Bindery

I have been working on a 2 week Europe trip for my wife and I in late May and early June.
Here’s what I got so far. I would appreciate any thoughts, recommendations, comments, etc.
We fly into Amsterdam arriving 9:15am Sunday. I have reserved a houseboat thru airbnb.
We plan on renting bicycles and touring Amsterdam. Also want to take a day trip to visit Zaanse Schans.
I’m told you can get there by public bus from in front of the Amsteredam Central train station.
I have 2 train tickets to Cologne on Wednesday leaving 10:35am. I have a hotel for 1 night in Cologne.
Thursday we rent a car and drive south for the Mosel Valley. Visit Eltz Castle. I have booked a room nearby with a view of the Mosel. Have a room booked in Ehrenburg Castle Friday night and one in Rothenburg Saturday night. Then we drive south. Want to tour Dachau concentration camp and have a beer in a Munich beer hall. Would like to tour Neuchwanstein castle, then on to Switzerland. We have 3 days for this. Don’t have rooms reserved for this time, figured we would just find something along the way. Have reserved a BnB in the county in the Gersau area, by Lake Lucerne. Want to tour Lucerne and see Mount Pilatus. We have 3 days there. In the end we drive to Zurich airport to drop off the rent a car and fly home.

bilboburgler

Getting up to speed on Amsterdam's bike culture will take a bit of time, chat to the guys renting you the bikes, the locals don't move very fast but they are relentless and you may cause a crash if you don't catch on quick.

You might prefer to ditch Cologne and cycle down the Mosel (very easy to do) but hey up to you.

PalenQ

Zaanse Schanse is best done by train from Amsterdam to Koog Zaandijk (sp?) from which the windmills and Zuider Zee Museum are about a 15-minute walk. Buses would take much longer I would think.

Fussgaenger

Wed in Cologne; by the time you reach your hotel and drop your bags it'll be 2 pm. Hope you don't have much planned there.

Thu and Fri you should have time to see something. Don't know your route for Thu but since your plan mentions nothing at all about the Rhine you might want to make a stop or two there on the way toward Burg Eltz:

Linz am Rhein, maybe the most attractive of the Rhine villages:
http://www.ich-geh-wandern.de/files/..._rhein-038.jpg
Remagen's WWW II museum: www.bruecke-remagen.de

Use the Linz-Remagen ferry to cross the river.

Would also suggest a visit to Mosel towns Cochem and/or Winningen:
Cochem:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...alatinate.html
Winningen:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4120/...50deb0ee_z.jpg

"...and one in Rothenburg Saturday night. Then we drive south. Want to tour Dachau concentration camp and have a beer in a Munich beer hall. Would like to tour Neuchwanstein castle, then on to Switzerland. We have 3 days for this."

Rothenburg is already a long journey from Ehrenburg Castle. Then Dachau. Then Munich. Then N'stein. Then all your Switzerland destinations. Your post is quite unclear how much time you have for all that, but it sounds like you might have one week after waking up in Rothenburg on Sunday morning. That sounds like an awful lot for a week - and an awful lot of driving too, probably close to 1,000 km from Ehrenburg Castle to Zurich airport.

I would never begrudge anyone a trip to Switzerland. Do as you plan and fly out of Zürich. But do yourselves a favor and skip the super-touristy and super-lengthy detour through Bavaria. You can find wonderful old-world German towns, castles, and palaces by taking a more direct route south to Switzerland from the Mosel - and you will avoid the over-trodden tourist trail too.

These are only a few great choices:

Rhine River options...
Bacharach: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...arach_BW_9.JPG
Oberwesel: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Marktplatz.jpg
Marksburg Castle: https://dreabobea.files.wordpress.co...urg-castle.jpg
Riverside Castles on a Rhine cruise near Bingen: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ngen_Rhein.jpg

Ladenburg, near Heidelberg: http://www.turnfest.de/portal/upload...hellerhaus.jpg

Ludwigsburg Palace: http://www.schloss-ludwigsburg.de/en/home/

Black Forest villages:
Schiltach: http://www.bensbauernhof.com/schiltach2012a.jpg
Gengenbach: http://www.schwarzwald-tourismus.inf...h-Altstadt.jpg
Villingen: http://www.tourismus-vs.de/en/views-...villingen.html

Hohenzollern Castle: http://www.burg-hohenzollern.com/tl_...eite_burg3.jpg

Freiburg: http://www.heinzalbers.org/picture-frb0032.jpg

You also have a car-drop-off problem; you'll be hit hard with drop-off fees in a second country if you drop in Switzerland. I would look at dropping the car in Freiburg (or not using a car at all) and taking the train into and within Switzerland.

Fussgaenger

I neglected to make a suggestion for Cologne - before leaving, pay a visit to the Nazi Documentation Center in the former Gestapo Prison - a good substitute for Dachau (which I've suggested you skip by virtue of its location on the opposite side of the country.) It ranks second only to the Cologne Cathedral on Tripadvisor's list of important sights in Cologne:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...estphalia.html

PalenQ

Have spent some collective weeks in Cologne and never heard ot the Nazi Docu Center - now I need to go back and see it - thanks Fuss! (Is this a fairly new thing as I spent lots of time in Cologne but not in recent years - never having found much 'there' there although it is a nice large town in many ways - I like walking along the Rhine Ufer in front of the cathedral and walking over one of the world's busiest rail bridges to the eastern flank of the Rhine to see Colonge Cathedral in all its majesty (if that darn rail bridge were obscuring the overall picture.

menachem

PalenQ, the Zuiderzee Museum is not anywhere near Zaanse Schans, but in Enkhuizen.

Bindery

We want to see the windmills

AisleSeat

This sounds like a great trip. When you rent the car in Germany you will add a drop fee for Switzerland. Ask your car rental agency if they happen to have a Swiss car that you can take home for them to save that. You Can look at ViaMichelin.com for maps. If you drive from Fussen to Lucern you might go by Lake Constance (several nice aresa to visit) and Lichtenstein.

PalenQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaans_Museum

menachem - i got mixed up with names - the museum at Zaans Schans is called the Zaans Museum, about the area around Zaans which was on the former Zuider Zee I believe and when I went there has lots on the former Zuider Zee - thanks for pointing out my mix-up but if going to Zaans Schans check out the museum (though Zaans Schans is free the museum charges but if you have a Museum Card it gets free entry.