Cologne to Mainz...
 

We are staying two nights in Cologne and want to take a day trip driving along the Rhine, visiting Burg Eltz and Marksburg Castles and at least wine tasting a one winery.
Should we drive directly to Mainz and then take our time driving back to Cologne?
Thank you for your input.

Drive up on one side and down the other side of the Rhein (take your pick), and map out what you want to stop for on each leg on each side. That will dictate your pace. Don't know why you would go as far as Mainz, it gets less scenic and more big-city congested once you get much past, say, Bingen or Rüdesheim.

I Agree with WallyKringen. I would make my last stop Ruedesheim. It is a great little town to walk around in!
Clea

It's also worth noting that there is a ferry between Ruedesheim and Bingen, so you don't have to drive all the way to Mainz to cross the river and drive up the other side. (There is also a ferry between St. Goar/St. Goarhausen. Viamichelin also lists ones at Kaub and Neiderheimbach/Lorch.)

Paul

sanschag, I am assuming that our car can cross on the ferry in St. Goar...are we still going to be able to see both castles?


Thank you all for your responses.

All of the ones I listed are car ferries. I have personally used the St. Goar/St. Goarhausen and Bingen/Ruedesheim ferries. There very easy to use as you just follow the signs to the ferry and drive on once it's been off-loaded. I think the cost was around EUR 5. Burg Eltz (a real highlight BTW) is off the Mosel. I can't remember exactly where Marksburg is other than it's on the west side of the Rhine. You'd probably go from Burg Eltz, back to the Mosel (there's a bridge a Loef), cutting over to St. Goar, and then use the ferry to cross the river.

Paul

Paul, thank you for your post. That is exactly what we needed to know. Funny enough Marksburg is listed on the maps we got but Burg Eltz was not.
Donnae

I'm going to add this for the benefit of anyone looking at this thread who is not planning to drive but would like to explore the Rhine.

The German Railway will sell you a weekday Regional Ticket good from 9AM - 3AM for the Rheinland-Pfalz federal state (starting at Oberwinter upstream from Bonn) which will allow you to move up and down the river on any of the trains that pass through every few minutes. There are hundreds of castles along both the Rhine and Mosel in this <i>Bundesland</i>, and a number of famous historic towns including all of those mentioned above. Marksburg is remarkable in that it appears pretty much the way it did in medieval times.

I forgot the link:

http://www.bahn.de/-S:PtVOSN:ecesxNN..._tickets.shtml

It appears that the Saarland is also included in the ticket.