My 20 year old stepson and a college friend are headed to Europe for the first time to visit another friend who's been studying in Prague for the semester. They'll bounce around part of the continent via bus from December 15 to the 27th. It's a bit frustrating for me because I've been to Europe several times and tried to suggest some places to see, even came up with a reasonable itinerary, which my stepson initially was receptive to, but apparently in discussions with the friend who is already over there and has already seen a lot of stuff, and is now light on funds, my suggestions got ashcanned. Now it's going to be 2 nights in Prague, 3 nights in Munich, an overnight bus to Dortmund, where they will stay 2 nights because they want to see a football game (sigh), a night in Amsterdam, then an overnight bus from Amsterdam to Berlin, and two nights in Berlin before returning to Prague. It's disappointing because I feel there is a missed opportunity to have a better first trip to Europe, but what can you do? So now I just want to give suggestions to give him the best experience he can have within his itinerary.
I'm trying to convince him, instead of spending a 10 hour sleepless night on a bus from Munich to Dortmund, splurge here on a train to Cologne, spend the night there, see Cologne before taking a 1 hour train or 2 hour bus to Dortmund (the football game doesn't start until 8:30 PM). I've been to Cologne more than once and loved it, and my impression is that there isn't all that much of interest in Dortmund by comparison. Am I wrong, though, would there be a reason to skip Cologne and spend the whole day in Dortmund?