Geography KS2: A location in Europe - Cologne, Germany

Nicholas: My name is Nicholas, and I am nine years old. I live in the city of Cologne.

Nicholas - TRANSLATED: It is the fourth largest city in Germany. You'll see that Cologne is a pretty busy place.

You can't say Cologne without mentioning the River Rhine. Because the Rhine is part of life here. The Rhine flows through the city and people live on both sides of the Rhine. My grandma lives very near the Rhine, and I visit her often. Sometimes we go off to high places and look at the views. You can even see castles. I like it when she tells me things about the river.

Did you know the Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe? It is over 1,000 kilometres long. It’s source is in Switzerland, and it ends in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. I like strolling by the water's edge, because you can find so many things. It is a lot of fun, because you can watch the boats and wave to the captains.

SHIP HOOTS HORN

Sometimes they hoot and call us. My grandma says she has never seen the Rhine so low. When we were on a walk today, she said she had never seen those rocks before. This is because we haven't had enough rain. Usually, you can't play on these rocks because the river covers them all. My grandma can still remember when the river came right up to there. The river went up to over ten metres. But my grandma says that Cologne has a very good defence system, to protect us from floods.

It is very easy to get around Cologne with buses or a tram. But the best are the trains. You can get a normal train or you can get a high-speed train called ICE. ICE stands for Inter City Express. ICE is a fantastic express train, which can go up to 300 kilometres an hour. It's the fastest train in Germany.

There's also another fast train, it's called the double express. Here, people can sit upstairs and downstairs. When I travel from the main station, I always cross over the famous Hohenzollern Bridge. People have hungover 40,000 padlocks on it. These are love locks to show how much people love each other. Look at this one! When they've locked it, they throw the key into the Rhine.

If you walk over the bridge, you will come to the old part of town. That's where our famous cathedral is. It is one of the most visited sites in Germany. It took 750 years to build it. Cologne cathedral has the largest free-swinging bell in the world. It's called Fat Peter and weighs 24 tonnes.

But there's something else that Cologne is really famous for. The Christmas markets. We have seven really beautiful ones in Cologne. My sister and I love this one. Elves are hidden all over the place, but I can easily spot them.

The market in the old part of town is called the Elves Market. It is called this because of our very famous fairy-tale, The Elves of Cologne.

Nicholas: This is the famous story of Cologne.

Nicholas - TRANSLATED: There are so many lovely things! Over four million tourists visit the markets in just four weeks.

There's also a puppet stand. The lady selling the puppets at the stand was really nice and we chatted about the puppets for a long time. You can also learn a lot about wood cutting, because there's a wood sculptor there. If you come in December, you will be able to have loads of fun in the markets. Mmm! Yummy! Delicious!