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{{Hitchhiking Zine nomination}}{{Infobox German Location|map = <map lat='50.93982519613568' lng='6.961555480957031' zoom='12' view='3' height='500' width='350'/>|country = Germany|pop = 1,024,346 (31 December 2008)|state = North Rhine-Westphalia|plate = K|motorways = [[A1 (Germany)|A1]], [[A3 (Germany)|A3]], [[A4 (Germany)|A4]], [[A57 (Germany)|A57]], [[A59 (Germany)|A59]]}} __NOTOC__'''Cologne''', or '''Köln''' in German, is a big city in [[NordrheinNorth Rhine-Westfalen]]Westphalia.

<map lat='50.93982519613568' lng='6.961555480957031' zoomHitchhiking out ='12' view='0' float='right'/>===South towards [[Bonn]], [[Koblenz]], [[Frankfurt am Main]]===

To get out of '''Cologne''' to the South towards [[Bonn]] or [[Koblenz]], the best possibility is to go to the ''Verteilerkreis Süd'', a big [[roundabout ]] where all vehicles that are heading for the motorway to the South or West are passing by. There is also a petrol station beside it and a traffic light where one can ask people for a lift.

Not the best option unless If you go to [[Bonn]] or [[Koblenz]]. For heading 're headed to [[Frankfurt am Main]], take the train to the last stop ''Königsforst'' (nr 9, may have changed thoughtram U9), walk straight for about 15 min. Then after a right turn you are on a decent on ramp of the [[A3 (Germany)|A3]], most of the cars will go to [[Frankfurt am Main]] or can drop you at least on the ''Rasthof Siegburg'' (about 20 km southSouth), which is it worth for long-distance rides.:''[[User:Frixge|Frixge]]: I hitched at Königsforst in August 2011 by chance. And found it hard to imagine that people would stop, because it is outside of town and a lot of people ignore hanging out hitchhikers. But the next times I went there I got a ride in 5 to 30min. Especially it is easier to get southwards, because there is no other option than the A3.''

[[File:Dariocraigmalaysia.jpg|thumb|250px|left|[[User:Halt, Stop! Reudnitz kommt.|Craig]] & Dario hit the road for '''Thumbing Asia West to East''' (Königsforst always a good option!)]]Another possibility to achieve the A 3 in for the [[A3 (Germany)|A3]] direction [[Frankfurt ]] is to take the train “RB 25” from the main station in the direction “Marienheide” or “Overath” for EUR 3,.20 €. Leave at “Stümpen” and turn right and go up to the “Kiefernweg” and turn right. Follow the street that is later called “Dammelsfurther Weg” up to the “Pestalozziweg” for maybe 500 meters and turn right. Now you pass the Autobahn and turn right again in the “Plantage”. Follow this way a few hundred meters through the forest and you will see a service station on the right side. Maybe you have to climb a fence. Now you are on the a station without oil station but much traffic. Easy and it's easy to get a ride herethere. Totally it It takes approximately 40 minutes to reach it from the cologne Cologne Hbf (main train station. In my experience this is the best possibility to leave cologne).

===East towards :''[[BerlinUser:Hash|Hash]]===The first service area on : Hitched at this spot successfully in July 2017, took about 25 mins but got a good long distance ride to Nürnberg. Climbing the fence is Rasthof Remscheid. You can get probably necessary - there by public transport (quite inconvenient though) or try one of the is a good place on ramps in the North East western end of cologne. I think the best one is close station where the fence has larger gaps for a foot to KVB-station fit in."Rixdorfer Strasse".

===West towards [[Aachen]], [[Netherlands]] and [[Belgium]]===On Furthermore going in direction of FFM you can use the traffic lights at the ramp Köln-Dellbrück (Mülheim/Buchheim) or at the ramp onto the 55a (Frankfurterstraße). Ask the motorway ring around Cologne, driver to bring you at least on the west of the city, there's the motorway service area 'Rasthof Siegburg''. To Köln-FrechenDellbrück you can catch the bus 159 in direction '', GermanyBuchheim'' to ''Gronauerstraße'' for example at ''Wiener Platz''s busiest service station(3 stops). You can reach this services by catching a train to Königsdorf Station and then walk down Augustinus Strasse and turn right to Marienhöfer Weg which leads you direct to To the services. Alternativelyramp at Frankfurterstraße take bus 151, you can take Tram #1 152 or 153 to the terminus ''(Schulstrasse)Beuthenerstraße''.:''in Weiden [[User:Frixge|Frixge]] mostly waited between 5 and walk ~4km along Aachener Strasse until Augustinus Strasse 15 minutes. But I once waited two hours at Köln-Dellbrück. It was early in Königsdorfthe morning. Maybe most of the traffic at that daytime is local.''

There you can get lifts to the === North or East towards [[NetherlandsBerlin]], [[BelgiumDortmund]] and , [[United Kingdom|Great BritainHannover]] from one of around 200 Trucks that are there in average by going in direction of [[Aachen]] or and [[MaastrichtMünster]].===

===North towards [[Düsseldorf]] or [[Dortmund]]===Take the tram noHitching in that direction seems to be legendarily difficult unless you take a regional train and walk an hour. 5 or 13 Several experienced hitchhikers got trapped countless hours and decided to ''Nußbaumer Strtake a train instead.Nevertheless it''. There is an onramp. A lot s of course possible to hitch out of traffic goes in your directionCologne, but it is very dangerous for drivers to stop experiences about this vary extremely. So far there. are four options:

==Hitching * '''Option 1:''' Close to the city, you may want to try one of the on-ramps in==When you arrive the North East of Cologne via . On-ramp ''Köln-Dellbrück'' (exit 26 on the [[A1 A3 (Germany)|A1A3]], it) seems to be good for hitchhiking in direction Remscheid or further along the A1. Also traffic North the A3 passes here. There's difficult no hard shoulder but some green space to stop cars ~60m behind the Autobahn sign. Another possibility is to ask the drivers directly at the traffic light with an extra lane for the motorway. You can get into there by taking the town centermetro U18 to ''Holweide-Vischeringstrasse'', because cross the railways towards the motorway is very far outside. One option is main road and to get off at the exit left you'll find the on-ramp. Or Follow the description for ''Köln-Niehl'Dellbrück''(see south towards). There is You just have to walk a tram station, close bit more. Make sure to have a "Remscheid" or "RS" sign in case of going towards A1 because there is only one tiny resting area ahead of the motorwayA3/A1 crossing and as of 06/2011, in east direction, 15 minutes walking. At daytime, you can get to the town center in like 15 minutesit is mainly used as a meeting spot for male homosexuals.

From :''[[User:Platschi|Platschi]] hitched at Dellbrück in May 2010 and got a ride easily within ten minutes towards Remscheid service station, with even two cars stopping in the same motorway (meantime but driving northbound.'':''[[A1 (Germany)User:artti|A1artti]]hitchhiked there in May 2011 and two police cars didn't do anything, but third one nicely asked him to leave, because it might not be safe, because cars don't have actually proper place to stop. He took a U-bahn number 4 to last stop Schlebusch (it is possible without ticket)and about twenty meters away you can catch a bus number 260, if lucky driver doesn't ask you may as well to show ticket, but if you must buy, then ticket to Kaltenherberg Ort is eur 2.50.'':''[[User:Frixge|Frixge]] tried twice to get out off at the traffic light at '''Köln-Lövenich'Dellbrück'' to Berlin. First time at 15:00-16:00 there was an huge amount of traffic and he just had to walk along and catch Tram #1 on Aachener Strasse direction downtown ask the drivers. After 10 min he found someone who passed the service-station Remscheid. Second time at 13:00 he waited for 2 hours at either the traffic light. There was few traffic, mostly local. Next time he will try the option 4.''Bahnstrasse:'' or [[User:Roanne|Roanne]] and a partner tried this option, but instead of stopping cars at the traffic lights they asked people at the Jet gas station just before the exit onto the Autobahn. It didn''Mohnweg'' stopst take long to get a ride to Remscheid that way.

Coming from the South on the A555 or through the A4, you may as well as the driver to leave you at the * ''Am VerteilKreis'Option 3:' roundabout situated just at the complete end of the A555, at the ''Kreus KölnIn case you try to use a ramp from Cologne, a good take-Süd'' off sign is "Remscheid", because the first service area on the [[A1 (Junction A555-A4Germany)|A1]] is "Rasthof Remscheid", just before the exit for Remscheid. There are lots of commuters. The driver You can really leave you at a petrol station also get there by train from Cologne Dom/Hbf for 6,50 Euros via Remscheid Hbf and gain walk 5 km to the motorway back with complete easearea (map [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Remscheid+Hbf&daddr=Unknown+road&hl=en&geocode=FTLnDAMdiNttAClRpZsmWyq5RzGlIfHuvHkWrQ%3BFayeDAMdfEduAA&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=15&dirflg=w&sll=51.157143,7.226601&sspn=0.008559,0.023174&ie=UTF8&ll=51.169872,7.215099&spn=0.From there034228, 0.092697&t=h&z=13 here]). If you can walk along 're lucky, catch the Bonner Strasse to catch a bus 672 or 673 (valid with your zone 4 ticket) to Talsperre/Mebusmühle or Talsperre/Raststätte (closer but only 673) and avoid the heart of Kölnwalk. These buses do not pass very often, though.

* '''Option 5:''' A very good spot seems to be on the crossing of the A57 and the 'Parkgurtel' ring road. Get there using the S-Bahn (get off at station Nussbaumstrasse) and walk direction east until you get to the traffic lights. All the people turning left are going on A57 and there's a good chance they're heading on the A1 later. Like mentioned above, ask for Remscheid service station. The spot is protected from the rain by the train bridge! The cars only stop at the red lights, so you will have to do some jumping around.  === East towards [[Siegen]] or [[Gießen]] ([[A4 (Germany)|A4]]) === Trying to get onto A4 seems to be as difficult as getting anywhere north-east. [[User:Caro|Caro]] tried Mid-July 2010 to hitchhike at the on-ramp in Merheim, giving up after 3 hours using the following spot. One but long (and maybe worthwhile) possibility is to go to petrol station ''Aggertal''. Take "Regionalbahn (RB) 25" direction Marienheide Bf. Get off at Overath Bf and take bus 310 direction Gummersbach. Get off (2nd halt) at Klef/Hotel Lüdenbach and walk 20 minutes to the petrol staion. Check [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Klef&daddr=Unbekannte+Stra%C3%9Fe&hl=de&geocode=FZ5pCQMdtIFvAA%3BFZ52CQMdD6xvAA&mra=ls&dirflg=w&sll=50.948613,7.31123&sspn=0.01287,0.027595&ie=UTF8&ll=50.950154,7.312946&spn=0.012869,0.027595&z=15 map] before! From there you can go anywhere eastwards, including long distance rides too. :''[[User:janpa|janpa]] suggests to not take the bus, but hitch to the petrol station from Overath Bf. It's probably faster to take a lift to the on-ramp, and then directly to the petrol station, since it is only two kilometres. From Köln it takes about one hour to get to the spot.'' === North towards [[Düsseldorf]] or [[Nijmegen]] === Take the tram no. 5 or 13 to ''Nußbaumer Str.''. There is an on-ramp. A lot of traffic goes in your direction, but it is very dangerous for drivers to stop there.[[User:Perilisk|Perilisk]] tried this spot in 2008 but was unsuccessful and uncomfortable stopping cars there. [[User:Clint.hotvedt|Clint.hotvedt]] tried this spot a few times in the fall of 2009 and was not able to get out for some hours as well, in the end accepting a ride to Ausfahrt 26 ''K-Worringen'', where it was much easier. At least for direction [[Krefeld]]/[[Nijmegen]] this user recommends riding the S-bahn to ''Worringen'' and try it from there, average waiting time around 30-60 minutes. === West towards [[Aachen]], [[Maastricht]], [[Eindhoven]] and [[Belgium]] === On the motorway ring around Cologne, to the west of the city, there's the motorway service area ''Frechen''. You can reach it by catching a train to Königsdorf S-Bahn (around 20 minutes). Turn right on the stairs at the station, walk through the car park, turn left on Augustinus Straße, walk straight for 2 minutes and then turn right on to Marienhöfer Weg. Keep walking up this path into the forest for 5 minutes. Eventually you will come to a crossroad with the service station on the left. There you can get lifts to the [[Netherlands]], [[Belgium]] and [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]] from one of around 200. Trucks are going in the direction of [[Aachen]] or [[Maastricht]], at least. Another way to get out of Cologne in that direction is to go near the [[A4 (Germany)|A4]], Exit 11a Klettenberg and 11b Köln-Eifeltor. When at the latest, walking slightly North there is an extra lane that looks like an ideal place for people to stop, and slightly South of it is a big truck stop and petrol station where you can try and ask people. To reach these exits from the centre, take the tram U18 to "Efferen" (for 11a) or to "Eifelwall" and then bus 138 to "Güterverkehrszentrum". This option is especially interesting to know if you get trapped in Cologne while trying to cross the Ruhr area. == Hitching In ==When you arrive Cologne via the [[A1 (Germany)|A1]], it's difficult to get into the town centre, because the motorway is very far outside. One option is to get off at the exit '''Köln-Niehl'''. There is a tram station, close to the motorway, in east direction, 15 minutes walking. At daytime, you can get to the town centre in like 15 minutes. From the same motorway ([[A1 (Germany)|A1]]), you may as well get out at '''Köln-Lövenich''' and catch Tram #1 on Aachener Straße direction down town at either ''Bahnstraße'' or ''Mohnweg'' stops. You could as well try to catch a ride from the A1 onto the A3. And then get off for example at '''Köln-Dellbrück'''. There you walk 5min in direction west, catch the bus 159 to ''Wiener Platz'', where can get a tram. Coming from the South on the A555 or through the A4, you may as well as the driver to leave you at the ''Am Verteilerkreis'' roundabout situated just at the complete end of the A555, at the ''Kreuz Köln-Süd'' (Junction A555-A4). The driver can really leave you at a petrol station and gain the motorway back with complete ease. From there, you can walk along the Bonner Straße to catch a bus to the heart of Köln. {{IsIn|North Rhine-Westphalia}} [[Category:NordrheinNorth Rhine-WestfalenWestphalia]]