First time Rhine/Mosel area or repeat Brugge?

I would never repeat Brugge, but that's a personal decision. If you like old towns, the only argument against Rhine/Mosel is that Colmar/Strasbourg will include nice medieval streets already. Further downriver, I particularly like the big city of Cologne. I question Lyon for five nights unless you have a restaurant budget. If you're self-catering, why five nights?

Is this all by train - it seems like a lot of travel time. Wouldn't it make more sense to do Brittany and Loire instead of all over the map? Have you been to Mont St. Michel - anybody who likes Brugge would want to go there, and no doubt sleep on the island(!)

In September, check for vast numbers of wine festivals in Rhine/Mosel area, if that interests you. Have you considered the Black Forest? I would fly out of BRU if ending at Brugge. Have you considered other Belgian cities? Antwerp is not as pretty as Brugge, but it has roughly 100 times as many things to do, and plenty of old architecture. Have you been to Gent, Leuven, or Mechelen?

September is a great time for the Rhine/Mosel. And you'd have far less ground travel time if you go there. You should be able to stay in one of the Rhine towns and still make your flight the next morning - no need to overnight at an airport or switch locations since FRA is so close and well served by train.

There are wine fests on weekends in September - lots of fun - but these small towns do get booked up, so be sure to book in advance.

Is there a particular reason for 5 nights in Lyon? If you really wanted to do both Bruges and Rhine/Mosel you could take 1 night from Annecy and 2 nights from Lyon and spend those 3 nights in Bruges. If you can only do one I personally would opt for the Rhine/Mosel over a 2nd visit to Bruges especially in September. I've been to the Rhine but not the Mosel and would love to do that in harvest season, but that's a purely personal opinion.

Tim - We have been to Gent. After giving it more thought, repeating Bruges doesn't really fit into this trip.

Not sure why I put 5 nights for Lyon?? We've never been there and just aren't sure about what day trips we might want to do from there. Three nights is probably enough.

We will have 3-4 weeks to travel, so trying to decide how long to stay in each place, but not do too much packing/unpacking.

Will read some more about Germany, including the Rhine/Mosel area. We haven't been to the Black Forest area, so will look at that. Cologne sounds good too. Like the idea of staying in a village near Frankfurt so we can get to the airport the same day that our flight leaves.

A village on the Rhine can be good for the last night, or a larger city like Mainz. We have gone to FRA from Bacharach twice and will do so again next fall.

I too would recommend the Rhine/Mosel area. The little towns are lovely, and the Rhine cruise is great (we did Bingen to Boppard).

Best of all, often the wine festivals are accompanied by fireworks (the famous Rhine in Flames in St. Goar is Sept. 17, 2016, and there will be fireworks and a festival in Boppard on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1). If you can work one of these into your schedule, you will enjoy one of the most memorable evenings of your trip!

I love Brugge, too, but if you've never been on the Mosel, that would be my choice. The Mosel is dotted with many charming villiages. If it saves you any time I would cut out Rhine and opt for the Mosel.

I loved Koln (Cologne), great city with easy day trips by train or bus.