Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
I don't believe that it's only 50 minutes from FRA to Koln. It should be several hours.
BTW, if you have a choice, and you should, try to take a train that follows the Rhein for the scenery. You want to go through Mainz (the stretch of the Rhein with all the castles) and Bonn Hbf, not Bonn Siegen IIRC. The time should be about the same.
As Palal said, there are fast and slow trains. The one I purchased is schedule to arrive 47 minutes.
I've taken the slow train before and it was quite scenic. In fact, I was going to followup and ask if a ticket exist where I can get off at any stops along the route, exit the station, take a couple photos and get on the next train, but decided it probably cost way more than I want to spend..... I ended up spending Euro$19 going to Koln Messe and Euro$35 coming back to FRA. Both are fast ICE trains.
I will concentrate my 1.5 days weekend in Cologne.