Read any guidebook about Cologne, Düsseldorf or Bonn and you'll find out about all the usual suspects; The Cologne Dom took 600 years to build, Düsseldorf has fantastic shopping, Bonn used to be known as the Federal Village when it was Germany's capital, yawn, yawn. But did you know the following facts?  read more »

Looking for a glass-free, dog-poop free, rubbish free, clean sandy beach somewhere in the Rhine region? So are we. It's not been easy - some of the places we thought were perfect turned out to be sadly neglected this year - Rodenkirchen, Poll and Mulheim all left something to be desired - so here's our tips on where to bathe, where to chill, and where to grill:  read more »