Asked a guy filling his car and immediately got a lift to the outside of Cologne.

Guy and girl heading to Cologne. Waited at the roundabout by the exit with a sign saying Germany / Köln and got a lift to Aachen in 5 minutes.

Guy and girl heading to Cologne. Waited at the exit with a sign saying Germany / Köln. Not so many german cars but got a lift to the other side of Liege in about 20 minutes.

Guy and girl heading to Cologne. Waited at the exit with a sign saying Germany / Köln. Not so many german cars but got a lift to the other side of Liege in about 20 minutes.

Guy and girl heading to Cologne. Waited near the exit with a sign saying Germany / Köln, and got a lift close to Liege in 15 minutes.

Guy and girl heading to Cologne. Waited 2h15 at the exit/entrance to the highway with a sign saying Germany / Köln. No luck, mostly Belgian cars. Moved to outside the shop entrance with our sign and immediately got offered a lift to Leuven by the Chief of Brussels police... (ACAB but they can sometimes do nice things)

First one we asked took us to Cologne. Very busy restaurant and gas station with a lot of options

Pretty big gas station, took an uber out of cologne to this station because we got stuck in the city, here we got picked up pretty quickly :)

It was getting dark so I felt like my chances were getting pretty low. Quite some people ignored me when I came up to them, the vibe of the place doesn’t really help being there with a cardboard. I wanted to go to cologne but went to Frankfurt airport instead and stayed in the city for the night.

Really good spot, lots of cars and people. Found a ride to cologne really quickly.

I did not wait long until a family in a van picked me up. I wanted to go to Frankfurt/cologne area but they took me along the way to Augsburg

The amount of traffic can feel overwhelming. Many people are headed towards Cologne, but it's tricky to find spots on the way to continue on a long-distance journey. Took a ride to Koblenz. You can sleep in the rickety playhouse behind Burger King.

Quickly got to Cologne

Easy spot on the car parking near highway in direction of Germany close to the airport. There were no trains or buses to Cologne, the earliest would be in 4 hours, but I am impatient af. Saw it on Google map, came here, approached a truck with German plate numbers and got a direct ride to Cologne. Ez

Was standing with a sign "Remscheid" for 1 minute before the traffic light where people turn left to get on Autobahn. A kind lady picked up took me to the resting station (the one before Remscheid). The best spot in Cologne to hitchhike towards Hanover/Berlin so far, cuz you target exactly the traffic which will take you to the big resting station which is very good for hitchhiking.

As mentioned in prior comments, best spot for Cologne, I got here at 9:20pm and by 9:45 I was in a car. I went down the asking everyone route but I’m sure sign would also work

Had a good interaction with the staff but maybe we got lucky. Got a lift with a young Dutch guy going to cologne. Overall was pretty good for us

Great spot if you're hitchhiking from Cologne to the Netherlands. You can get here from Nievenheim train station and bus WE2. After that it's just a 15 minute walk to the station. If you look on Google satellite, you will spot a small trail after the bridge over the highway. It is traversable but I wouldn't recommend it as it leads through hunting grounds that are private property. Better to take the long way around. Either way, the service station is accessible on foot through a whole in the fence or on the small road. Waited for 5 minutes, then found a friendly man and his girlfriend who took me one service station further to Geismühle. There was low traffic on Saturday, but I got lucky and found somebody quickly.

Great spot! Asked one person and found a ride straight to Cologne (could've gone to Düsseldorf even). I obviously got lucky, but there seemed to be a good amount of traffic.

Definitely would avoid this station. Took us 2 hours to find a ride, not even in the right direction. Honestly juste get the first car that will take you Somewhere else. But good spot for gotting to Cologne