Two ArchaeoTrails published!
I reported a while back that I offered an interdisciplinary course on the app ArchaeoTrial. The app is for creating tours and scavanger hunts for archaeological sites. In my course, groups created tours through Roman Cologne. The students invested a lot of work and effort and since a couple of days, two ArchaeoTrails are available!
Recap: The ArchaoTrail course
So the idea was, that we create tours through Roman Cologne and teach about its past and archaeology. We offered the course only one semester and students had time afterwards to complete their trails. I tested one of the trails myself and it impressed me. As I am not orginally from Cologne and do not live in the city, so many things and places were new to me as well. I really enjoyed the experience.
When done with creating the ArchaeoTrail tour, it has to undergo a reviewing process to ensure the quality. We were waiting for this for a while, but a couple of days ago, one of my students wrote to me, that their tour was accepted and is online. So I looked myself and in fact, two tours are available right now: a tour for tourists and a tour for specialists.
Tour 1: Roman Cologne for tourists
So the shorter trail is the one for tourists. It is basically for everyone interested in Roman Cologne that can spare 2,5 hours to walk around the inner city. The trail starts at a Roman castel and continues through the city to various points of the Roman city wall and towers. It ends at the local museum and its vicinity. The tour is well-made, available in German, English, and Greek and has a length of about 1.26 kilometres. Of course you also walk by the Cologne Cathedral!
Tour 2: Roman Cologne for specialists
The trail for specialists is more suited to students of archaeology or real Roman nerds. It takes nearly six hours! But it is worthwhile as you will see nearly everything that Cologne has to offer when it comes to its Roman past. The whole trail is about 27 kilometres long, but you only walk about eight. This trail is more suited to students planning a field trip or an excursion to Cologne and are intrested in its Roman past.
Some of the stations are the same as for the tourists, but there are also some specialised stations. You can do excursions from the main route to a pottery district, a Roman burial tomb and much more. The trail has 38 stations, so be prepared for a lot of information.
Where can you get the tours?
Well that’s pretty simple. You can find the ArchaoTrail app in the Google Play store as well as its counterpart from Apple for free. Once installed, you can open the app, click on “Trail durchsuchen” and then on the little list symbol in the lower right corner. There you will find both tours “Das römische Köln (Touristen)” and “Das römische Köln (Exkursion)”. When you open either of them, you can start the trail at the bottom and choose your language. There you go!
If you visit Cologne in the future and decide to try out one of the tours, feel free to comment here and give some feedback. It will be really appreciated!
