Days out

The France Festival will be taking place this weekend in Düsseldorf to commemorate Bastille Day. The three day festival celebrates all things French and will feature music, poetry, theatre, film, dance and lots of French food and wine. This year you can hear singers like Lisa Zenner, who mixes Latin American rhythm with a chanson style, plus Jean-Claude Séférian, as well as a variety of street musicians.

The Cologne Zoo never seizes to deliver top class attractions. Who would have thought they could improve on the Elephant Park? Well they have - with the brand spanking new Hippodom. This recreated African river landscape gives visitors the chance to see hippos from a whole new perspective: they may waddle somewhat comically on land, but underwater they swim with a certain elegance and grace. Hippo fans will already know the hippo family well, Albert, Jenny, Afro and baby Kavango, and may fondly remember their old home in the Victorian style pavilion that once housed the elephants.

What's your favourite mode of transport in Cologne?  Tram? Train? Bus? Boat?  How about the cable car?  OK it's not much of a mode of transport, you can go across the river and back, that's it.  But what a view! Unrivalled views of the Cologne skyline, the river and the naked bathers in Claudius Therme (obviously not the main reason for taking the cable car, but nevertheless an interesting diversion).

Pay a visit to Cologne Zoo and see the latest arrival in the Monkey House.  Gorilla Mama Gina, silverback Papa Kim and little brother Kito are happy to announce the arrival of their latest family member  who was born on the 4th March.  Newborn gorillas normally weigh around 2km and start crawling at around three months, although they ride on their mothers backs for many years.  It took a while to find out the sex of Cologne's latest arrival as Mama Gina kept her too close to see, now all they need is a name.  If you have a good idea send it in to the zoo - our money

If you've ever ventured to the Ruhrpot you'll have seen the great work that has been achieved in regenerating the old industrial sites.  The Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord  is an amazing area full of old factory ruins slowly being reclaimmed by nature.  The zeche zollverein is a coal mine converted into an exhibition centre and event location, and the Gasometer in Oberhausen is a beautiful old gas cylinder being put to use as an exhibition space, event location and concert hall.  Starting on April 2nd you can see an amazing new exhibition at the Gasometer that is definate

There are some truly magical places around the Rhine region and one of my favourites is Schloss Burg in the Wupper valley.  Admittedly this place is so special that it's often over-run by tourists and day trippers, but you can hardly blame them.  Schloss Burg is a little fort, or castle, on top of a steep hill, surrounded by forest, and can only be accessed by one road, once you're in, the only way out is the way you came in.  In the winter it hosts a perfect old world Christmas Market and in Spring a traditional Easter Bazaar.  There are two ways to get to the castle, b

Now that Spring is finally here it's time to start thinking about venturing outside again.

There’s nothing kids like more than getting close to animals and in Cologne there is a great place where kids can do this for free  – the Lindenthaler Tierpark.  It’s a fenced off part of the Stadtwald/grüngurtel where you’ll find goats, sheep, deer, turkeys, chickens, peacocks and other fowl, plus the donkey pair Dolores and Pablo, who have just had a baby.  You can feed the sheep, goats and deer - with animal food dispensers on hand stocked with boxes of food for €0.50 a go – watch delightedly as the goats and sheep jostle each other

Rhine online wishes its readers a healthy and happy 2010, and is going to get the "healthy" aspect rolling straight away, by telling you about the best places to go to start your New Year off in a healthy and happy frame of mind.  Claudius Therme is always a favourite place to spend a few hours relaxing.  Whether it's hot and sweaty in the sauna, hot and steamy in the steam bath, or floating outside in the open air pool  - Claudius Therme is the perfect place to relax and unwind, and shake off your New Years’ day hangover.  Neptunbad is another oasis of c