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My name is Nicholasand I am nine years old.I live in the city of Cologne.

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It is the fourthlargest city in Germany.You'll see that Cologneis a pretty busy place.You can't say Cologne withoutmentioning the River Rhine.Because the Rhine ispart of life here.The Rhine flows through the cityand people live on both sidesof the Rhine.My grandma lives very near the Rhineand I visit her often.Sometimes we go off to high placesand look at the views.You can even see castles.I like it when she tells methings about the river.Did you know the Rhineis one of the longestand most important rivers in Europe?It is over 1,000 kilometres long.Its source is in Switzerlandand it ends in Rotterdamin the Netherlands.I like strolling by the water's edgebecause you can find so many things.It is a lot of funbecause you can watch the boatsand wave to the captains.

SHIP HOOTS HORN

Sometimes they hoot and call us.My grandma saysshe has never seen the Rhine so low.When we were on a walk todayshe saidshe had never seenthose rocks before.This is because we haven't hadenough rain.Usually,you can't play on these rocksbecause the river covers them all.My grandma can still remember whenthe river came right up to there.The river went up toover ten metres.But my grandma says that Colognehas a very good defence systemto protect us from floods.

It is very easy to getaround Cologne with buses or a tram.But the best are the trains.You can get a normal train oryou can get a high-speed traincalled ICE.ICE stands for Inter City Express.ICE is a fantastic express train,which can go up to 300 kilometresan hour.It's the fastest train in Germany.There's also another fast train,it's called the double express.Here, people can sit upstairsand downstairs.When I travel from the main station,I always cross overthe famous Hohenzollern Bridge.People have hungover 40,000 padlocks on it.These are love locks to show howmuch people love each other.Look at this one!When they've locked it,they throw the key into the Rhine.If you walk over the bridge, youwill come to the old part of town.That's where our famouscathedral is.It is one of the most visitedsites in Germany.It took 750 years to build it.Cologne cathedral has the largestfree-swinging bell in the world.It's called Fat Peterand weighs 24 tonnes.But there's something else thatCologne is really famous for.The Christmas markets.We have seven reallybeautiful ones in Cologne.My sister and I love this one.Elves are hidden all over the placebut I can easily spot them.The market in the old part of townis called the Elves Market.It is called this because of ourvery famous fairy-tale,The Elves Of Cologne.This is the famous story of Cologne.There are so many lovely things!Over four million tourists visitthe markets in just four weeks.There's also a puppet stand.The lady selling the puppetsat the stand was really niceand we chatted about the puppetsfor a long time.You can also learna lot about wood cuttingbecause there'sa wood sculptor there.If you come in Decemberyou will be able to haveloads of fun in the markets.Mmm! Yummy!Delicious!