tld

My husband and I are doing a Rhine cruise in November. We have a full day in Cologne, and the itinerary suggests we will be docked until fairly late in the evening. I have always wanted to visit the Cathedral at Aachen, and I'd like advice about whether doing a trip by train from Cologne is trying to cram too much into short daylight hours. Is it realistic to do a morning in Cologne, and then see the Aachen cathedral in the afternoon? I welcome all opinions as I consider this. Of course much will depend on how jetlagged I feel at the time Thank you.

Underhill

Aachen is a fine city to visit if you can manage the logistics, and the cathedral is fascinating. The town hall is very much worth a visit. So are the many bakeries, which feature gingerbread--wonderful gingerbread!

PalenQ

Yes IME Aachen has very litle of great interest besides its great historic cathedral and spa waters- a few hours should be enough. See if a Lander Ticket covers both Cologne and Aachen - if so you both can take regional trains all day for 29 euro or less total - for lots about German trains I always spotlight these IMO superb sites - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id9.html - and in any case you will not have any problems getting on trains - so many and even if by some weird chance seats were full you can still always board - it ain't that long a train ride either.

nytraveler

We very much enjoyed visiting Aachen - but we were on a road trip starting in Belgium and heading into Lux, Ger etc. I don;t know the trains schedules so can;t comment on the time.

IMHO Koln has more to see/do but I would not have missed Aachen for anything.

tld

Thank you for your comments. It sounds like it might be doable. Since we don't have to be back on board until evening can use every bit of daylight that we have and take train back in the dark.

If all you do in Aachen is visit the cathedral, about how long should we allow for that? (I can stare at old buildings forever, my husband's tolerance dwindles after a couple of hours.)

PalenQ

the train ride takes just under an hour and costs about 25 euros each way - these are local trains - buy a return ticket in Cologne - lots and lots of trains - just show up at train station when fatigued and head back to Cologne.

mokka4

You can check the German rail site for specific train times at www.bahn.com,
entering Koeln Hbf as origination point and Aachen Hbf as destination.
Just fill in your date and approximate times. Trip is less than and hour.

Ex:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/que...&rt=1&OK#focus

PalenQ

I wonder if aachen and Cologne fall into the same Lander Ticket - if so that would be much cheaper but since they are a little far apart I doubt but worth checking out.

Underhill

You can see the cathedral in about an hour, depending on whether there is a special event of some sort. Allow 1/2 hour for the town hall, although more would be good.

Don't miss the bakeries.

tld

This is just the kind of information I was hoping for, thank you all very much! It's good to know we may not have to reserve train seating ahead of time (I like flexibility), and I'll check on the Lander ticket.

PalenQ

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...r-ticket.shtml

Here is a map of Lander ticket Regions

Betsy

Palenq, is there an overlay that shows which cities are in which states? I clicked around the bahn site but didn't see anything that shows the cities. We're considering using a Lander Ticket next year and have the same question you raised above about Aachen and Cologne falling into the same ticket.

Betsy

Here's a map of Germany that shows the states and cities. This may be useful if you're interested in the regional day ticket:

http://www.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids0...ermany-map.gif

I wasn't able to find this information on the German rail website.

PalenQ

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...r-ticket.shtml

Both Aachen and Cologne are in Nord Rhine-Westphalia according to Wiki so I assume that Lander Ticket would work.