Ambitious 2.5 Days in Western Germany

This is a rushed schedule. Please read up old posts about Rhine castles that might save time over the nice enough Burg Eltz. I can't see sleeping in the excellent Trier but only seeing one site in Cologne, a city good for three days or more. You don't have time for Koblenz, which is nice but missable.

Your boat ride (which is listed as in the slower, upstream direction) is fine, but it "wastes" the overhead (walking to the pier, ticketing , waiting, boarding) time on a very short ride. IMHO, the "full" ride, from Bingen to Boppard is superior to seeing a rich family's elephant-foot wastebaskets inside Burg Eltz.

It is true that most of Cologne is modern, but it is a mistake to view Bacharach as a quiet rural treasure of the 18th century. All I mean is that it doesn't have enough to do if you're sleeping there. Any answer to your question is necessarily an OPINION!

What month of the year?

"My biggest concern is that I am missing all the beautiful, quaint towns and grand castles in the Rhine and Mosel Valley. Is there one I shouldn't miss that I could probably fit in?"

It's not clear what time of year you are traveling. It's only clear that you do not have time for much. Getting to Burg Eltz and back will eat up a lot of time. Here's what I'd suggest.

Sunday: Trier is mostly about visiting Roman sites but you'll get there fairly late. Trier is not a small old quaint town and has no castles. But I suggest you head to Trier first, walk around Trier for maybe 3 hours, maybe see whatever it is that has caught your interest there, and then take the train to Cochem in the evening.

Monday: Get up early. Leave bags at your hotel front desk. Cochem has a very fine old town to see in the morning. Tour Reichsburg Castle. Then fetch your bags and take the 12:19 train to BINGEN (change in Koblenz, 1.5 hours altogether and a totally scenic train ride) and catch an afternoon boat (14:30) north to St. Goar (a ride of 1.5 hours.) If you do not start your cruise in Bingen, you will miss some very good scenery! Get off in St. Goar, drop your bags at the TI office or your hotel room, and tour Rheinfels Castle. Take the train to Bacharach (only 10 minutes) after that for the evening then return to St. Goar for the night.

Tuesday: As you planned it but leave from St. Goar.

These are very good suggestions, thank you. I am seriously considering.

And FYI, these 2.5 days will take place at the start of April.

Yes, that is the only reason! A friend has invited us for the afternoon. Otherwise we would have skipped Dortmund.

Hi,

You can go to Dortmund to try its famous varieties of Dortmunder Biere, if you are into beer at all. There are also historical reasons for going there, My first time to Dortmund was without the benefit of visiting friends nor did I find out of the historical reasons, that came 14 years later.

Does your friend live in the city of Dortmund or one of the surrounding suburbs, the outlying areas?

That's a good question. I'm not sure. She said she'd meet us at the train station.

Hi,

That's Dortmund Hbf. I'm sure that station has been refurbished since my last time there in 2007. Dortmund's Innenstadt (the city center) was literally plastered by the Allied strategic bombing offensive which resulted in 90% of it flattened. You cannot miss that (pretty ugly) reconstruction style of the early and mid-1960s seen in Dortmund, Duisburg, Hamm, Essen, Gelsenkirchen.