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places to see and where to stay

We are planning an eight day trip arriving in Stuttgart, Germany and our thoughts are to travel the Romatic Road, Rhine/Mosel area and our final destination is Gimmelwald in Switzerland. We are going May 23rd thru June 2nd. We are interested in Castles, a river cruise and going atop the Alps. We realize we have a short time there, and would like to know the absolute must sees. Does anybody know what the weather will be like? And any recommendations for hotels moderately priced. We would like to stay in a castle 2 of the nights.

Three rich resources for you to browse through: http://www.germany-castles-hotels.com/ http://www.european-castle.com/ and http://www.castles.org/hotels/ Pick one or a few - - and use the search function here - - or come back and ask for more specific info. Hop this helps some. Best wishes, Rex

hi there, first let me agree that 8 days are not much to do all the things YOu have written. I recommand to do only one direction from Stuttgart (north or south). In Stuttgart You will find 3 castles, "Altes SChloss" which is now a museum and "Neues Schloss" which cant be visited inside are easy to walk from the main station. Tho nicest one "Solitude" is a little outside (about 20 min to drive by car or bus). Nice place to stay and a very good restaurant. If Your time is too short for the Mosel You can do a river cruise on the Neckar, starting from Stuttgart going to Marbach (birthplace of Friedrich SChiller). From Stuttgart to the Alpes You need about 2 hours by car. Passing such interesting citys like Ulm (highest church tower, nice old houses), Kaufbeuren, Memmingen, Fuessen ...Perhaps going fron there to Munich, and then north the Romantic Road to Nuremberg, Rottenburg, Wuerzburg back to Stuttgart (if You have to leave from there). This would be a nice loop and could be done in one week. For more drope me a line in my mailbox. have fun Gar More about Stuttgart You will find here, also hotels etc. http://www.stuttgart-tourist.de/english/index.html

Castle tours: Burg Eltz near the Mosel at Moselkern (a true must-see); Reichsburg Castle in the town of Cochem on the Mosel; Marksburg Castle in Braubach on the Rhine. Some castle hotels to check into along the Rhine: Burg Liebenstein (Kaub), Burg Reichenstein (Trechtingshausen), Auf Schoenburg (Oberwesel, the one receiving highest acclaim on this board) and Schlosshotel Rheinfels (St. Goar.) Mosel: Burg Arras, a small, remote place near Alf. Cochem is my favorite town on the Mosel for a stay - great ambience and scenery, good train/bus/boat connections, large enough to have some good diversions, small enough to get around on foot and plenty of pedestrians-only streets. There are hundreds of other small, sleepy, beautiful towns on the Mosel as well. You should be aware that the weekend of 5/24-27 will be heavily booked all along the Mosel. Sunday the 26th is "Happy Mosel" - which is short for the biggest party that happens in this area. Over 100,000 people converge on the Mosel to ride bikes, rollerblade, etc. along the closed river road between Cochem and Schweich (near Trier) on that day. You can forget about a car. There are extra trains that serve all the towns so that people can get around very easily. This may sound like mayhem, but I assure you it is completely delightful - a mostly family affair with kids of all ages enjoying the spring fresh air. If you can be there then, you should, but get yourself booked soon. And ask about reserving a bike, too. Gar is right - your plate is too full. I might spend 3-4 days on the Rhine and Mosel, then hit the northern end of the Romantic Road - Würzburg, Weikersheim, maybe Nürnberg; and I'm sure Rothenburg is on your list. That should just about exhaust 7-8 days. The "Road" itself is unspectacular in spite of the nice sound it has. The Ludwig castles way to the south are spectacular but historically rather meaningless, overhyped and overvisited, IMO, and the tours very brief. Not worth the long journey this time, but might be good to incorporate into your next trip with a closer look at Switzerland.

Hi, I would also suggest Schwabisch Hall as a wonderful quaint well preserved town. Make sure you go inside St. Michaels Church! Also Dinkelsbuhl was a charming little town. Enjoy! We will be over there in August and are also heading to the Prague, Cesky Krumlov and Danube River area (Krems and Melk) in Austria and are having trouble narrowing down our trip!

My husband and I stayed at Auf Shoenburg and were thrilled with the accomodations. Very friendy staff, great restaurant, beautiful rooms and in my opinion a great value. We spent a little extra for a "tower room" and were glad we did. we had a tiny balcony with a great view of the Rhine. We spent 3 days exploring the area. Highlights for us were: the castle ruins in St. Goar and taking the chair lift up to the top of the river banks in Rudeshiem (sp?). There is a great little restaurant up at the top that serves true regional cusine. I'd be happy to give you more specifics. Feel free to E-mail Devona