Cologne
Fifteen miles north of Bonn (the capital of former West Germany) and 30 miles from the borders both of Belgium and The Netherlands, Cologne is Germany’s fourth-largest city after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. Dominated by its cathedral, which supposedly contains the relics of the New Testament’s Three Wise Men, the city is a cultural, financial, and industrial center of Europe. It is also a tourist mecca, as it is reported that among the Cologne event venues are the highest number of bars per capita of anywhere in Germany. The airport used by all those visitors is the Cologne/Bonn Airport (CGB), approximately 10 miles southeast of the city center. It has service to most points in Europe, but a connection in another European city must be made if coming from North America.The city’s convention center is the Congress-Centrum Kolnmesse, which has 2.8 million square feet of exhibit space for almost 20,000 persons and 41 meeting and function rooms for a maximum capacity of 9,600 persons.Hotel venues in Cologne include the 454-room Maritim Hotel Koln, which has 21 meeting and function rooms, with its largest able to host 1,600 persons…
