Calais to Cologne - Route/Stop off Ideas

[NotDan]

Hi All,

At the end of the month my dad and I are taking a drive out to see a family friend in Cologne for a long weekend. We’ve got an early Friday morning crossing on the Chunnel, and an aim of making it to our destination of Lovenich (west Cologne) by early evening.

We’re in no rush and my initial thoughts are that we’d stop off at some World War sites en route, with areas such as the beach fortifications around Dunkirk and Ypres immediately springing to mind.

I hoped that the collective knowledge and experience of these forums may be able to offer some advice that could
help shape and improve on my conceptual plan. We both have an interest in history, cars/motorbikes, architecture, food, great driving roads - all the typical PH’er stuff! If of any relevance, I’m 31 and dad 56.

We’ll be in my family-worn diesel A4 Avant, but despite this I’m always up for a more engaging or scenic route. Both of us are happy clocking up a few miles, albeit we realistically only have a 7-8 hour window to expand on what would be a direct 4-5 hour drive from the Chunnel.

Many thanks in advance. Any and all feedback is appreciated!

[Hoofty]

I’d ‘just’ stop off at Bruges, but that’s because I’m more of a chocolate and irritating-film-quotes kinda guy. It’s conveniently close to a route you might take, but I guess it’ll absorb every minute of that contingency, especially if you’ve not been before. On that basis might not break up the journey in a way you might prefer.

One for the way back, perhaps?

[Dr Interceptor]

There's quote a few famous sites along the route... you can do Dunkirk to Ypres... then if you drop South of Brussels there's Waterloo, Maastricht then on to Cologne.

[NotDan]

Thank you Both, I think an extra day to full explore may be in order.