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Claudia, neither Rick Steves nor his staff read this helpline - at least if they do, they keep it very quiet. We are just a bunch of fellow travelers interested in travel, like you. I'd never heard of that zimmer so I googled it. There appear to be two, across the road from each other - sisters. I don't know which one is which. Ben's Bauerhaus is usually a reliable reference and what he had to say is at http://www.bensbauernhof.com/irmgardorthbacharach.html which includes a telephone number. I hope that helps, or perhaps if it is the wrong sister she might be able to find the number of the other one?

Thank you so much for replying. Yes, I have the info on them just do not speak German and tried to call her to see if I could sent Eurail tickets to her house for us to pick when we get there. They are across the street from each other...Think I may get tickets through travel agent in Nairobi. Nervous that not enough days for Fed Ex to express to us in 4/5 working days in Kenya and had rather have them in my hand if possible. It seems the 3 country passes are better deal than from country to country. Never done rail travel and only have couple of days in Germany, Switz and Austria, but just don't feel good about tickets arriving here on time. Do you have any thoughts on whether tickets purchased at window are a lot higher or at least not twice as much as they show them to be online. Not a problem if you don't have time to answer. Thanks, c

Nigel,
The Benbauernhof.com gave wonderful info...thank you so much.

It is unlikely that a railpass is what you really want. Rail passes today rarely save you money vs point-point tickets, particularly if you are willing to travel in 2nd class. For instance, a Saver (2 person) pass for 6 days, 3 countries costs over $900 or $75/day. In Germany, use regional (Länder) tickets for local travel and advance purchase, Savings (Sparpreis) tickets for longer trips. Use the national rail sites to find the cost of point-point tickets. They are Austria: www.oebb.at Switzerland: www.sbb.ch
Germany: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query2.exe/en

Lee,
Thanks for this info...not aware of those...will check them out. Do you ride the same train line/route...just pay point to point with another company besides going through Eurail?

They are all the same trains, just different ways to pay to ride them. You can purchase point-point tickets and Länder passes in the station at ticket automats or counters on the day of travel. You can also purchase them online, but there is little advantage to doing so. Savings Fare tickets require advance purchase (at least three days), so online might be the only practical way. Most online tickets are sent to you as a PDF file to print yourself. You must show the credit card you use to buy the tickets as ID when you use them. Savings Fare tickets must include at least one train of the Bahn (ICE/IC/EC). The ticket is only good for that (those) train(s), on that day at that time. If regional train are included on a Savings Fare ticket, any regional train on that route that day can be used.

Okay...have been looking..quite interesting. So really not a savings to do railpasses per se. We basically are traveling from point to point and will then see things for couple of days...we fly into Frankfurt, and go to (Bacharach),then to Lucern and on to Szlaburg and eventually get to Athens. So not so much of hopping off and on though that might be advantageous as we travel back to Interlaken, etc. But just not there long enough to do a lot of that. Also, they speak about lines. Are the lines that long this time of year?

Lee, Night time in Nairobi so will close for night soon...but thank you for info. Have done some checking and will do more tomorrow and feel point to point will be best. Internet is slow where I live...one question I have is- Can you go to/from 3 countries with either of the websites you gave...or will I need to use the website individually for that country? I have so little knowledge about all this..and not able to pull up websites quickly....and I am sure this all feels so elementary to you. Thanks again, ch