Cologne: the cathedral spires tower over Germany's oldest city and its innumerable cultural and historical treasures, world-famous museums and active art scene.
Whether street music on the Hohe Strasse or galas in the modern opera house, whether pavement painting on the cathedral concourse or old masters in the Wallraf Richartz Museum, whether the annual music festival along the inner ring road or carnival in the entire city - in Cologne all this becomes synthesized into a vivacious work of art - in a cosmopolitan metropolis boasting more than a million inhabitants which, despite its size, has never lost its neighbourly character.