Fussgaenger

Garmisch:

This little place gets high marks and is quite close to the Garmisch train station. Owner's name is Jim Buckley - sounds like he might be able to help you in English:

http://www.vacation-apartments.com/15381.htm

It's listed at the Garmisch TI office site too. Seems to be less expensive there:

http://booking.gapa.de/garmischparte...ab=Description

The Fraundorfer Inn has rooms. Main point there is the Bavarian Evening. Great food and fun.
http://gasthof-fraundorfer.de/english/index.php

Main page for Garmisch TI booking: http://booking.gapa.de/garmischparte...mmodation/list

The Garmisch visitors card gets you around for free:
http://www.gapa.de/page/node/348/story/1401

dlongan

And that is exactly why I need you! I had not looked at trains and did not know there were so many changes. I don't necessarily have to go to rothenberg, but being a tourist figured it was a thing to do! If I'll see charming German villages elsewhere, I'm fine skipping that. We will be packing light, but I want to make things as easy as possible.
I'll look more tomorrow
Dugi otok...yes I know! I over plan, over organize, Etc.

Adelaidean

We day tripped to Rothenburg from Nuremberg, it looks like a complicated schedule but the trains are well connected and it is an easy trip. And we loved Rothenburg by the way, of course it is touristy, but that's because it's great
To be honest, I have been twice on gorgeous summer days and found that apart from the main street, it is fairly quiet. The bus tours have their route and the photo op at a pretty gate, but we walked the walls, wandered the many side streets, enjoyed a really quiet lunch each time, lovely architecture all around.
The Zugspitze and Neuschwanstein are also touristy and also great.
Since you like hiking there is a really nice 'avoid the tourists' way to arrive at Neuschwanstein... don't take the castle bus at the station, but the one to the Tegelberg. Take cablecar up mountain and follow Reitweg trail to Mary's bridge, it's a 2 hr walk downhill in stunning Alpine scenery, in blissful solitude... until you hit the crowds at the bridge.

Fussgaenger

"About Boppard lodging?"
TI office listings:
http://www.boppard-tourismus.de/37-1...rzeichnis.html

Be cautious about location. "Boppard" actually covers a number of distant small villages. Sometimes the village name is hyphenated in - "Boppard-Weiler" for instance. Sometimes not.

The Ebertor has a great location right between the station and the river:

http://www.ebertor.de/englisch/home.html

dlongan

Adelaidean,

That is great advice about Neuschwanstein! I would have never known that. Love this blog!

PalenQ

a recent NYTimes article covered the noise of rail lines along the Rhine affecting folks in hotel rooms - try to find something away from the main freight and passenger line - that said the article said that may be hard and is a real problem in the Rhine Gorge area where rails on both sides have to hug the river.

Boppard to me is one of the nicer Rhine towns.

Fussgaenger

This one?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/wo...linz.html?_r=0

That's a really weak article. The people they interviewed live and work right next to the tracks! Trains have been using those same tracks for decades and decades, both day and night. These people who bought homes and run businesses a block from the tracks are not dealing with anything new at all.

There is in fact a movement afoot to ban freight trains from the Rhine Valley. "These days, 180 to 300 trains pass through the storybook river towns by day, and an additional 200 or so throughout the night..." says the article. But there's no mention of how many trains there were 30 or 50 years ago. Not that it matters, really. Whether 12 trains race by your window or 300, you probably aren't going to sleep. These locals are just feeling their muscle and trying to get what they can get. They should be moving, or shelling out the Euros it takes to install triple-pane windows - not calling for a ban on trains there.

I do think it's cool that they can minimize the noise with brake equipment, etc. Certainly a good idea. But ban trains there?? Not going to happen.

I mean, if you choose to live or operate a business next to the railway in Bacharach, you must be very dense not to have a plan for dealing with your location:

http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/cms_medi..._bacharach.jpg

As for visitors... They should be informed and savvy. Every town has places you can stay away from the tracks where you are insulated from train noise. Or you can trust places next to the tracks like the Hotel Kranenturm who install sound-proof windows and say they work. Read the reviews. See what guests say. But this "problem" certainly doesn't mean you don't visit the Rhine.

Some towns are impacted very little by train noise. I've stayed in downtown Boppard several times and never heard a single train, not at night anyway, and I'm an incredibly light sleeper.

Fussgaenger

BTW that reporter makes it sound like train noise has suddenly crippled the tourist trade Linz am Rhein (an absolutely lovely town, BTW.) NONSENSE. It's the economy. The glassblower at the castle there had to be let go - a shame - but not because of train noise. St. Goar is in the same situation. Shuttered shops, etc. Boppard and Bacharach still seem pretty healthy.

PalenQ

Fuusgaenger certainly has a command of facts on that area - incredible even for a local if he is - reminds me of old Russ who posts here no longer who was a similar Rhine booster. And the Rhine here is a historic place well worthy of several days for the slow travel type - normal casual tourists take the boat ride, get bored and go on - they do miss a lot and then think they've seen the Rhine!

bilboburgler

Madness, might as well get the church bells banned in France and the chickens from crowing.

PalenQ

I do wonder why Europeans put with those loud clanging church bells that toll so so loud so so early in the morning.

dlongan

Hey if we have to put up with obama, Europe has to put up with church bells and train noise. I'd choose bells and train noise.

Ok, so what do you think of Hotel Marienhad in Nurenberg
I'm going to nail down reservations today

I have booked Baudobriga Rheinhotel in Boppard

PalenQ

lots of tram noise near the Marienbad in Nuremburg I think! And the church bells next door and boats on the river... and now a Moslem call to prayer from the mosque next door!

dlongan

Do you have any personal knowledge of Gastehaus Alpenkranz in GP? Tripadvisor gives mixed reviews. She has contacted me. Looks like it would be a nice local experience.

dlongan

Do you have any personal knowledge of Gastehaus Alpenkranz in GP? Tripadvisor gives mixed reviews. She has contacted me. Looks like it would be a nice local experience.

PalenQ

You may want to make a separate post about the Garmish guesthouse as it is buried here now and with that in the heading you may get other responses - I have no knowledge of it of course but I did stay several days in a guesthouse in Garmisch (Partikirchen is a separate part of town) and loved it - family-style - there were rows of these guesthouses and I'm thinking they all much be pretty much the same - nice cozy friendly places with a humungous breakfast, etc. Love those down comforters on the beds!