Cologne Chocolate Museum (Schokoladenmuseum)

The Cologne Chocolate Museum sits on a peninsula jutting into the Rhine and traces roughly 3,000 years of chocolate history, from the cacao rituals of ancient Mesoamerican cultures through the industrial-scale production methods developed in the Rhineland during the 19th and 20th centuries. The tour moves through a working glasshouse tropical zone with live cacao trees, a floor of historical packaging and advertising, and a fully operational miniature production line producing chocolate bars that visitors can watch being wrapped. The centrepiece is a three-metre bronze chocolate fountain, where a member of staff periodically dips wafers for visitors to sample. A full visit, including the production line and tasting room, takes between ninety minutes and two and a half hours, and the adjoining café and shop are worth extra time for chocolate lovers. Weekday mornings are the quietest period, while weekends and school holidays bring long queues, particularly around the chocolate fountain and the ground-floor entrance. The building's riverside terrace offers good photo opportunities of the Rhine and passing boats, and the glasshouse interior, with its humid tropical plantings, provides an unusual indoor photography setting distinct from the rest of the museum. Combining the visit with a Rhine riverboat tour departing from the nearby pier makes for an easy half-day itinerary in Cologne.