In an evening and next entire day? I arrive Friday evening (from Berlin) and will be there until Monday morning. I’d like to plan a day trip Sunday instead of forcing another day in Cologne. (Assuming I get 1-2 hours Friday evening to wander.) And where to? Aachen? A town south on the Rhine? Bonn?
And while I’m asking….I am debating 1/2 day in either Goslar, Erfurt or Quedlinburg on way from Berlin to Cologne. Thoughts? Just me. I’ll have baggage to stash somewhere also.
I will be in Cologne for 2 nights, and plan to spend the first day (which begins fairly early since I'm not coming from that far away) in Aachen. In the late afternoon or early evening, I will head back to Cologne for the first night and then spend the second day there, which I think will be enough (for me, anyway). I picked Aachen because I love history.
Where are you coming from when you get to Cologne?
Even half a day would be enough time to explore Cologne unless you are a museum buff, so don't worry.
Month and Year?
Much of Cologne is walkable from the HBF, which is unusual. But the Ethnographic, Medieval, and Kathe Kollwitz museums, and the Botanical garden. require the Underground. There are nice walks across the river and back on another bridge. Erfurt and Quesdlinburg are both superb, it depends on your time to get there and back-both kind of far away. I completely reject the statement about half a day. It is true that the Kollner Dom is the most visited monument in the country (don't miss Gerhard Richter's abstract stained glass overhead), but the town is loaded with first-class attractions and dining, not to mention Kölsch (in .2 liter glasses).
The deconsecrated (and thus surviving) Synagogue in Erfurt is unique and un-missalble. Great public (not free) garden with own tram stop, EGAPark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_of_medieval_art_from_Quedlinburg . For me this church treasury was unmissable, but it's a very special Fachwerke town.
Edit: Not to overstate it, but Cologne does have some less-visited gems: In the (deliberately) unkempt Sacristy ruins-courtyard of the Kolumba museum, there is a very unusual (for the artist) outdoor, site-specific sculpture by the successful and controversial American sculptor, Richard Serra. "The Drowned and the Saved". I was lucky enough to see it right after a brief rainstorm, so it had water dripping from it. (Of course the title of the sculpture is a WW II literary reference, not literal.)
https://www.kolumba.de/?language=eng&cat_select=1&category=2&artikle=183
End of April. I’m leaving Berlin on earliest train of the day. 6am-7am??? Could spend 4-6 hours in town on the way.
I plan on drinking several beers! Best spot? Like real place real Cologne people (Cologners?) would go? I’ll have been in Berlin for 4 days. And I realize that the “beer garden” isn’t a northern Germany thing.
I’m staying at Hotel Hopper St Joseph.
Hi, tckings.
Most of the ICE (InterCity Express) trains from Berlin to Köln (Cologne) make a scheduled stop in Hannover, from which you can make a longish side trip to Goslar; Hannover to Goslar is about 1-hour with regional train. But if you're set on Berlin to Köln, it's my belief a mere half-day to Goslar, Erfurt, Quedlinburg seems very rushed to infeasible.
If you're on the train from Berlin to Erfurt, you're on the ICE stretch to Frankfurt am Main (and Nürnberg-München). In Frankfurt, you'll have to switch to another train to Köln (Deutsche Bahn, Streckenkarten des Fernverkehrs, ICE/IC Liniennetz 2022).
Here are possible side-trips from Köln:
Thanks. I don’t like to rush and I don’t want to pull into Cologne late at night. Like after 9pm. So I’ll pick something off more direct route.
How about drinking wine in Boppard? For a day trip? I like beer but an afternoon of good German white wine sounds appropriate.
Friday: I once made a similar train journey from Berlin and arranged a stopover in Münster for a few hours. Nice town with a university vibe, 10 million bicycles and numerous pubs (enough that it's possible to take a pub crawl tour.) My apparent mistake was not visiting the Pinkus establishment (with Biergarten.)
https://www.muenster-geht-aus.de/data/address/494/1_pinkus_biergarten1.jpg
Sightseeing map of Münster:
https://k3.de/wp-content/uploads/stadtplan-muenster-download.pdf
Leaving at 6:46 am on the direct Cologne-bound ICE, it will cost you roughly 1.5 hours more of actual train time to stop over there - just under 6 hrs. altogether vs. the 4.5 hour direct train to Cologne. One change of train in Hamm to get there. So a Münster stopover of say 4 hours should put you in Cologne buy around 19:00.
Sunday: Boppard is a good idea. The Heilig Grab is near the station:
https://www.deutschlandgourmet.info/bilder/gross/5710-Restaurant-Weinhaus-Heilig-Grab-Boppard.jpg
Make a point of taking the chairlift and a short walk/hike once you're up there. Great views.
Follow signs to the Gedeonseck place, a good spot for views and refreshments.
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/a0/b5/90/cafe-overlooking-rhein.jpg
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/T9oxNMwLvt_-r5nCsce-jg/o.jpg
Maybe you'd take the train to Braubach prior to Boppard. Braubach is home to Marksburg Castle:
Regarding Kolsch, which is not an especially complex flavor, very as we say in the US today, "blonde beer": It's always served by gravity from a small keg on the counter. So it's nice to watch the serving process and keg changes. Gaffel is considered a touristy location, near the Dom, but the serving room and the dining room actually have nice aura of authenticity. It's my preference. Note the "wreath" serving trays for a table-full of customers. I think I also went to Peters or Sion, partly because Lonely Planet Germany said they had potato pancakes on Thursdays. This is by no means a comprehensive list. Note that Kolsch is often the single brand available in a bar with the same name. See if multi-tasting has become available in modern times?
As noted by implication, Cologne is NOT a scenic Rhine river-tour location. I thought the local tourist boat was a waste of time. When we were in Boppard, there was a nice wine garden (mostly paved) right across the street from the train station.
If you really like beer, that might lean towards a Duesseldorf visit, where they have a darker beer called Altbier, served in .3 liter glasses. Lonely Planet says not to speak the word "Kolsch" while in Duesseldorf! Serious drinkers in Duesseldorf (and there are a lot of them) alternate Altbier with Killepisch, an herbal liqueur which is actually kind of good, much more palatable than Jagermeister. (An American altbier is made by Long Trail, in Vermont, and widely sold in the northeast, at least.)
You have a good list of other visits. It's not close by, but if your whole trip lacks Fachwerke, and you can't make time for Quedlinburg, you could consider Monschau, which is a touristier version of Quedlinburg, without the Church treasury. Nothing else there, except maybe some hiking.
You should look up the museums (many) in Cologne to plan your time. Even if you happen to dislike miles of oils on the wall, places like the MAK and Kolumba (both HBF walkable) and the Medieval (Schnütgen) are a great antidote for that. The Roman museum (HBF walkable) is quite famous, and not dry or boring, and Cologne is an important Roman location, with an underground monument with tunnels, the Praetorium (Google says currently closed, but Google isn't reliable on that.) There is a medieval Mikveh that you used to be able to sign out the key for with your passport, don't know today. The small "old town" is one of the less authentic ones, due to war damage. The restaurants with riverfront terraces don't look promising to me. I'd stick with the Kolsch brewery outlets.
Note for those interested in "The Paths of the Goddess", Rome, or travelers of faith, Cologne is very closely associated with St. Ursula and her horde of ... (word choice for internet reasons ... ) "maidens."
When I'm back in Köln, I try to get outside the Ring road:
And to follow up what Tim wrote above:
The Praetorium and the Archaeological Zone remain closed during ongoing construction of the "MiQua" Museum im Quartier (Museen Köln).
Cologne is lovely and yes you can see the major things in a day- the cathedral (should not take more than 90 minutes -- that includes going up into the spire), a museum (depending what is open), and you HAVE TO visit at least one cemetery on the outskirts of town. Its really epic.
Fun and less-known Cologne curiosity: The Bone Room at the Church of St. Ursula. Walkable from the Dom.
I've been through Cologne at least half a dozen times. Shortest 3 hours, longest 4 nights. It's an excellent short stop. Multiday stays you'll probably want to take a day trip or two out of town. It's close enough to the romantic Rhine to day trip train to Koblenz, rent bikes in the station, local train up the Rhine, get off where you please, ride back along river viewing castles and having a nice lunch stop, return bike in Koblenz, train back to Cologne easily in time for dinner.
