Monschau from cologne

Please can anyone help me, I will be going to cologne in Nov and would really like to see monschau, I do not have a car and will be totally reliant on transport. Can anyone tell me how to do this, my German is non existant and im finding the transport websites really difficult to navigate. I will only have 1 day to do this in, does anyone think its achievable????

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It is possible, though the journey involves two modes of transport and two changes en-route.

Take a train between Cologne Hauptbahnhof and Aachen Hauptbahnhof. From Aachen Hauptbahnhof, take bus no. SB63 to Roetgen Post (post office) and alight. From Roetgen Post, take bus no. 166 to Monschau. The entire journey takes just over two hours.

I suggest that you purchase the NRW SchönerTagTicket Single for this trip. It costs €21 from a ticket machine (€23 over the counter at the Reisezentrum) and is valid on the entire North Rhine-Westphalia transport network from 09:00 until midnight (Sat/Sun 00:00 till 00:00). Thus, you can use this ticket for the entire journey between Cologne and Monschau and back.

If you are travelling with others, purchase the SchönerTagTicket 5Personen instead. It is valid for between the same times but is valid for upto five people. It costs €27 from a ticket machine (€29 over the counter).

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thanks, souns like a good plan!

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Please note: Most of the times the %26quot;SB63%26quot; bus changes its number to %26quot;166%26quot; at Roetgen Post, hence you don%26#39;t have to change your bus. You can take the same bus. But make sure by stepping out of the bus at Roetgen Post and cheking the bus number. Same happens for return journey.

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seems it%26#39;s easier to go to aachen rothe-erde (one stop prior to aachen hbf) and then catch #166 from there. it goes straight to monschau.

for schedule of 166 and trip planning use aachen transit agency avv web site:

http://www.avv.de/en/

(for english, although it still lists a lot of info in german). For example,

10:15 ab Köln, Hbf (info) RegionalExpress RE1 AC Hbf

11:02 an Aachen, Rothe Erde Bf

RE1 NRW-Express

täglich ab 27.7.2009

11:16 ab Aachen, Bahnhof Rothe Erde Bus 166 MON Parkhaus / Schmiede

12:15 an Monschau, Parkhaus / Schmiede [Parkhaus]

i had some problems with koln%26#39;s travel agency (vrs) trip planner as it appeared to use incorrect bus schedule for #166.