kulkin

We are taking advantage of Continental's cheap Cologne flights (Newark to London; Cologne back to Newark $348 for January 2007). We are spending the bulk of our time in London, landing in Cologne late Tuesday night, and staying until Friday morning 11am. We want to try and stay in a castle one night, probably Wednesday (the only castle I heard of - Rothenberg - is closed). We love beer, history, shopping, art, and lots of fun (maybe not in that order).We are five friends/family members between 18 and 35. Any ideas for us? Thanks in advance for your help! Kelly

JoeTro

Lots of great art. Ludwig, Wallraf-Richartz and Roman museums are all great. Also many interesting churches, along with the Cathedral.

L84SKY

Good suggestions from JoeTro. I loved the Ludwig.
I would spend some time either on the Rhine or the Mosel.

JudyC

If you are not driving, perhaps you might be interested in Rheinland-pfaiz (sp?) ticket, 5 of you could could travel around Mosel and Rhine area by train for as little as Euro 23 per day.

For hsitory and art, Trier on Mosel is an interesting daytrip destination

DAX

For the castle stay along the Rhine:
www.jpmoser.com/aufschoenburg.html

Beer & shopping: Cologne & Dusseldorf (by S bahn or train).

Roman history: Aachen(1 hour by train) and the Cologne Dom.

kulkin

Thanks for all the ideas. We definitely want to rent a car and explore the valley a little.

kulkin

I mistakenly typed Rothenburg, but I meant that Schönburg Castle is closed that week. I am so disappointed. Any other castle ideas? I saw something about Castle Bonn, but I couldn't find many reviews when I googled it. Thanks.

DAX

I think you're talking about Poppelsdorf. Unfortunately the info comes only in German:
http://www.bonn-reisefuehrer.com/pop...r_schloss.html

DAX

Or this one toward Koblenz:
www.schloss-arenfels.com/de/home

There are many so called Rhein castles further south, but most of them are more of a ruin or a fortress(Burg) rather than a castle(Schloss).

itsv

We did the Newark/Cologne flight on Continental this summer and I highly recommend it. It was a very easy trip from the airport to the city and then a very easy walk to our hotel from the train station. We stayed at the Hilton cologne which I liked a lot. We prepaid our room for around $95 a night and the service was great. We didn't stay in cologne more than 30 hours but while there we took the tour of the chocolate factory, toured the cathedral and walked along their shopping district.