Marksburg
 

We have an 8 hour layover in Frankfurt. Time to make it to Marksburg Castle and see it? If so, how should we do it. We land around 9am from the United States, so we'll have to clear customs.

It's two hours to Braubach and two back by train with one change of train in each direction. If your flight is on time you can probably do Braubach by train - FRA airport has two stations - though with the 1 hour tour and the shuttle to the castle on top of the train ride, you're eating up a lot of time. I'd suggest looking into alternatives. Mainz (25 min) and Gelnhausen (1 hr.) are options.

Gelnhausen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtCzNK12U3U

Find all train schedules here:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Rent a car with navi and it can probably be done, but I do not think I would try it.

Tons of things to do much closer. None of them is a castle like Marksburg but will leave you less harried and hurried.

I'm assuming your 8 hours are during the day.

You could spend the whole time in Frankfurt. There's marvelous 3-4 hour walking tour in English that starts every day at 10:30; you could train into the Romer area, if you could do this by that time, meet the tour guide and learn much about the city.

Mainz is marvelous--cathedral and Gutenburg Museum.

Weisbaden is wonderful and also close via train and lovely.

I think getting to the Marksburg on such a short layover is very risky. If you had 10-12 hours, then perhaps, but not with just 8 hours.

Visit one of the other near-by cities instead, Frankfurt, Mainz or Wiesbaden. If you want to see a little castle, either Frankfurt Hoechst or Kronberg would be closer.

Thanks so much. I'll take a look and touch base.

If you go to Marksburg, you should look at the available tour times. When I was there, the next tour wasn't for another hour.

We are really wanting to see a castle. Kronberg is now a hotel??

No, Kronberg castle is not a hotel. You may be looking at the hotel that was a palace built by the daughter of Queen Victoria, as she was married to one Kaiser and the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm 2. He has a beautiful palace in Bad Homburg that is also worth a visit

The castle in Kronberg is a Staufen castle and very old, plus it has never been bombed or rebuilt. View is also lovely from here as it is located in the Taunus mountains. If you go here, see if you can also get into the Johannes church, which is a couple min. walk from the castle. Beautiful, wooden & painted barrel vaulted ceiling.

http://www.burgkronberg.de/

Check train times using www.rmv.de
It should take you about 45-50 min. to get there, as well as coming back. If it is a Sunday, allow more time as there aren't as many trains going there. The castle is about a 20 min. walk from the train station.