Cologne Germany one day itinerary is possible when coming from the Netherlands. From our hometown in Wageningen, it takes 2 hours drive to reach Cologne Germany, or 2.5 hours by train. Cologne is one of the center of finance in Germany dated back many centuries ago. It harbors the oldest commodity and stock exchanges as well as bank that exists since the middle ages. Cologne Germany is also the headquarter of famous Ford Motor company. Historically, Cologne has many stories to tell. Being situated along the River Rhine, its history dated back since the Roman times. Its name comes from the Roman “Colonia Agrippina”, the mother of Roman emperor Nero, hence the name “Kol’n” or Cologne. Other famous historical characters that contributed to the current Cologne are Constantine the Great – the man who built the castle and bridge across the Rhine to cross Cologne, Charlamagne – the one who made Cologne an archbishopric in the late 8th century, and famous Roman Catholic Scholars such as Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and John Dun Scotus. Nowadays, Cologne consists of both the old and the new parts. The old part speaks about the history of the city while the new ones show the current developments and industrialism of the city. There are also multiple universities in this city including the University of Cologne, one of the largest and oldest universities of Europe. For this blog, I will discuss about the places to visit for Cologne Germany one day itinerary. The starting point is from the central train station of Cologne.

Cologne Germany one day itinerary

1. Admire Cologne Cathedral.

The Cologne Cathedral is just a 5 minutes walking distance from the train station (see the map above). This Gothic style cathedral is a Catholic one and is also known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter. Cologne Cathedral is the most famous landmark of Cologne with around 20,000 visitors a day. It is also possible to see the inside of the cathedral as long as there is no on-going mass. The Cologne Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage sites and therefore should not be missed during your visit.

2. Stroll and boat tour along the River Rhine in Cologne Germany.

Cologne is the largest city that is located within the Rhine river, in addition to being the most traveled waterways in the world. The best way to discover Cologne is to do a boat ride, which tours you around the Cologne Cathedral, the old town, and Hohenzollern bridge. There are various boat tour companies around to take so you will surely have lots of options in the day to plan the boat tour.

3. Walk around the Old Town city center Cologne Germany.

The historic old town city center of Cologne has cobbles stones streets that will bring you to many shops and restaurants of the city. This place was previously destroyed during World War 2 and was restored to match with its previous look. Every year around December, there is a Christmas market in this city. Here you can feel the coziness of the season while drinking some German gluhwein and eating German bratwurst or sausage. In the city center you can also find a shopping street. Here, the shops offer lower prices as compared to many shops found in the Netherlands. You’ll also find some nice restaurants that offer tasty German cuisines and beers at relatively huge portion!

4. Visit Ludwig museum.

The Ludwig museum is a collection of modern arts, in fact, one of the biggest collection outside the USA. You can find in this museum a collection of Picasso’s artwork (one-third largest in the world), Expressionism masterpieces, 70,000 photographic works and so on. For tickets to museum, check this link. The Ludwig museum is very close to the old town city center, so just on the way to next stop, which is the Koln Triangle.

5. Enjoy the 360 degrees view of Cologne Germany in Koln Triangle.

Koln Triangle is a skyscraper that offers astonishing view of Cologne Germany, including the Cologne Cathedral. The entrance to the building is for free, while the viewing deck has an entrance of 3 euros. This is worth it considering seeing the beauty of Cologne Germany from 360 degrees using a bird’s eye view.

Want to know more other German cities close to the border of the Netherlands? Check this link in my blog. Driving around to Germany, see tips about Netherlands and Germany road trip travels. For other German cities, you can check my blog on: Heidelberg: Five reasons that make it worth a visit.