A week before the21 day in Europe trip

I'd take a couple days of that and rent a car and drive all the small back roads along the Rhine to Basel. It's not a really long drive, you can do it by autobahn in a few hours, but where's the fun in that. France on one side, Germany on the other, and all those little towns tourists overlook; that's my idea of fun.

I'll also recommend taking the train about an hour north to Worms and walking around the city. You can see some of the old city walls, the Cathedral where Martin Luther started the Reformation, and the fantastic bridge tower.

There's a world class astronomy center in Heidelberg if that interests you.

Be advised you'll be in a city and area where American troops (over 250,000) were (and are) stationed since WWII. Everybody speaks English. Even with the drawdown there's a large presence in that corner of Germany.

You could go South to the Black Forest (Baden Baden, Friberg and Triberg) or to visit Strasbourg, France.

Since your destination is Amsterdam, it might be best to head north. You could rent a car and visit Luxembourg as well as Trier, Germany. The Rhine River has great places like Rüdesheim where you can take a short river cruise that passes the Lorelei rock formation. Also, a day and overnight in Cologne is nice to visit the famous cathedral.
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/the-11-most-scenic-spots-on-a-rhine-river-cruise/

Closer to Holland, you can stop at the ancient capitol o f Charlemagne the Great at Aachen.

Interested in WWII history, stop and see the Bridge too far where the battle of Arnheim (Netherlands) was fought. There is a nice museum there.

Do plan to get to Haarlem at least the day before. The tour doesn’t spend much time here and it’s interesting. Will you have been to Amsterdam as well? The one day in Amsterdam is very short so I’d add an extra night in Haarlem to do an extra day in Amsterdam.

I did enjoy Trier which Geovagriffith mentioned. The GAS tour starts there and I did not get everything seen even with 2 extra nights before the tour.

I hope you can build in a few extra days in Paris at the end!!

BTW, this was one of my very favorite tours. You didn’t ask, but do make sure you start a walking program well ahead and include stairs. You’ll have more fun. If any tour requires well broken in walking shoes, it’s this one!!

"Would like suggestions of some other places that we should try to see after a couple of days in Heidelberg. Thoughts on Baden Baden or maybe the Mosel River area near Cochem or any other suggestions?"

Hi again. Hope you have a great tour.

I tend to be lukewarm to chilly about Baden-Baden as it's so spa/casino/shopping oriented. Also, the station's far from the town center, making B-B a poor base for outings by train.

The Mosel OTOH is a delightful area that's easy to navigate and a great choice for a few days. With Cochem as a base town you would enjoy some interesting things to do there (Bundesbank Bunker? Reichsburg Castle?? in-town wineries?) And you would be poised for a variety of side trips too... an easy round-trip cruise to tiny Beilstein, an outing by train to Traben-Trarbach or the old Roman city of Trier, maybe a hike or a bike ride along the river.

The Rhine is on the way to the Mosel. Your RS tour will include a brief (too brief IMHO!) cruise between St.Goar and Bacharach and time in those towns, but that's about all you'll get on the Rhine. So I'm thinking that on the way to the Mosel you might be smart to pay a visit to only intact medieval castle in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley and the small but very attractive old-world town which the castle calls home - those being MARKSBURG and Braubach. Note: St. Goar's Castle (Rheinfels, on your tour) is worthwhile, but it's a set of ruins - so a visit there is nothing at all like walking through a castle that has stood for 8 centuries.

Getting to Braubach: when you leave Heidelberg for the Mosel, take the train to KOBLENZ ( <2 hours on the faster long-distance trains; 10:23 - 12:11, sample schedule) and drop your bags in a Koblenz station locker. Then take a 10-minute local train to Braubach. There are some good places there to have lunch before you visit the castle. Then it's a 10-minute ride back to Koblenz for your bags and a 45-minute ride to Cochem after that.

Maybe to Weinfranken. June is spagel season.

I'd do the Mosel near Cochem, or the Rhine near Bacharach. Lots of castles, the rivers, vineyards and small towns to explore.

Thanks for the suggestions and information. It’s always so helpful to hear others experiences. We do plan to spend a couple extra days in Amsterdam be fore our tour to get in a few more things the tour misses as well as a couple extra days in Paris at the end. I’m thinking visiting areas in the Mosel might be the way to go. We were scheduled for this tour last year and were disappointed when we couldn’t go. We had planned time in Heidelberg and an intermediate stop in Cologne on our way to Amsterdam. After our tour was cancelled we began lots of looking at other possibilities ( which unfortunately couldn’t happen either). Now are looking at a few days extra and trying to decide what might be best to do. Thanks again. Any other information is certainly appreciated.

"...were disappointed when we couldn’t go. We had planned time in Heidelberg and an intermediate stop in Cologne on our way to Amsterdam."

A Cologne stopover of several hours between Cochem and Amsterdam would be both feasible and rewarding next spring. Cologne's massive Cathedral is just steps from the station. The old town zone is just a little further. So is the Nazi Doc Center. The station itself has a baggage storage facility and a large collection of restaurants.

I would recommend either the Mosel area around Cochem/Beilstein or the Rhine Valley, Bacharach or another small village.