Self-Guided Tours in Cologne

Cologne's old town wraps around its cathedral, begun in 1248 and not finished until 1880, and both games use the building as their fixed point no matter which direction the clues send you. From the cathedral steps the route drops toward the Rhine at Heumarkt and the Fischmarkt, doubles back past the Historisches Rathaus and the Alter Markt, and touches Great St Martin's squat tower before finishing near the Chocolate Museum on the riverbank. The Heinzelmännchenbrunnen fountain, tied to a local legend about elves who once did the city's work overnight until a curious tailor's wife ruined it, sits along the way as one of the smaller stops between the bigger landmarks.

The two games read the same streets in opposite ways. The scavenger hunt is a straightforward sightseeing loop: redeem a ten-digit code, let GPS steer you between outdoor stops with nothing to pay at the door, and switch on the spoken clue option whenever reading mid-walk gets awkward. The other reframes the same ground as folklore, sending you to Domplatte, the open square beneath the cathedral, and into the old town's haunted streets and villas to unlock the darker history behind ordinary-looking buildings — solve a clue, get exact directions to the next, no map required. Neither locks you into a start time.

Practical. July in Cologne sits around 25C, January nearer 3C, and the river adds a damp edge to winter that makes gloves worth packing even for a short walk. A VRS day ticket covers the city's trams and buses, though the loop stays close enough to the Hauptbahnhof that most visitors never need it before dark. Both games stay outdoors and free-standing, so neither needs advance museum tickets, but the cathedral itself can close sections for services without notice.