Karlsruhe Travel Forum

Need suggestions as to the better logistics to visit the Koln Cathedral from Karlsruhe and return to Karlsruhe.

I have been looking at some of the train schedules (not in the diebahn site, for time purposes in the Raileurope site) as well as to the KD Boat schedule at http://www.kdrhine.com/

From Karlsruhe, it looks like there's no way to do a day trip and do both the visit to the cathedral and sailing down from Koln to about Koblenz. I had some notes from a response a couple of years back but can't find them. So it looks like I'll need to stay in Koln overnight. So take an early train out of Karlsruhe and see the cathedral that afternoon, then sleep in Koln and sail in the morning.

Any other suggestions - reverse circle? Should I ride from Karlsruhe to Koblenz, sail from Koblenz to Koln, see the cathedral the following morning and take the train from Koln to Karlsruhe. [The assumption is that maybe there's a good reason for doing the trip in reverse, like maybe the cathedral is better viewed in the morning than the afternoon].

Would you recommend one or two places to stop along the way?

Any comments/suggestions welcome! ... and one other thing to do in Cologne, and favorite place to eat. I sort of like potato dishes ;=)

Thanks.

The RailEurope timetable is neither complete nor reliable!

The most interesting part by boat is from Bingen to Koblenz. The Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de

Downstream (Bingen -> Koblenz) is much faster than upstream by boat.
The official KD site is
www.k-d.com

A lot will depend when you plan to make this trip. Boat schedule. And also the day of the week for train ticket suggestions.

Recently a VT-er was almost ripped off by over $1000 because Raileurope wanted to sell him WHAT THEY wanted, not what HE NEEDED.

http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-399938-1-1-Travel-0-400455-Prague-discussion.html#answerID_2792777

Fortunately, Allen canceled all his railpasses before these were sent to him.

Raileurope business is to pray on people unfamiliar with European train system. Avoid like plague unless YOU know what you need. Don't expect any professional advice!

These are great links abalada ... I will be spending longer with them on the weekend - much better info!

Gyuri ... I know, I do need to stop looking on the Raileurope site. Actually I have not bought passes for a good couple of years! Thank you.

Nomad

For certain special cases these could be useful as a "loophole" i.e. 'partial pass' tariff on some prime trains is sometimes the same as 'pass surcharge'. For instance France-Benelux pass is excellent way to extend the Hungary-Austria-Germany CITY-STAR to Spain: the pass will cover the Aachen-Paris-(Spain) as 'partial pass' tariff to Spain and fully till Paris, so one can use the RZD car for next-to-nothing normally closed to DB reservation :) But it's a loophole.

Cologne's cathedral is right next to the train station.. makes it very convenient! There's a hotel right in the train station.. I think it's an Ibis, but I forget which chain it is. Cologne has a lot of exhibitions, so it's always good to book ahead of time when travelling there. That area has lots of shops and restaurants and is easy to walk around. The Cafe Reichard is right there and serves good meals plus very yummy cakes. A very good restaurant (not expensive) is in the Hopper Hotel St. Antonious. A local friend of mine took us there for dinner.. plenty of potatoes!

Thank you zuriga and GyuriFT!