Getting There

Overview

Köln-Bonn Airport (www.airport -cgn.de) offers connections to around 30 European cities.

The bus station (Busbahnhof) is just behind the Hauptbahnhof, on Breslauer Platz. Eurolines (www.eurolines.com) buses go to Paris ) and back daily (8 hours; some trips overnight) and to Warsaw daily (21 hours). Trips to Prague (12 hours) are scheduled three times a week.

Cologne is a major train hub with regional and main-line train services to Bonn (40 minutes), Düsseldorf (30 minutes) and Aachen (1 hour) several times an hour. Superfast ICE trains make hourly trips to Frankfurt (1.25 hours) and Berlin (4.25 hours), and every two hours to Munich (4.5 hours). Hamburg is served by IC trains (4 hours).

Cologne is also a major autobahn hub and is encircled by the immense Kölner Ring, with exits to the A1, A3, A4, A57, A555 and A559 leading in all directions. Note that this ring road can often get jammed with traffic.