveyor belts, a long escalator whisks you up to the foyer from where you descend into the dark bowels of the building. With its raw stone walls, steep steel stairs, shiny aluminium ducts and industrial machinery, the space itself has all the drama and mystique of a movie set ( Blade Runner comes to mind).
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Museum Ludwig
The distinctive building facade and unorthodox roofline signal that the Museum Ludwig is no ordinary museum. Considered a mecca of postmodern art, it actually presents a survey of all major 20th-century genres. There's plenty of American pop art, including Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes, alongside a comprehensive Picasso collection and plenty of works by Sigmar Polke. Fans of German expressionism will get their fill here as much as those with a penchant for such Russian avant-gardists as Kasimir Malewitsch and Ljubow Popowa.
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Langen Foundation
If you have a penchant for art in weird places, make the trip out to the Langen Foundation. The location: a former NATO missile base where Pershing tanks armed with nuclear warheads held the line against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The architecture: a minimalist glass, steel and concrete box by Japanese Meister -architect Tadao Ando. The art: a top collection of Japanese screens, scrolls and sculpture, plus works by 20th-century greats, such as Jawlensky, Klee and Ernst, presented in changing exhibits.
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Dom
Essen's medieval Dom is an island of quiet engulfed by the commercialism of pedestrianised Kettwiger Strasse, the main shopping strip. It has a priceless collection of Ottonian works, all about 1000 years old. Not to be missed is a hauntingly beautiful Golden Madonna, set in her own midnight-blue chapel matching the colour of her eyes. The revamped treasury presents more fancy baubles, including a crown worn by Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, in a modern, intimate fashion.
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Deutsches Sport & Olympia Museum
In a 19th-century customs building near the Schokoladen Museum, the Deutsches Sport & Olympia Museum is an imaginative, if Germany-focused, tribute to the sporting life from antiquity to today. There are exhibits on the 1936 Berlin and 1972 Munich Olympic Games and on such modern-day heroes as Steffi Graf and Michael Schumacher. Interactive displays allow you to experience a bobsled run or a bike race, and on the miniature football field on the rooftop you can kick with a view of the cathedral.
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Schokoladen Museum
You don't have to have a sweet tooth to enjoy the Schokoladen Museum, a high-tech temple to the art of chocolate-making. Exhibits on the origin of the 'elixir of the gods', as the Aztecs called it, and the cocoa-growing process are followed by a live-production factory tour and a stop at a chocolate fountain for a sample. Upstairs are departments on the cultural history of chocolate, advertising, and porcelain and other accessories. Stock up on your favourite flavours at the downstairs shop.
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Museum Koenig
Across from the Villa Hammerschmidt, the Museum Koenig is a natural history museum but it's hardly your usual dead-animal zoo. The 'Savannah' exhibit re-creates an entire habitat with theatrical flourishes: elephants drinking at a watering hole, a jaguar holed up with its kill and vultures surveying the scene from above. Other highlights include a talking baobab tree in the 'Rainforest', a colossal sea elephant in the 'Arctic' and a condor with a 3m wingspan in the 'World of Birds'.
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Vogelsang
Vogelsang is a vast complex built by the Nazis as a party leadership training centre and later used as military barracks by the Belgians. It's being converted into Forum Vogelsang and will soon have exhibits on the national park and the Eifel region as well as a documentation centre about the indoctrination and educational system in the Nazi state. German-speakers should join a guided tour to learn more about the place, its history and architecture.
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Burg Hülshoff
In Havixbeck, about 10km west of Münster, Burg Hülshoff is the birthplace of one of Germany's pre-eminent women of letters, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848). The red-brick Renaissance chateau is embedded in a lovely - partly groomed, partly romantic - park (admission free). The interior, which consists of period rooms furnished in the style of the poet's day, can be explored with an English-language audioguide. Alas, there's no public transport out here.
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Red Dot Design Museum
Another highlight is the Red Dot Design Museum in the stoker's hall, creatively adapted by Lord Norman Foster. In a perfect marriage of space and function, this four-storey maze showcases the best in contemporary design right amidst the original fixtures: bathtubs balancing on grated walkways, bike helmets dangling from snakelike heating ducts, and beds perching atop a large oven. All objects are winners of the Red Dot award, the 'Oscar' of the design world.
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Praetorium
The Praetorium is the relics of a Roman governor's palace below the Renaissance Rathaus. The Praetorium will soon be part of a much larger subterranean archaeological museum that's taking shape beneath the Rathausplatz. Visitors will be able to get close-ups of remnants, ruins and foundations of both Roman Cologne and the Jewish quarter in their original locations. A 3-D model in the Praetorium illustrates the project that's expected to open in 2011.
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Haus Rüschhaus
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff did some of her finest writing at the Haus Rüschhaus where she lived for 20 years from 1826. The building was once the private home of star architect Johann Conrad Schlaun, who magically morphed a farmhouse into a baroque mini-mansion backed by a formal garden (always open). It's in the suburb of Nienberge, about 3km north of Burg Hülshoff, and served by bus 5 from Münster's Hauptbahnhof (€2.10, 20 minutes).
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Hetjens Museum
A short detour off the Rheinuferpromenade takes you to the Hetjens Museum, known for its survey of 8000 years of ceramic art from around the world. An extension houses the Filmmuseum, which trains the spotlight on the technology, history and mystery of movie-making. The integrated Black Box art-house cinema presents retrospectives, rare flicks and silent movies with live organ accompaniment (tickets €6.50/4.50).
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Schloss Nordkirchen
On an island surrounded by a sprawling, manicured park, Schloss Nordkirchen is an imposing baroque red-brick structure nicknamed the 'Westphalian Versailles'. On a nice day, the palace is well worth visiting for the gardens and the exterior alone. Since it's used as a state college for financial studies, the interior - with its stuccoed ceilings, festival hall and dining room - can only be seen on guided tours.
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K20 Kunst- Sammlung Am Grabbeplatz
A collection that spans the arc of 20th- century artistic vision gives the K20 Kunst- sammlung am Grabbeplatz an enviable edge in the art world. Paul Klee is well represented but walls are also graced by plenty of other western European and American big-shots, including Picasso, Matisse, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Düsseldorf's own Joseph Beuys. The museum has recently had a major revamp.
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