Traveling to small towns

If you are starting in Cologne at the train station go out the door to the plaza. The Koln Dom will be on your left. Aim a little towards the left and cross the plaza. The Tourist Information office will be close by or it was two years ago. They can help you. There is an Ibis hotel just to the right outside the station front doors. You can go in there and ask where the TI office is.

The Cologne tourist office will be able to help you with Cologne, but probably not with transportation to obscure villages 50 km away. And you probably want to know how to get there prior to your arrival in Cologne. Koslar: Is this near Jülich? If so, you can find train + bus connections on your own using the DB railways itinerary page. Use "Koslar Bahnhof" as the destination. Kirchberg (the one I know of anyway) is near Simmern in the Hunsrück area of Rheinland-Pfalz. But that one is 150 km from Cologne. So maybe that's not the one?

There should be bus service in these small towns as well as for traveling between them. Hiring a taxi for the day is safe, but will cost you a fortune. This is the bus system that has routes for these 2 tiny towns. Jülich seems to be the main town that these 2 smaller towns belong to. I didn't see a bus for Kirchberg, but if you go to the transport website, it might show you one. Or, you may just have to take a taxi there. The town sounds small enough that you can just walk around. They both have less than 3000 residents. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regionalverkehr_Euregio_Maas-Rhein Bus 279 Jülich – Koslar – Barmen – Linnich
Bus 281 Jülich – Koslar – Barmen – Freialdenhoven

Speaking of Jülich... although it's far from the most attractive large town in Germany, it's worth at least a peak if you'll be there anyway. Actually, this region looks more like Belgium and the southern Netherlands than Germany, to me at least.

I suspect that people on the German side of the border would say towns on the Belgium and Netherlands side look German to them. Anita seems to be asking for advice on getting around in these small towns, not in Cologne. That is one of the things never addressed by fans of train and bus travel over cars. Small towns do not usually have taxis and have limited bus service, if at all. So be prepared to walk. That's ok if the town is very small and everything you want to see is inside the town limits. Much beyond that and you will need a car. Before hiring a driver, check out the prices for a one-day car rental.

I agree, Roy. In many small, but not tiny, cities and towns, local transport is lackluster or impractical for visits that involve exploring a wider area instead of focusing on a main street/waterfront/foothill. Germany has good basic coverage by public transportation to these cities, meaning you can get there on some circuitous bus routes that stop gazillion times until reaching the nearest train station or major bus route. However, it doesn't make it practical to use such buses to explore the cities themselves. Hiring a car taxi to act as a personal driver for the day will cost a lot in Germany. In all likelihood it will cost far more than renting a car and driving yourself.

OK, I finally found Kirchberg just south of Jülich, about 3 miles from Koslar. The website for Nordrhein-Westfalen shows a bus connection between the two towns. There are connections about once an hour, and they take anywhere from 27 minutes to an hour. Apparently, bus 279, from Koslar to Jülich, and bus 294, from Jülich to Kirchberg, both take about 11 minutes. The difference is the transfer time in Jülich. Both towns are extremely small. I imagine you can get to anywhere on foot, but those buses do make a few stops in each town.

Thanks everyone. This information has been very helpful. This will be a nostalgia trip for me. My father was born in Kirchberg, so now I'll be seeing a lot of the sights, and places he lived. Thanks again!

It looks like Jülich has a train station but there are only buses to Koslar and Kirchberg. I would suggest basing in Jülich and busing out to the other two towns, then using your feet to explore the small towns (maybe? you can find local transportation in the towns). The town of Jülich has a website with a list of accommodations.

Thank you everyone. Your help was spot on. I took the regional train from Cologne to Julich and a bus to Kirchberg. I was looking for long lost relatives. I started in a cemetery where I hoped to find some grave markers. Turns out they only keep the markers for 30 years and then pull them out. The people in the village were so thrilled to have "tourists," they went out of their way to help. Through my poor German and their poor, but better English, I was able to explain what I was doing and why I was there. I had a letter from a cousin with an return address dated 1961. A worker in the cemetery walked me right up to the house, knocked on the door, told them who I was. Unbelievably, it was that cousin's sister and her family still living there. They so graciously invited me and my husband in and we managed to have a conversation around their kitchen table talking about all our relatives. It blew my mind! How many people in the US would invite a total stranger into their home just because someone said they were a long lost relative? It was a dream come true! Thanks again for helping make it happen.

That's one of the best stories I've read on this website for a long time! Make sure you write a trip report. Did you get a chance to see Jülich at all?

Thanks, Tom. It really was quite a fantastic experience. No, unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time in Julich, but I plan on going back and spending much more time in that area and getting to know my family.

Anita, That is so awesome!!! Thanks for coming back and telling us the happy ending to your story - actually, I think it's more of a happy beginning!!