Rhine Ferry or Mosel Ferry?
 

Hi everyone! I will be spending 2 nights in St. Goar in September, and want to take a trip to Moselkern to see Burg Eltz. (I don't have a car.) I also want to experience the ferry somewhere in this region. Would it be practical to take a ferry part of the way to Moselkern? If so, which section? Is it possible time-wise to do Burg Eltz one day and Burg Rheinfels another? Thanks for any help, recommendations, or past trip postings you can provide.

Sandy,

I am trying to finalize a Germany in mid-September also. Any chance you can give me an email and let me know what your itinerary is?

Dave
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The pretty part of the Rhein is south of Koblenz, about 35-40 miles in length.

The pretty part of the Mosel is west (upriver) from Cochem.

One option is, that you stay in one of the smaller towns along the Rhein, take a boat south (downriver) from there. Return by train to where you are staying.

The next day you take a train to Koblenz, and on to Cochem and catch a boat upriver from there. (Train schedules: http://bahn.de) Again, you have the option of taking a train back to Koblenz and where you are straying, although not all towns along the Mosel have train service. The ones along the Rhein do, although some of the trains might be locals (Regio trains.)

In other words, you can do both rivers in 2 days. I don't have a website for the boats, but I'm sure someone on this Fodor's can give you that.

As for which river is the 'best', this would be in the mind of the beholder. The 'Mother' Mosel, so-called in Germany because of its much less powerful flow than the Rhine - a lazy flow slowed down by numerous serpentine bends, at many places carpeted by vineyards the climb the several-hundred feet high gorge sides along both its banks - a nutural beauty the 'best' of the Rhine (Boppard-Rudesheim/Bingen) can't touch. But some will like better perhaps the 'Father Rhine' so-called in Germany because it's a much more major river with an oft-torrent like flow (boats can be disrupted by either high or low water). The Rhine trip is intriguing also because of the incessant commercial boat traffic that plies it from the North Sea up to Basel, Switzerland; ocean-going ships and a parade of barges, carrying coal, oil and commodities in and out. The Mosel sees a few big barges, possible since it was damned up at several places in the 60s i think but not nearly the variety and torrent of commercial boats on the Rhine. This is interesting to folks like me but could be a detriment to others. Though both are working rivers, the Rhine is especially so.
Take a train to Moselkern (or the once daily boat from Koblenz (May-Oct) that leaves Koblenz around 9am - like Treplow says in his superb advice, this part of the river doesn't hold a candle to that upstream from Cochem but will get you to Moselkern in a relaxed way. But from the train (or boat station) in Moselkern follow the footpath signs that lead about two miles up a gentle enough but always ascending path to one of Europe's most stupendously situated castles - magically protruding out of a lush forest. The old German 500 mark banknote had Burg Eltz pictured on its back - this is how famous in Germany this castle is. Anyway you can't go wrong on either river and do both! Cochem is a dream-like town with its own dream-like castle topping a vineyard-clad hill. The boats from here to Bernkastel/Bielstein ply the best of the Mosel gorge - dotted by colorful little wine towns interupting the endless sea of vineyard. Cochem has some wineries you can tour and then sample and buy the prestigious sweetish Mosel white wines. try the rare Ice Wines, only made in years that the grapes freeze on the vines before harvest - super sweet and heavy due to the high sugar content.

There is a ferry across the river at St. Goar (www.rheinschiffahrt-goar.de). The main operator of excursions along the Rhine is Köln-Düsseldorfer (www.k-d.com) who also have a service on the Mosel from Koblenz to Cochem via Moselkern. There are several other firms running excursions on both the Rhine and Mosel.

You'd do best to take the train to Moselkern and walk up from there - the boats along this part of the Mosel (between Koblenz and Cochem) are infrequent, and it's a pretty long distance. On the Rhine south of Koblenz, you'll find them more plentiful and more accommodating to your schedule; that's because there are a lot more castles and towns of interest there.

The word "ferry" actually refers to the river transport that shuttles people across the river in a few minutes. There is a ferry between St. Goar and the town across the Rhine, St. Goarshausen.

If you have a chance, you might use this ferry to get to the train station on the east bank of the Rhine and ride up to Braubach, where you can tour Marksburg Castle - the only one on the Rhine that remains intact after all these centuries. I found it more interesting than the Rheinfels ruins.

Just curious Sandy - Are you interested in a "ferry" or a "day cruise"? Ferries are rather small flat boats that take 2-10 cars from one side of the river to the other in lieu of using the few bridges in the area.

If you wish to see the sites, then a day cruise along the Rhine is the way to go. In the area south of Koblenz the KD Rhine line runs boats from most of the towns along the river. You can hop on and off to tour the quaint towns while on board a taped narration explains the sites.

Check out this link for answers to your questions:


http://www.rhine.vacation-package.ne...ers/index.html

We just did a very similar trip this past May. My suggestion would be to take a boat (www.k-d.de) from St. Goar to Koblenz. Then catch the train there to Moselkern. One word of advice about riding the train to and from Moselkern- get all of the timetables and information that you need in Koblenz because Moselkern is a VERY small station with no one working there! But it's a really cute town and a wonderful hike up to Burg Eltz!
We didn't go to Burg Rheinfels so I have no idea how long it takes, but we did Burg Eltz in about half a day. We got to Moselkern very early though.
Another idea is to just take the boat from St. Goar to Bacharach (again the k-d line is great) for a little side trip. It's an hour each way and there are lots of neat sights along the way. Bacharach is another cute little town with lots of character. Have fun!