My husband has a planned business trip in Cologne Germany and I am going to accompany him. We'll have 2 days together to tour Cologne before his work begins. I'll be on my own for 4 days and would love to take side trips to other places. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Posted by
Green Bay
21164 posts
When? a day cruise though the Rhine gorge would be great, but is only April through October. You could visit some of the Rhine castles by train in the colder months. Aachen is a good day trip any time of the year. Then the Mosel River Valley, but again, better in warm weather months.
Posted by
OP
New Jersey
14 posts
We are going to Cologne Oct 2-10th.
Posted by
Atlanta
995 posts
You will be in Germany at one of the most beautiful times! Go to a wine festival on the Mosel River. http://www.mosel-weinfeste.de/mosel_weinfeste.htm It's an easy drive to the Mosel from Cologne. Tour Berg Eltz. Catch an English tour of the Dom in Cologne, daily at 2PM, I think. Ride a KD boat on the prettiest part of the Rhine. The Mosel also has wonderful boat trips lasting an hour or two. If you like contemporary art, go to the big museum behind the Dom. Have beer and brats or schnitzel at Fruh, right around the corner from the Domplatz. Check out the big gourmet grocery store in the basement of the main department store Kaufhof, especially the American section. They also usually have a big cafeteria style restaurant on one of the upper floors. It's an easy place to eat if you're alone, and you may be the only American. Go in any of the ice cream shops with an Italian name, and try the gelato that looks like spaghetti and meatballs. Find a beautiful bakery shop and have coffee and cake at 4 PM. For something completely different, drive just over an hour to Maastricht, right over the border in the Netherlands. It's a wonderful small pedestrian city. There are more details about the Rhine boats in the RS books. Germans appear very private, but they will gladly help you if you ask. If you need English spoken, just look for a university-age type; they're generally fluent.
Posted by
Green Bay
21164 posts
Weinfests are usually Saturday and Sunday, so you should do that first thing on arrival. Pick a nice day midweek and do a Rhine trip. Take a train to Bingen Stadt and ride the K-D boat as for as Boppard. Boats are at 9:30, 11:30, 2:30 pm & 4:30 pm. Takes 2 hours 20 minutes. Then ride home. If you take the 9:30 boat, it continues to Koblenz where you can take a cable car across the Rhine to on old fortress overlooking the city from the heights. After riding back to Koblenz, take a cab to the train station for the ride back to Cologne.
Stop in one evening at Papa Joe's Biersalon and play some tunes on their collection of musical automatons.