For more than 2.000 years, the Rhine has been the No. 1 waterway in Western Europe. Cologne has played a leading role here right from the start for the transshipment of goods from North to South, from East to West. Thus, during the Middle Ages, Cologne developed the prosperity which helped the city become a European center of Culture.
150 years ago, as the railways developed their network all over Europe, one of the continents's largest stations was built: over one thousand passenger trains today cross the Hohenzollern Bridge to stop in the central station in the shadow of the Cathedral. Cologne is also equipped for the future: today ICE connections already exist with Berlin and Hamburg. As a hub of the European highspeed network, Cologne links Paris and Brussels with Frankfurt/Main. Cologne's Südbrücke (South Bridge) is Germany's frequently used freight train route, and the Eifeltor container and transhipment terminal is the largest in the country.
With the advent of the motor car, Cologne also became a first-class motorway junction: Western Europe's main trunk routes converge in Cologne. And finally, air traffic: the airport, situated in the south of Cologne has been registering increasing volumes of passengers year after year and is Germany's second-largest freight airport. But if that is not enough: only a few kilometers north of Cologne is another international airport, Rhein-Ruhr in Düsseldorf, and Rhein/Main in Frankfurt, the hub of international air traffic, can also be reached in little more than one hour.
Cologne Bonn Airport
Airport Frankfurt/Main
Düsseldorf Airport
Deutsche Bahn AG (German Rail)