A common problem that many German speakers have with English is incorrectly translating the words "in der Nähe von" into a sentence like "My office is in the near of Cologne".
The correct translation is "My office is close to Cologne".
Assuming that we are using this structure to show the distance between two objects, i.e. My office and Cologne I will give you a couple more prepositions of distance that have been useful for my students.
near to (in der Nähe von)
not far away from (unweit von)
right next to (direkt neben)
really close to (dicht an)
five minutes away from somewhere by foot/taxi/plane. (fünf Minuten zu Fuß vom irgendwo entfernt).
a long way from (weit entfernt von)
miles away from (weit entfernt von)
Exercises: How can you describe the distance between the following places, the first one has been completed as an example to show you the rough structure the answer should take;
Where you live and a nearby city? "I live close to the centre of Berlin".
Your house and where you work?
Your work places car park and where you work?
Where you work and the nearest train station?
A printer and your work computer?