Cologne; Friday, 05 August, 2011

After a late breakfast I headed over to the station to catch the train out to Aachen.

By the time I arrived in Aachen it was already close to lunchtime so I grabbed a bite to eat in one of the café’s around the tourist information centre. After lunch I was in time to catch the afternoon open-top bus tour of the city and out to the border area.

About 5Km outside of the city the Belgium, Dutch and German borders all meet and there is a small monument to this, which has turned into quite a big tourist operation. The bus stopped for 20 minutes there so I was able to have a quick look around and have a wander over the border into both The Netherlands and Belgium.

The bus was a bit delayed on its journey back due to a traffic jam in the small part of The Netherlands it had to pass through, so it was gone three by the time I was back in the city centre.

There was enough time to have a wander around the Cathedral before it was time to head back through the town to the station and catch my train back to Cologne.

I dropped my stuff off at the hotel and had a bit of a wander around the Rhine promenade before wandering back towards the Cathedral. To my surprise at gone 8:30 it was still open to visitors so I had a long look round, until they started closing it down just before 9.

I went for a long wander round the old part of the city before heading back to the hotel for a well-earned rest.