Hello,
My husband and I will be arriving to the Cologne airport from Split. Can take the train to St. Goar where we will stay for 3 nights?

We plan to train over to Bacharach one day to site see. We also want to see the castle ruins in St Goar.

We would like to take a short boat trip down the Rhine. It would be fun to visit a winery in the area but I am not sure how to fit it into our itinerary.

Any suggestions? Thanks! Laurie

If you are asking about rail service to specific towns and cities, then Die Bahn is my favorite train site on the internet. Google 'Die Bahn' and look for a site in the UK (english language).

It sounds most of your decisions have been made. I have been to St Goar and took a short ride on a passenger boat, very nice.

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

If you have time, the chair lift at Boppard (2 stops north of St Goar) was great! Beautiful cliff view of the Rhine's hairpin turn, and nice lunch at the outdoor terrace cafe. These are not my photos but a quick way to show you what I mean:
<u>http://www.chairlift.org/boppard.html</u>

We stayed at Hotel am Markt in St Goar, which has a decent German restaurant. Also ate at an inexpensive Italian restaurant called Alla Fontana.
<u>http://www.hotel-am-markt-sankt-goar.de/</u>

Print this 'tour' of the Rheinfels ruins - it is far better to use in your walk thru the castle ruins than the handout given by the cashier.
<u>http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/germany/rheinfels.htm</u>
We didn't find or see the little train that is supposed to take you up the hill to the ruins, so we walked up. A bit steep but not uncomfortably so.

The train goes from Cologne thru Koblenz to St Goar, you may have to change trains.. we got off at Koblenz anyway to go into the 'old town' to walk around and have some lunch before continuing on to St Goar.

<u>http://www.koblenz.de/touristik_kultur/koblenz_allgemeine_infos_e.html</u>
<u>http://www.burg-rheinfels.com/</u>
<u>http://www.boppard.de/2001/html/home_english3.htm</u>

Thank you all for your help! Travelnut, we are staying in one of Walter Huppertz's apartments in St. Goar.

Thank you for the links. I did print the Rheinfel tour from Rick Steves website.

If I am reading the Die Bahn website correctly, it looks like we can take a train to and from the Cologne airport to St. Goar.

Thanks for the information! Laurie