Wargaming / Militaria stores or museums in Köln? (Deutschland/Germany)

[Junkers]

Hi everyone!

I will stay some days in the german city of Köln / Cologne in december and want to take the occasion to visit hobby , wargaming or militaria stores.
Also, want to visit military or historical related museums or interesting places.
Moreover I'm also interested in emergency or police related museums, but I don't know if there is something like these in Köln.

Any advice will be welcome  

[grant]

There was a smallish store near the cathedral in the nice shopping district when I was there in 2010 - no idea if it's still there - but they had a very nice selection of historical miniatures at the time. I remember there being a high end kitchen accessories store across the street, the wife was occupied there when I found the store

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi,

last time I visited (sometime in early 2014, IIRC), there were two stores of note:

Lindenberg Modellspielwaren, who have a fine selection of model kits and model railroad supplies at sensible prices (by German model railroad shop standards). They are located a bit out (some 10 minutes by foot from the Breite Strasse pedestrian zone) on Blaubach 6, and they have (or had) a "clearance/remainder store" around the corner on Hohe Pforte 4, with lots of discounted older items, including vintage model railroad and some military items.

Then, there's "Brave New World" on Herzogstrasse 25-27, a bit north-west of the Breite Strasse. Lots of boardgames and "standard" hobby fare, but a good selection of historicals and some obscura remainders.

Concerning military museums, those are few and far between in Germany, and none I know of in Cologne (although there used to be sizable Belgian and Bundeswehr facilities around the city following WW2). There is the Roman-Germanic Museum next to the Cathedral, which is worth a visit but rather pacifist in nature, and a Tramway/Public Transport Museum on Otto-Kayser-Straße.

Not from Cologne myself, though, so I may have missed a few spots.

[grant]

Brave New World was the one I went to; googled it and the pictures are right.

Nice little shop.

[Monty]

From Cologne Koblenz isn't too far. Thus I'd recommend the 'Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung'. Some impressions are on my blog: Here

[Junkers]

Thank you all for your replies.

I was in Köln some years ago, and visited "Brave New World" (but didn't remember the name of the shop), I will visit it again now that I know its name  
I will also visit the train model shop, which is very close to the city center, it looks really great.

About the museum in Koblenz, it looks awesome, but I will not have the possibility of visit it because time/transportation constraints, but I will remember it for future travels (very interesting blog, Monty, I will add it to favourites).

The last time I was there, visited the Lego Store (highly recommendable) and the Games Workshop.
The guy of the Games Workshop store probably thought that I'm retarded because my lack of german language knowledge. He started to tell me about every expensive product of the store - I suppose, because is what they usually do here in Spain -and all my answer was like "hummm...das ist gut, ja, das ist gut"  

[grant]

Thank you all for your replies.

The guy of the Games Workshop store probably thought that I'm retarded because my lack of german language knowledge. He started to tell me about every expensive product of the store - I suppose, because is what they usually do here in Spain -and all my answer was like "hummm...das ist gut, ja, das ist gut"  

I used to work at a Volkswagen/Porsche dealership. All the mechanics in the back were actual Germans, and I had enough universitat German to have some fun with them.

"Naturlich, die Suppe ist ja so schon, im morgen!" Some enjoyed it. The chief mechanic hated me and everyone else. I messed with him the most. Even though he was a bit scary.

[Junkers]

In my case there was no intention of messing around with the GW guy.
German language is very hard to learn for foreigners. Fortunately most germans speak english and it's possible to keep a conversation easily with almost everyone, but sometimes when find someone who only speaks german, I can only say some words with a poor pronunciation and syntax trying to gesticulate to compensate it, and look friendly to avoid misunderstandings if didn't used the correct words.  That's a problem for someone like me, that like to talk everywhere with everybody, specially about hobbies 

[grant]

Nice dancing hotdog!