Hello, I am traveling with a group next June (2020) to Kenya and we have a 24 hour layover in Germany. We are staying at a hotel at the airport and arrive very early in the morning {0600) on a Monday. We have been planning to spend the day in Mainz. However, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about how we could take a short river cruise (say 2 hours) either starting in Mainz or ending in Mainz that still lets us see the city of Mainz for about half the day or at least long enough to see a few of the cathedrals? We will need to be able to get back to our hotel that night via train. This is our first trip to Germany and would like to make the most of it. Thanks

Hello,

This could be easily done.

Regular boats of the KD shipping company steam down the Rhine in about 2 hours from Rüdesheim to Sankt Goarshausen, this is arguably the most scenic bit of the river. A few boats start from Mainz, but most start from Rüdesheim. You won't loose much by skipping the Mainz-Rüdesheim bit. Starting in Bingen(on the west bank of the river across from Rüdesheim) is also a good option(Bingen has direct trains from Frankfurt airport).

You don't need to book tickets for the ships in advance. Here is the schedule for last summer(the schedule for 2020 is not published yet):

KD_Fahrplan_intern_2019_web.pdf

In Sankt Goarshausen you could do a short walk to the point with the iconic view of 3 castles.

https://www.rhein-reisefuehrer.de/in...st-goarshausen

After that take the ferry across the river to St Goar and take a train back to Mainz.

You can see train schedules in Germany(and most of Europe) on the German Railways(DB) website: www.bahn.com

Thank you so very much. The information was extremely helpful. I just didn't know where to start or how to look. I think we will start in Sankt Goarshausen and end in Assmannshausen. It looks like it would be about 2.5 hours and still let us take the train back to Mainz and arrive in plenty of time to sight see there as well.
Again, Thank you.

That's not what BDKR suggested. You are going against the stream and wasting time.