Rheinauhafen

This walk can be an interesting complement to exploring Cologne's charming Old Town and its waterfront. It'll take you about an hour if you just follow the Rhine, but if you stop and admire each landmark and perhaps have a coffee or lunch in between, it can easily extend to two hours or more. If you wish to visit any of the museums or galleries along the way, add extra time for that.

The walk, as presented here, is arranged from south to north, ending by the Chocolate Museum, where the original waterfront starts. This orientation is because the southern end of the Rheinauhafen is in an area slightly remote from the city centre, where it is not that easy to get to and not much happens in the evenings. The idea is to get to the starting point and do the walk by day and end it towards afternoon or evening, with perhaps a lunch in between and visit for a "dessert" to the Chocolate Museum, and then further continue to the explore the Old Town in the evening.

You may, however, decide to start from the Old Town by the Chocolate Museum and continue down south. In that case, just follow the points here in reverse numerical order, but bear in mind that you will end up in a remote part of town and will need to take the U-Bahn to get back into the city centre.

Get in
Perhaps the most convenient way to get to the southern end of the Rheinauhafen is to take the Stadtbahn to Ubierring station. It is served by two Stadtbahn lines, 15 and 16. 15, for which Ubierring is the southern terminus, goes all around the Ring and then further north up to the suburb of Merkenich. The 16 goes the Altstadt, stopping in. al. at the Hauptbahnhof/Dom and goes south along the Rhine reaching Bonn. Wherever you are staying in the Cologne area, you'll surely find either a stop for the 15 or 16 close to where you stay, or a convenient transfer to either 15 or 16 from your location.

Sleep
You can get to the Rheinauhafen easily from any part of Cologne (or even from Bonn), so there is no particular need to sleep close to here if you want to walk it. But, if you feel a particular affinity to the modern ambiance of the Hafen, you may want to choose any of the hotels directly next to it. Bear in mind, however, that none of the hotels is actually on the Hafen peninsula or right on the waterfront, so the best you can get may be a view of the rear of the Rheinauhafen buildings.