Moving to Cologne

Cologne is at the other end of Germany – over 900 kilometres from Wrocław, almost twice as far as Gdańsk. Over a distance like that, a good driver is not enough; you need a plan. We usually split moves to Cologne over two days, and for large loads we use our Frankfurt am Main warehouse as a stopover on the way to the Rhine.

The route to the Rhine and how we split it

We take the A4 motorway via Dresden and Erfurt. After the Kirchheim junction, we briefly take the A7 and A5 to the Gießen area, then the A45 to Olpe and the A4 again into Cologne from the east – the exact route depends on disruption on bridges and motorways in North Rhine-Westphalia. The driving alone takes ten to eleven hours by van, so loading, the journey and carrying in cannot realistically be fitted into one day.

Day	Standard option	Option with storage
1	packing and loading in Wrocław, departure in the afternoon	loading in Wrocław, delivery to the Frankfurt warehouse
2	arrival in Cologne and unloading before noon	the load waits for a convenient day
delivery date	fixed, the following day	any day, about three hours from Frankfurt

The option with our Frankfurt warehouse is chosen by people who collect their keys a few days after moving out in Poland, or who move in stages.

Rhine bridges and traffic in Cologne

Cologne is divided by the Rhine, and crossing between the right and left banks is a daily bottleneck. Some bridges in the region have weight limits for heavy vehicles, which means a detour when moving from Deutz to Ehrenfeld or from Leverkusen to the centre. That is why we check the route to your specific address before departure, not on the day. The centre is also a low-emission zone requiring a green sticker.

Cologne and neighbouring cities

Cologne

Old tenement buildings in Südstadt and the Belgian Quarter, blocks of flats in Chorweiler, new estates on the outskirts. Narrow streets in the centre mean a parking spot has to be reserved.

Bonn

The former capital, home to federal offices and international organisations. Lots of terraced houses and villas in Bad Godesberg, with easier access than in Cologne.

Düsseldorf and the Ruhr

The state capital is less than an hour further on, and Essen, Dortmund and Bochum are even closer to the route from Poland – we often serve these addresses on the same run.

After you arrive

In Cologne, you register at one of the city’s customer service offices (Kundenzentrum) within two weeks of moving in. We have gathered the rest of the German formalities – tax number, broadcasting licence fee, re-registering your car – on the moving to Germany page.