My wife and I got an airfare deal round trip to Brussels in March. I have been posting and getting advice and this is my current plan. We have rented cars before in Europe and enjoy having the freedom of driving and stopping when we want to. We have been to Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne so this time we thought we would avoid large cities.
My main objective on this trip was to visit the D-Day sites. My wife then added Mont Saint-Michel. I found Tennessus Castle near Amaillou on the message boards and we are both excited to stay there for the castle experience.
Then my wife said she wants to go and see parts of Germany we didn’t see last time we were there.
So here is my plan.
It does have what some would say is a lot of driving, but we enjoy driving and stopping at places that catch our eye along the way.

March 11-Arrive Brussels 8:35am. Get rental car and drive to Ghent (41 miles)
Spend day and night in Ghent
Visit Gravensteen Castle- Cathedral of St. Bavo-Belfry of Ghent- Saint Nicholas Church
Go to dreupelkot and Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant for beer

March 12 and 13-Drive to La Ferme Du Pressoir Guest House outside of Bayeux (300 miles)
Stay 2 nights
March 13 Drive to Bayeux-tour town have lunch at Au Ptit Bistrot-half day Overlord Tour of D-Day sites

March 14 and 15 Drive and stay in Mont Saint-Michel (73 miles)
Stay 2 nights at i Hôtel Gabriel in Mont Saint-Michel
Tour Mont Saint-Michel-1 day take a day trip to Dinan and St. Malo

March 16 and 17 Drive to Tennessus Castle near Amaillou (191 miles)
Stay 2 nights at Tennessus Castle
Basically eat there for the days-maybe drive around area.

March 18 Drive to Troyes. Choose Troyes because its about half way (275 miles)
Stopping at Chateau De Chanbord
Stay 1 night at Best Western Hotel de la Poste & Spa

March 19-21 Drvie to Boppard (299 miles)
Stopping in Trier on the way.
We plan on taking a Rhine cruise if one of them is running on the dates we will be there.
Marksburg Castle
Stay 3 nights at Hotel Garni Günther

March 22 Drive to Leuven. We are using Leuven to stay the night before our flight. (176 miles)
This was recommended on the messages boards I read.
See The longest bar in the World in Old Market Square
Stay 1 night at the pentahotel. It seems its an adventure to get to the parking garage.

March 23 Drive to Brussels Airport for 9:20am flight (16 miles)

K-D boats have some service all year but in off-season may depend on demand. Anyway check www.k-d.com for schedules.

Rhine to Leuven - great route goes via Mosel Valley - much prettier than Rhine to many though Rhine Gorge IMO may be more interesting - to Treir great short stop in one of Europe's most historic cities - Luxembourg and Leuven.

If take autoroutes you miss the Mosel completely but if doing Rhine to Leuven in one day you'd have to go largely by autoroutes but get off at Cochem exit and drive thru this town with fairy-tale Ersatz medieval castle and follow sinous roads along sinuous Mosel - laced with tall slopes on either side - many covered with vineyards to Bernkastel - then after going over one of the most scenic drives in Europe head back to autoroute.

If you could wrangle extra day it would be nice to do the Mosel the whole wat to Trier and stay in one of those fairy-tale towns.

I would myself also prefer driving along the Mosel than staying 3 days on the Rhine - maybe split time.

Burg Eltz, one of Germany's most faous castles also is just off the Mosel route,

Anyway whole route looks really sweet. For lots on Mosel Valley check www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts - German section of their online European Planning & Rail Guide.

Troyes is a nice old city but I even liked nearby Provins much more - an Italian hill town on the doorstep of Paris:

https://www.google.com/search?q=prov...w=1503&bih=738

And I see you are stopping for a look at Trier going to Germany - sweet but still I suggest taking Mosel route back a bit as you would not have time to do it that day. But stayaing on the Mosel a day or two would be nice - like in Cochem, much more pretty than any Rhine town IMO:

https://www.google.com/search?q=imag...h=738&dpr=1.25

Next day follow Mosel to Burg Eltz and Koblenz and Rhine. Just suggestions.

In Boppard, make sure your hotel room is not near the loud mainline train line that slices thru then heart of town nor the equally busy motorway. NYTimes article recently pointed this out to ask about when asking for rooms. Since this is a dead off-season for Rhine I assume you'll have pick of rooms.

Thank you for your replies. We have been to Burg Eltz (we loved it) and stayed on the Mosel before.
We had taken a driving trip from Cologne to Munich, then to Lucerne Switzerland.
In Boppard all the reviews of where we are staying they said the noise was not bad.
Good part of going off-season is you get your pick of rooms, bad part some things are not open.
I have emailed the Loreley-Linie Weinand GmbH cruise line and they said they will be running.

In spring especially if high waters boats may not run nor dock at certain stops due to it.

In Ghent, if it of interests to you, visit the Design Museum, about a minute walk from the castle.

https://www.designmuseumgent.be/en/