We will be arriving in Frankfurt on 3/11 noonish and leaving 3/15 early morning. Are very interested in seeing as much as possible in this short amount of time. We will probably go down to Munich and will probably stay in or near Munich. We are hoping to see some castles. ????Romantic Road or Rhineland. Is the Black Forest possible? Any and all ideas greatly appreciated.

Black Forest is certainly possible (and/or some of Alsace) - - but be aware, it could still be wintry there.<BR><BR>I don't know what the rest of the trip plan is, nor what factors led to this four day respite in Germany - - but this is one time I might recommend playing it by ear. Go where the weather suits you best!<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>[email protected]<BR>

inter germany flights are very cheap...why not fly to munich or some other german locale and rent a car and take it all in and then fly back to fra???

You really have VERY little time, I must say. <BR>You sure won´t be able to see all the things you mentioned. <BR>Are there places or things that are more important than others? <BR>Black Forest is beautiful naturewise and Freiburg (the largest town there) really worth a visit (my parents were born and raised there). <BR>If you do Munich you´ll probably only see Munich plus surroundings and perhaps Heidelberg in addition. You could well do Heidelberg on the 14th since it´s only a 45 minute drive from Frankfurt airport - and they have a nice castle. Actually, the town is as nice and romantic as the books say. I´was born and raised there and enjoy it thoroughly every time my husband and I come to visit. <BR>If you have further questions on the two towns I´ll try to answer them (before the first of March, cause then we´ll fly to the US for 3 weeks...).<BR>

Kascha912:<BR>Thanks for your response. I don't even know where to begin. My husband works in Africa and will only be on leave for 3 days. I am meeting him in Frankfurt (that's where his company flies him to). Neither of us have ever been to Germany and know nothing about it. We know it will be a whirlwind trip, but we want to see as much as humanly possible. We are very interested in seeing some of the castles, I've heard about the Romantic Road and Rhine Land.....we both want to ride the &quot;fast&quot; train. How far is it to Munich? What would be the best route to take to see the most? Thank you so much for your help.

I would recommend that you spend your 4 nights in the Rhineland, in Frankfurt's backyard. Koblenz would make a good base in the off-season for making daytrips on the fast train down the Rhine to Cologne (great cathedral, museums and town center, all adjacent to train station), up the Mosel to Trier (Oldest city in Germany, Roman ruins, UNESCO sites), and to the some smaller villages and castles along the Rhine and Mosel (slow trains for the small towns!): Bacharach, Oberwesel, St. Goar, Cochem, Traben-Trarbach. Marksburg Castle - never destroyed - is open for tours (in Braubach, just south of Koblenz: www.roadstoruins.com/Marksburg.html )<BR>Reichsburg Castle in Cochem, on the Mosel, opens sometime in early March: www.roadstoruins.com/Cochem.html <BR><BR>The scenery in this region along the rivers is super - even in March - and you won't have to travel around the entire country quite so frenetically to see some very neat stuff. <BR><BR><BR>

Hello Judynfloyd (might have gotten that wrong), <BR>I´m afraid I´m not an expert on the romantic road. <BR>But here´s some info. You asked about the train to Munich: From Frankfurt to MUC by ICE (fast train) it takes 3:35 hours (a bit slower ones up to 3:55). <BR>Ross´s comments on the Rhine and Mosel area sound good to me! Plus he seems to be the real expert. <BR>Cologne is where I currently live and yes, the Dom (church) and city directly at the Rhine are very interesting. <BR>From Cologne it takes as little as 1:12 to get to FRA or 1:3 to the FRA airport (also with the ICE). <BR>I´d still like to suggest that you visit Heidelberg... There´s this old song about having lost my heart in Heidelberg. And that may well happen!

You really have a lot of options. A pointed out, it doesn't take all that long to get to Munich by train or car so you could get a taste of southern Bavaria. Then, as Russ suggested, you don't even have to go that far if you don't want to as both the Rhein and Mosel river valleys are very nice.<BR><BR>You could also do a loop something like FRA to Wurzburg to Bamberg to Nurnberg to Rothenburg to FRA. Or set up shop in one of those towns and do a couple of day trips.<BR><BR>You would see castles with any of these options.

Thanks to all of you for your replys and help. One additional question though......does the ICE train take you down thru Triberg and over to Fussen then up the Romantic Road? Can I assume that the travel agent here in the states might have that information? We are considering the trip down thru the Black Forest over to the Neuschwanstein Castle then up the Romantic Road seeing the castles along there, a stop in Rothenburg, and back to Frankfurt. I KNOW that's a lot in a very short time....but we are use to extremely late hours and packing as much as possible in a short time. We want to see the coo coo clocks in Triberg. We would love to have more time, but my husband will be on a few days off from his job in Africa and his company is paying for me to meet him there. So the time was not our choice - but we are both really looking forward to the experience.<BR><BR>Thanks again - everyone!

If you'll be hitting Rothenburg on the RR, just stop in at the K&auml;the Wohlfahrt &quot;Rothenburger Uhrenhaus&quot; for a look at classic cuckoo clocks. With your time, it is not worth a detour to Triberg for this (or for anything else, really - it's a tour-bus choked disappointment.) In southern Germany, cuckoo clocks are virtually everywhere you'll find tourists. It's crazy enough just to be going from Frankfurt to F&uuml;ssen and back.