GERMANY, MID-RHINE & MUNICH
 

Hi, Everyone:
I would appreciate your suggestions for my coming trip to west & south area of Germany.
I've booked three hotels each 4-night stays. I can cancel, change the stays before my trip without problem. Including me, we are a group of 4, seniors, in good health. we like sightseeing.
My literary as-

4/23 (Sunday) arrived Amsterdam.
4/27 (Thursday) leave Netherlands by Train (ICE?) to Cologne, Germany.

** No question for the 4-night stay in AMS.

4/27- 5/01 4-night I booked the same hotel in Cologne.
I read some travel info., lots of suggestions to go on the scenic boat in Koblenz - Boppard - Mainz,
the area has most of the castle along the Rhine.

** Within these 4 days, I want to have a day trip to Frankfurt.
Maybe take the Viator bus hop-on-hop-off.

** Should I move 2-night to stay somewhere along "Koblenz - Boppard - Mainz"?

** 5/01 from Cologne to Munich or Frankfurt to Munich by train? which one?

5/01 - 5/05 I booked 4-night in Munich.
I think, on 2nd day I would like to rent a car drive to Fussen, visit Neuschwanstein Castle., per Google map, it seems easy drive. Is this a good idea?
the rest of time in Munich, we go most popular tourists points.
5/05 fly back from Munich to Amsterdam.

Thank you so much in advance!

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...alatinate.html

Nice area.

If you are castled out by the time you get to Munich skip Fussen and head to Garmisch for the day. Beautiful.

If you'd rather be palaced-in rather than castled-out you could go to the largest of the Ludwig "builds" which is the palace at Herrenchiemsee. It is the most elaborately decorated of them all. Or you could do the Nymphenberg Palace which is within the city limits of Munich or the Residenze which is also within the city.

IMO it is the outside of Neuschwanstein which is memorable; the interior, not so much; even Linderhof has better decoration than Neuschwanstein IMO.

Same as above. Garmisch and the castles.

And what do you want to see in Frankfurt ?
Frankfurt is an admin city : full of large building where people work for banking and insurance companies. Never seen a city so boring - just my opinion, corrobarated by all my german friends I talked to about Frankfurt.

"Should I move 2-night to stay somewhere along "Koblenz - Boppard - Mainz?"

You say you booked 4 nights in Cologne. IMHO you can probably see what interests you in Cologne in a day or less. So my answer is "yes" but I would in fact recommend just one night in Cologne (with some morning time on Day 2.) Then in the afternoon of Day 2, head south by train for 3 nights in the Middle Rhine Valley - it takes some time to do a river cruise and to visit the towns and tour the castles in this area. Book in Boppard or St. Goar. When you leave Cologne, take the train to Bingen; board a cruise boat there and cruise back north to Boppard (2.3 hrs.)or St. Goar (1.5 hours.) This shows you the very best part of the river. Then spend the remainder of your day in your new base town.


Day trips by train:

One day for St. Goar (or Boppard,) Oberwesel and Bacharach and back.

One day for Marksburg Castle (Braubach) and Rüdesheim, both on the opposite river bank - then back to Boppard.

Lots of possibilities for when you take the train from Cologne to Munich. For example, the trains stop in Ulm - you could get off and go see the famous gothic cathedral and have lunch and pick a later train for the rest of the journey.

Or take a direct train to Wuerzburg, check out the town and the palace, and take another train to Munich.

Also - trains stop in Bingen - you could spend two nights there and pick up the fast train to Munich, with or without the above suggested interruptions.

Thank you! guys.
Great info and suggestions.

I did have a thought as 'Fussgaenger' idea that stays one night in Cologne,
However, I was also worrying could that be too rush?
How about further down, stay in Bonn?

Interestingly 'WoinParis" said Frankfurt is boring, full of banking institutions and Insurance Companies., Ha! I am actually working for Insurance Company in California.
I don't have hard feelings though, of what you said.

I thought my focus points are around Rhine river (middle to south area).
Take one day go to the big city Frankfurt seems out of way. Maybe I will skip it.

My group consists my other elderly sisters, I don't feel I should rush them here, there, just once in life time ( maybe) a relax travel with my dear sisters, they took care of me at my youth.
I have great hope that my arrangements of the entire trip will make them very happy.

Let me study your suggestions.
I may need more assistances!

Thank you so much all!

Since you work for an insurance company, you may already know that Frankfurt am Main (where "Main" is the river - there is another city called Frankfurt, on another river, called "Oder") is called - by those who are not too fond of the rather bland city - "Mainhattan".

Major trade shows are held there, so many trade-show jockeys (I speak from experience) have had to put up with its blandness, wishing the trade show were being held in a livelier place, like Berlin or Hamburg or Munich, for a bit of extracurricular fun. Ah well...

This is my first trip to Germany,
I can only hope that Michelhuebeli's wish come true!
Thank you again for your good suggestions about on the way to Munich to hop off the train in different towns.
I supposed in that case, we all need to store our carry-on luggage at train station then.

How to find out about luggage storage:

Google the name of the town, then the word Bahnhof, followed by the words Schliessfächer Gepäckaufbewahrung. (They mean "station", "lockers", "luggage storage").

Example:

Würzburg Bahnhof Schliessfächer Gepäckaufbewahrung

Result: http://www.bahnhof.de/bahnhof-de/Wuerzburg_Hbf.html

Scroll down to Schliessfächer, hit the plus sign, and - if needed - translate the sentence "Wir machen Ihnen die Hände frei - an diesem Bahnhof können Sie Ihr Gepäck im Schließfach aufbewahren." with the help of Google Translate.

It means - "we free up your hands - at this station you can store your luggage in a locker"

Michelhuebeli,

EXCELLENT luggage storage information!

Thank you so much!

Würzburg Bahnhof Schliessfächer Gepäckaufbewahrung.
What a great tip - I just love those long German compound words.
Have a lovely holiday.