Day trip to Cologne?

I've seen the Dom (Cathedaral) at Köln. It was interesting, but hardly worth a 2 hour (RT) trip from Brussels (5 hrs from Amsterdam).

The distinctive towers of the Cologne Cathedral are relatively modern. 19th century. Prussia put up much of the money to appease the Catholic subjects of the budding empire, which Prussia acquired after the demise of Napoleon. I wouldn't do a 2-hour each way day trip, but Cologne is definitely worth a weekend.

There is a lot to see and do in Cologne besides the Cologne Cathedral which is magnificent. There are other beautiful churches and much lovely architecture to see.There is also the Hohenzollern Bridge which is a must see. There are art museums and a couple of very unique museums- the Fragrance Museum and the Chocolate Museum. On top of those, you'll like the Zoo and and the Botanical Gardens and maybe a visit to one of the 8 spas in town. I love the statues in the quiet and beautiful cemetery in Cologne. I'd give Cologne a couple of days!

Thalys or ICE trains take 1:50 hrs each way from Brussels to Cologne. That is doable for a day trip, in part because the most interesting sights are within a 5-10 minute walk radius from the main train station.

And yes, I'm one of those who've done a couple of day trips to Cologne because there is the Dom but also other great destinations, including two must-see museums flanking the Dom:

Roemisch-Germanisches Museum
This one actually made me fall in love with glass art!

Museum Ludwig
One of the most important museums of art of the 20th and 21st century in Europe featuring, among many other stunning exhibits, one of the largest Picasso collections

Consider Aachen. It's only 1:12h from Brussels to the city, and the church, while not as big as Cologne, is historically more significant and IMHO also more impressive.

"I will be visiting London, Bruges/Ghent, and Amsterdam over the course of 3 to 4 weeks."

With your interests in medieval, Gothic AND Romanesque, and the time you have, you really ought to have 3-4 days somewhere for Cologne and some other towns along the Rhine. Speyer's Romanesque Imperial Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the finer examples. Mainz' Romanesque Cathedral is also quite good and closer (about 1.5 hours from Cologne) and Mainz is a fine place to visit too. And it's hard to imagine not paying a visit to Marksburg Castle, near Koblenz, which has remained intact over nearly a millennium.

Speyer Cathedral
Mainz w/ Cathedral
Mainz Cathedral
Mainz' old town
Augustinerstrasse in Mainz
Old town square in Mainz
MARKSBURG

While Cologne is the most Bohemian city after Prague I'd not visit it if I was just into a cathedral. The single oldest cathedral is Aachen and it's quite different and much more worthwhile - and closer to Brussels, too.

You have really good answers. I'd also note that Cologne has an excellent religious art museum (not so much, "architecture"), Museum Schnütgen, which requires a short underground ride from the otherwise 90% walkable downtown of Cologne. The Applied Art museum, which spans hundreds of years, but leans towards the 19th and 20th centuries, has some very important old religious sculptures, too.

You are selling yourself short by taking only a daytrip. And your mention of Amsterdam suggests you don't have a clear idea of distances in the low countries. BTW, aren't you going to some of the cathedrals and city halls that are within a half hour of your Belgian destinations, like Leuven, Mechelen, and so on? Antwerp is huge omission, huge, in your OP.

Thank you for all the suggestions! It sounds like I definitely need to plan at least an overnight, maybe longer. And I had not come across the museum of religious art in Cologne – that is definitely going on my list.

Tim, you say that my mention of starting from Amsterdam indicates I don't have a good understanding of the distances. I am aware of the geography, but looking at train schedules, a direct train from Amsterdam to Cologne doesn't take much more time than a train from Brussels to Cologne with one very tight transfer. Am I missing something?

Actually, I had a disappointment with a long-advance, incredibly cheap Thalys ticket returning from Koln to Brussels. We had to get off the Thalys at the border, in an unscheduled station, and wait for a Belgian train to pick us up on the same track. So that was a very long journey, even though listed below two hours. For me, two hours is the dividing line between a day trip and an overnight, but that's a personal opinion.

The saving grace is that Cologne is famous for how close the HBF is to most of the sights. The transit trip from your hotel to Amsterdam Centraal can be tedious, and that station was under annoying construction last time I was there. From Brussels, you have to check whether your train stops at the one of three stations close to your hotel. It costs no extra to go between those three stations, on a train you don't have a ticket for ("All Belgian Stations" NOT required ... ) but adds time and uncertainty.

I hope you will also consider visiting Leiden, Utrecht, Haarlem, Delft, Amersfoort, Alkmaar, Deventer, and similar places from Amsterdam. In fact, much of Leuven (which I recommended) burned down in a non-war fire-the Catholic University Library is a different story than that. But I think that more fine buildings in Belgium survived the wars than in the Netherlands. Because you put a slash between Bruges and Gent, I hope you will allow for a change in your schedule if you decide (on arrival) to spend a full day in either or both of those cities. Both of them call for a bus ride to the medieval core from the rail station. Since they use the same transit company, you can buy a stored value card and use it both places, to speed things up. (The Brussels local transit ticket is different.)

I always remind architecture fans to stand on the (Brussels-Koln) train carriage steps in Liege to look at Calatrava's train station. Although they're all 1880-1930, the townhouses of the Zurenborg neighborhood in Antwerp are often overlooked, but good for almost two hours of exteriors. Photos on Trip Advisor, and other places.

Thanks for the additional information. I will have time in Bruges and Ghent – although I didn't post my full plan, excluding travel days, it is 10 days in London, 5 days in Bruges, and 5 days in Amsterdam… with some day trips. And I'll steal a day or two somewhere to work in Cologne.

Tim, your Thalys experience raises a question that has been puzzling me. I've done a lot of travel on European trains, but it has always been within a single country. When changing countries, I've previously flown. When a single train trip crosses two or three countries, how is ticketing handled? Can I buy the ticket from the rail company in any one of the countries? Is there a logical way to decide which country to buy from? I didn't see this topic covered in Man in Seat 61, but perhaps I just missed it. I would welcome any insights.

Sherry, I trust you have read Rick's train tips, either in his books or on the main part of this website.

When I went to Cologne from Brussels (two nights in the Hilton) I bought my ticket online from the Belgian Rail website for something ridiculous, like 29 Euros - but I don't remember exactly. I printed out my bar-coded tickets before flying over there. No, you don't have to "validate" bar coded tickets that are not changeable and only good for one train. I forget if more than one conductor looked at my ticket, but there was only one ticket for each full trip. I told that story as a "travel time" tale, not a horror story of "Casablanca" flight from one country to the next! The conductors told me exactly what to do in person. However, the PA announcements might have been only in French, Dutch, and German.

The national rail sites vary from country to country whether you have to "click through" to an "International" page to price and buy International tickets. But all the countries I've been to sell International round trips that start and end in their country. You do need a few facts at hand, like which of the stations you want in a city that has more than one - or in Germany, which Frankfurt (like "am Main" you are going to.)

I don't want to tell you what is best for you, especially since you have so many short trips that might be cheaper as single tix, especially on weekends. But I have sometimes bought an adult (non-student) 10-trip ticket in Antwerp for a week of daytrips. (it's actually good for six months, but only to the station nearest the border if used for an international trip. And not good on Thalys) Anyway, this was to avoid waiting in line for a human agent, because the ticket machines don't work with Americano credit cards.

Another advantage of this 10-trip system is that you can write "Brussel" in even if you're planning to go only to Antwerp. Then if it starts raining, you go to the main Art museum in Brussels instead of getting off in Antwerp. (You can't write a destination in and get on a train that doesn't go in the proper direction for that city, though. You might get fined for that.) Note that Bruges-Gent is much less than one-tenth of a ten-trip ticket, at least after rush hour.

You might benefit from browsing the Trip Advisor Belgium Forum and reading some of the train questions that get answered there.

Edit: You might also want to Search or browse for comments suggesting that Bruges is very dull at night, compared to Gent or Antwerp. You will find no sign of "In Bruges."