My son (22yrs) and his lifelong friend have six days after Amsterdam and will fly home from Berlin. They are looking for castles in Northern Germany that they can easily visit. They are intrigued by the ones near Munster with the moats but not sure how to visit without a car. They really would like to see rural Germany with a castle before seeing Berlin and flying home.

Why not rent a car? But be sure that there is public transportation to everyplace in Germany - trains are great for long distances - check www.bahn.de/en for trains to wherever they are going if possible - www.seat61.com has loads of info on booking your own train tickets at a discount online - general info BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Schwerin could be on the way to Berlin and one of best castles in Germany - or they could take the Castle Road bus from Heidelberg to Rothenburg and get off and see lots of castles.

I did Schwerin as a day trip from Berlin - nice town too: Not moated but surrounded by water:

https://www.google.com/search?q=schw...w=1879&bih=922

Rent a car is always the best options if you can drive, if not you have very fast trains you can use and don`t worry about a thing.

Look ujp the names of towns those castles are in or near and go to www.bahn.de/en - German Railways schedule/booking site and put names in 'where to' box and see if there is train service. If not Google buses in ........... area - castles often have instructions on how to reach them on their web pages.

And yes if they really want to experience rural Germany cadr or bicycle are by far the best (or motorbike).