Cologne Nearby Countryside?

July 23, 2009 2:07 AM

Colonge - need to get out to countryside and end up in a few days later in Munich.

I am in Cologne next Friday. I have to fly out from Munich on Tuesday afternoon. Where should i go on Saturday and Sunday to see some of the countryside/lakeside? Ideally I would like a lakeside town with a bit of a walk. Ideally, I would like to do it all by train. I am thinking having the the Monday night in Munich maybe fun.

posted by priorpark17 to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

Yes I cant spell Cologne.
posted by priorpark17 at 2:28 AM on July 23

Why not take the KD boats down (actually, "up" the river, since the Rhine flows south to north) from Köln (Cologne) to Frankfurt, through Germany's Rhein Castle District? You can do that ride in as a little as a long day, if you stay on the boat the whole day, and you'll pass through some of the most scenic parts of Germany. Or, you can easily leave the boat, explore the many river towns and castles you'll be passing, and catch subsequent boats, to extend your trip over a few days. I suggest an overnight stay in Ruedesheim on the Rhine, and perhaps a few hours the following day visiting the nearby vineyards and Germania monument by scenic cable car, before proceeding, either by KD boat or train to Frankfurt, and from there, by train, further south, to Munich.
posted by paulsc at 2:29 AM on July 23 [1 favorite]

Around Munich:Konstanz is on the Bodensee and the Allgaeu region in general is fun. Lakes of Munich. Neuschwanstein castle is (deservedly) the biggest tourist draw. All accessible by train.

Between Koeln and Muenchen - Trier, Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Nuremberg are interesting towns worth a visit.
posted by munchbunch at 3:19 AM on July 23

Seconding the Rhein boat trip.
posted by fatllama at 4:36 AM on July 23

Seconding the KD boats; it's a gorgeous, relaxing trip through the mountains and valleys of the country. When we went, we could exit the boat and reboard; it was nice to walk around Rudesheim, have lunch, then get back on and end up in Mainz for the evening/night.

Check www.bahn.de (pull down the drop down menu at the top to switch from Deutsch to English) for train schedules, but I think the Mainz/Muenchen trip is about four hours, Frankfurt/Muenchen'll be a little shorter, but I've never found Frankfurt to be anything near the walking-around city that... well, every other town in Germany is.

Someone else'll help you with day trips from Muenchen, but you could easily lose days in the city; it's very green.

In my experience, Neuschwanstein is gorgeous from the outside (really. It's stunning), but the tour is small and limited, in comparison with other German castles, and it's always packed.
posted by Seeba at 9:08 AM on July 23

Nthing the Rhine boat trip. If not, the train south goes along the Rhine too, and is pretty good. Don't bother with Frankfurt - Heidelburg is a better option. Lovely university town.
posted by kjs4 at 6:23 PM on July 23

Just as you enter Bavaria, Rothenburg, or, a little further south, Nordlingen -- well-preserved medieval walled towns.
posted by Rash at 12:40 PM on July 24