Day trip recommendations from Cologne

Any interests?

I would highly recommend Aachen. It is a very quick 30 minute train ride from Cologne and is well worth a visit. I loved Aachen. Its cathedral is quite beautiful (especially the interior, which is a jeweled gem) and houses the remains of Charlemagne, leader of the Holy Roman Empire. It is also one of the oldest cathedrals in Europe. You can book a tour of the cathedral if you like, and also the cathedral treasury. It was hard for me to believe that that this small city was once the seat of the Holy Roman Empire.

The town itself is very charming and has a lovely vibe to it. It's smaller than Cologne and you could easily spend some time just walking around, enjoying the sites and stopping at one of the cafes there for some Apfelstreuselkuchen and coffee. if you go, don't miss the Granus tower, which is next to the Rathaus (town hall) and is one of the few pieces remaining from Charlemagne’s palace. It dates back to the 8th century, making it over 1200 years old.

You could do a Rhine River Cruise.

We are usually up for anything—history, food, hiking. I did see a thread on WWII sights, so I’ve got that information.

Just a 30 min train from Cologne Hbf, Wuppertal has a lot to offer as a day trip. The Schwebebahn “flying train” is something very special. It’s sort of like an upside down monorail that flies over a picturesque river valley.
https://schwebebahn.de/en

This past September my husband and I took the Schwebebahn the full length and back again. We stopped at the park-like Wuppertal zoo, explored some leafy residential areas with beautiful art nouveau architecture and walked through the town pedestrian shopping area ending at the Von der Heydt Museum for some art.

We‘re big fans of modern art so we also enjoyed our ½ day trip to Essen for the Folkwang Museum.

Aachen is ideal,
also:
Düsseldorf
Monschau
Brussels

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/can-i-see-enough-of-cologne

Bonn and Düsseldorf, unless you have some specific historical interests in the lower Rhine area.

On the WW2 sites, still doable as regards to distance as a day trip from Cologne is Kleve, pertaining to the Battle of the Reichswald. There is also the town of Wesel am Rhein.

Thank you to everyone—you’ve given us some food for thought. We now have somethings to focus our planning in the next month.

Day trip Drachenfels near Königswinter (dragons rock in english website is in German sorry for that)

https://www.der-drachenfels.de/

Finally found something in English

https://www.drachenfelsbahn.de/en/drachenfels

40km south of Cologne on the other side of Rhine river

40 minutes by train or by car

To keep in mind lots of track work so. Aachens is a much longer trip lately