2 days on the Rhine

Rick describes the two best Rhine Castles to visit: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/three-rhineland-castles

For Marksburg, use the ferry crossing in St. Goar and take the train north 20 minutes to Braubach.

For nice views: train to Boppard (north of St. Goar) and catch the chairlift ride (Sessellift) - then walk to Gedeonseck and the Vierseenblick lookout. Use the green footpaths on this map for a longer walk. Boppard is a nice town to visit as well... Nice Weingarten near the station.

I would visit Marksburg and Rheinfels Castles,both are great examples of hill top fortresses.Burg Eltz was really interesting.
Mike

I would second Rheinfels and the Marksburg. Burg Eltz is interesting, but in my opinion, not worth the extra trouble to get to it.

If you do want to go to Burg Eltz, be in Bacharach on a weekend day. Take an early train via Koblenz to Hatzenport Bahnhof on the Mosel. There are buses from Hatzenport to Burg Eltz at 9:21 and 11:21.

On any day, weekend or weekday, you can walk from Moselkern Bahnhof to Burg Eltz.

Both the Marksburg and Burg Eltz are original castle that were never destroyed. The Marksburg has be preserved by the German Castle Assoc. as it was lived in hundreds of years ago; Burg Eltz is currently lived in.

Thanks so much for the information.

Don't forget the Schloss Stahleck right there in Bacharach. It is a VERY steep hike up the hill to the castle, but the views are spectacular. We did it last summer. The castle is a youth hostel. In the summer, on the balcony, it has a small outdoor store for drinks and snacks. Tour the castle as you are permitted--no doubt it will be occupied by lodgers and busy. We got a map of the old city wall walking tour from the tourist office in town with directions on how to navigate it. That walk takes you from downtown, up the hill and back down again. Wear good walking shoes. It is self-guided. We ate at the Alte Posthof (old post office) Bacharach restaurant, which had a covered outside dining area. Ordering hints--in Germany, be sure to order drinks and food at the same time. In the States, servers bring drinks, then take your order later. I had forgotten this tidbit. The servers got annoyed with us, but we learned. There is a nice park area across the road from downtown, where we went wading in the Rhein. Soooo cool in a hot summer day. Also, there are miles and miles of bike paths all up and down the Rhein. The Bacharach train station is only a 10-15 minute walk from anywhere in the downtown. The trains run through the Rhein River valley almost all hours of the day and night.

We used Rick's Guide Books (& Fodors). He suggested Oberwesel as a stop. Bad choice. We were there on a Sunday. Hardly anything was open (maybe 3 restaurants, that was it). Bacharach had PLENTY of places open on Sunday. Plus, after you've seen the World's Largest Wine Glass, what else is there to see? (Not kidding). We just weren't impressed with Oberwesel at all.

The castles are fun to see, but if you can, take advantage of a Rhein cruise boats (KD Rein for example: http://www.kdrhine.com/) between cities (schedules are online). The views are spectacular. Also, views from a train aren't bad either, and as long as someone else is driving, I'm content.

"..after you've seen the World's Largest Wine Glass, what else is there to see? (Not kidding). We just weren't impressed with Oberwesel at all."

Hm. I like Oberwesel very much for a few hours. It sounds like you missed a few things.

The Liebfrauenkirche: http://www.oberwesel.de/en/sehenwuerdigkeiten/church-of-our-lady-liebfrauenkirche/

The old town wall walk: http://www.oberwesel.de/en/wandern0/stadtmauerrundweg/

View from the Günderodehaus, a small establishment with an amazing view of the river up in the vineyards just outside town; the building (now a restaurant) was a film set for what was possibly Germany's most TV series, "Heimat", or Homeland:

http://www.christiane-geldmacher.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/rhein2014-003.jpg

Russ--perhaps we need to give Oberwesel another chance. FWIW, we were very warm that day as it was near 90 degrees and we needed shade. The train gave us some AC and we cooled off in due time on our ride back to Heidelberg.

"...we were very warm that day as it was near 90 degrees..." And humid too I bet. Been there on such days - ouch.

Besides O'wesel, 3 places that were unmentioned in your post - St. Goar, Boppard and Braubach - could add weight to the case for a return trip:

St. Goar, Rheinfels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=qxFF80wORNQ#t=32

Boppard:
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/08/3a/f2/7f/sesselbahn-in-boppard.jpg
https://www.boppard-tourismus.de/index.php?article_id=45&clang=1
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Cc_Freya_Boppard_Vert.jpg
http://schnuggel-elsje.de/upload/Bilder/IMG_0131.JPG

Braubach:
https://www.romantischer-rhein.de/uploads/pics/Altstadt_02.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4143/4751924826_36d7071291_b.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Marksburg_Braubach_2012.jpg