I will have a day trip to Köln on a Monday in the middle of October. Does anyone have ideas about what to do? It looks as if all of the museums close on Mondays so that option is not available.
I'll be coming from and returning to Amsterdam by train so anything too far from the center of Köln is probably out as 5+ hours on the rails will be plenty for one day. Any ideas that can be walked to from the Hbf would be interesting to me.
I see that there are bike tours offered at 13:30 from Markmangasse and those sound like fun if the weather permits - any experiences with these tours? This day will be my first full day in Europe on this trip and I'll be adjusting to a 9 hour time zone difference so the chance to do some pedalling sounds good to me and if I can learn a little something from a tour guide then all the better.
Does Köln open earlier on Mondays than NL? I know that things can be very quiet in NL before 13:00 on Mondays. Since I know I will wake up very early that morning I'm considering taking the first train from Amsterdam which arrives at the Hbf around 9:00. But if I will be the only person on the streets of Köln at that hour and there stores/cafes are closed then I'll take a later train.
Thank you!
There is no closure on Monday mornings, just normal opening times like on any weekday. Stores will open around 10 a.m., food stores earlier, bakeries much earlier (around 6 a.m.), cafes will be open for breakfast, too. No, you won't be alone in the streets!
The churches should be open on Mondays. Besides the Dom, which is definitely open on Mondays, including the steeple and the treasure chamber, there are about a dozen Romanesque churches which are worth a look.
The Dom and a stroll through the city centre and along the Rhine will keep you busy enough till that bike tour begins.
9:00 is already the end of the morning rush hour. Cafes and bakeries will be open already a few hours at this time.
Kaufhof, the biggest department store in Cologne, opens at 09:30. Most others will be open at the same time.
A good website about Cologne.
Cologne Cathedral
Romanesque churches in Cologne
Map of the old city with sights. You can spot the ring roads (road names ending on -ring) which (half) encircle the old city where once the city wall has been (only a few gates are left). Streets in purple are pedestrian zones.
For museums, there are two exceptions that might be interesting to you in case the weather isn't that fine for a bike-tour:
- on September 15th, the new Diözesanmuseum, the art museum of the archbishopric of Cologne, is scheduled to open. The building was designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and is built around a small church/chapel. Opening hours: noon to 5 p.m., it's the number 41 on the map given by abalada.
- if you're interested in photography, you could visit the Stiftung Kultur, a foundation by the Cologne savings bank, which is located in the Media-Park area (the one with the high-rise), number 10 on that map. Opening hours: 2 p.m.-7.p.m., admission free on mondays. Exhibition about the work of Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama at the moment.
In case you fancy to try a typical Cologne brewery, I would recommend either the 'Päffgen' (Friesenstraße, close the 31) or the 'Sion' (Unter Taschenmacher, close to the 34). Another idea would be the 'Schreckenskammer' near St. Ursula church (13), just north of the railway station. From 13th-19th October, there'll be a major trade fair in Cologne ('Anuga'), so expect loads of business travellers, a seat reservation on your trains could be a good idea.
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