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-   -   Help with first trip to Germany (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/help-with-first-trip-to-germany-746173/)

dcmom8 Nov 2nd, 2007 07:21 AM

Help with first trip to Germany
 
I almost have our itinerary complete- just need a little help in Germany. We are taking our kids (age 4 & 7) on their first trip to Europe. We have planned:

Fly into Paris, spend 3 nights at the Best Western (using American Express miles to stay free).

Take high speed train to Strasbourg, stay 2 nights in Hilton (again, using Hilton miles to stay for free).

Renting car (still working on that) to explore Rhine River Vally (and Mosel?). Staying 2 nights in Castle Hotel Auf Schoenburg (it is booked, so excited!!).

After that we have 1, maybe 2 nights left and then will fly out of Germany.

Here is the question: Do we stay longer in the Rhine/Mosel area? If so where, what town? (the Auf Schoenburg is booked those nights). Or do we ditch the car and take the train somewhere? Munich?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!

Bitter Nov 2nd, 2007 07:35 AM

Did I miss it or where are you flying home from? Munich seems a long ways from the Rhine Mosel region particularly for only 2 days, but someone might disagree with me.

You can explore a lot along the rhine/mosel by train and depending on the time of year by ship.

Curious Nov 2nd, 2007 09:35 AM

Haven't you gotten your answers on your 4 other posts on basically the same subject?

Curious

hausfrau Nov 2nd, 2007 10:36 AM

I'm so pleased that you booked the Auf Schoenburg! You and your kids will LOVE it.

If it were my choice, I would stay in the Rhine/Mosel area the full 3-4 nights. As I think I said on your other thread, it is easiest to explore that region by car, and you can stop whenever you want.

The Mosel offers so many options: the ancient Roman ruins of Trier, the stunning castle of Burg Eltz, lovely riverside towns like Cochem and Bernkastel-Keus, and of course the fabulous scenery of impossibly steep vineyards lining the valley. Your kids will enjoy watching the boats on both rivers. You might consider a short river cruise if you think the kids would like that sort of thing.

I've stayed in Trier, Beilstein, and Cochem. The latter two are probably the best situated for day touring. We enjoyed Hotel Haus Lipmann in Beilstein
http://www.hotel-haus-lipmann.de/english/index.htm
and the Alte Thorschenke in Cochem
http://castle-thorschenke.de/index.php?lang=en

bettyk Nov 2nd, 2007 12:32 PM

While Hausfrau offers excellent advice as usual, I'd like to offer my two cents worth. In September, we stayed in Bernkastel-Kues on the Mosel River. This is a beautiful town on a lovely part of the river.

http://www.bernkastel.de/cms/cms/fro...p;changelang=2

From here, we visited Trier, the oldest town in Germany, with its imposing 2nd century Porta Nigra, the largest surviving Roman gate in the world. There are also many other Roman ruins and interesting sites in Trier that you could explore.

http://redaktion.trier.de/praefectus/trier?tourist_en

From Trier, we then drove a few miles to the border town of Echternach, the oldest town in Luxembourg. Great town square where you can have a coffee and pastry or a yummy ice cream.

If you are interested, you can check out our photo albums of our travels to Germany that include the Rhine and Mosel Rivers:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/561038806XxDcvw

http://travel.webshots.com/album/354616542PMkPVQ

http://travel.webshots.com/album/554...yxotU?start=12

Andreas_US_GER Nov 2nd, 2007 12:38 PM

Rental car is a good idea BUT don't pick it up in France and drop it off in Germany. There's a very high one-way fee. Do pick up your rental car in Kehl on the German side of Strasbourg then you can d/o free of charge in Frankfurt.

Do spend the last 2 days in the Frankfurt area. www.hessenpark.de would make for a great half or even full day trip, especially for your kids. Also visit Bad Homburg castle where you can see the private rooms of the wife of the last German Emperor that look like she'd just stepped outside.

There's a roman border patrol castle only minutes from Bad Homburg (Saalburg) which also dates back to the 2nd century (however most of it is a replica now but at least you can see how the Romans lived)...

hetismij Nov 2nd, 2007 12:49 PM

Another vote from me for Haus Lipmann in Beilstein. We were there last weekend, just before they closed for the winter. A lovely friendly hotel. They speak excellent English and Beilstein is a lovely small village complete with castle ruins, and a very peaceful Jewish cemetary.
We wanted to visit Bernkastel-Kues but it was so packed with people that we gave it a miss, as we only had the weekend in the area. We missed out on Burg Eltz too as it started pouring with rain and we didn't fancy getting drenched during the 30 minute walk to the castle.

bettyk Nov 2nd, 2007 01:07 PM

We have stayed at Haus Lipmann in Beilstein also and it is a wonderful hotel with excellent service. But it is a tiny town. But we did love the ruins of Burg Metternich and also visited the lovely Carmelite Church.

Bernkastel-Kues can be crowded on Saturday, especially in the summer and during the fall festival season. But we were there on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the first two days weren't crowded at all.


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