Along the Rhine, Old Europe's New Vibe

These days the riverfront buildings, converted into beer halls and restaurants, are a hub of nightlife, particularly on weekends.

With its finely crafted facade and twin spires soaring to 515 feet, the Cologne Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Mary, is one of Europe's most awe-inspiring pilgrimage destinations. Although it was hit by bombs, the Allied forces, apparently aware of the cathedral's historical and spiritual stature or perhaps as an orientation point, spared it from destruction. Today, the church, only a couple of blocks from the Rhine and next to the main train station, merits a tour of its own. The exterior, clad in flying buttresses, gargoyles and other features finely carved in volcanic stone, is so massive and ornate I spent a half-hour just gawking at it from different angles.

The interior -- with its 142-foot-high nave, stained-glass windows dating back five centuries, gilded altars and ornate wood carvings -- was equally majestic. Construction was started in 1248 to house the remains of the Three Magi (the wise men who celebrated the birth of Christ), which were brought here from Milan in the 12th century. Their bones are kept in a spectacular shrine fashioned from gold and blanketed with gems, cameos and 24 silver-gilt figures of prophets and apostles. As the resting place of the sacred trio, the shrine draws throngs of the faithful from throughout Europe.

Other wonders in the cathedral include a Schatzkammer , or treasure room, filled with jewels and relics made of gold and ivory. There's also a Dombild, or portrait, of the three wise men surrounded by saints; it was painted by Stephan Lochner, a 15th-century German artist.

And then there's the view: Before leaving, I climbed more than 500 steps, past ancient bells, to an overlook in one of the spires for a knock-your-socks-off panorama of the city.

I spent the rest of the day hopping among museums and galleries. Art experts rank Cologne as Europe's third-biggest stronghold of private art venues, after London and Basel, Switzerland. My first stop, the Ludwig Museum, is also highly regarded for its extensive acquisitions of contemporary art, including works by David Hockney, Salvador Dali and Gerhard Richter. And Picasso buffs will find that the modern structure -- with high ceilings, marble floors and several rooms of 20th- and 21st-century works -- houses one of the world's largest collections of the cubist's work (among them: 1923's "Harlequin With Folded Hands").

Where to visit next that afternoon was a harder decision. Daunted by the list of 100-plus private galleries provided by Cologne's tourism office, I consulted a few art specialists and narrowed my itinerary.

Galerie Gisela Capitain, one flight above Rudolfplatz, had the spare, cool look of an art venue in Manhattan's SoHo. On display were the canvases of Charline von Heyl, a young German artist whose oversize abstract works are splashed with brilliant colors and movement. Other recent shows have featured Austrian sculptor Franz West, Polish concept artist Edward Krasinski and Swiss photographer Guenther Foerg.

The scene at Galerie Daniel Buchholz, a 10-minute walk away, couldn't have been more different. The gallery, in the back of an antique-book store, was exhibiting a one-woman show by Lucy McKenzie, a rising artist from Scotland. Her works, figurative paintings of men and women against stark backgrounds, had a photographic quality to them.

Indeed, in many of Cologne's galleries, you never know what you might see on display -- or where it came from. "We might have neo-expressionist works from France one month and photographs from Russia the next," Buchholz told me. Finally, I dropped into Frank Henseleit's gallery, which features works from young German, Spanish and French painters. My attention was grabbed by "Himmel und Erde" ("Heaven and Earth"), a large canvas depicting the New York skyline with a portrait of an Indian chief, headdress and all, imposed on it.

Rainer Knaust, the painting's creator, explained that the current trend among artists in Germany -- and other parts of Europe -- is to incorporate current news into their works. "Afghanistan, Iraq, New York, these are all places where the big events are happening," he said. "We artists feel it important to document those places in images.

"Of course, there are political overtones to it all," Knaust added. "We don't only want to document what is going on. We want to engage the public."