Hello! Wife and I booked 8 day Bike and Barge trip from Cologne to Mainz June 14-21st, 2025. We like history and food. We are thinking of flying into Amsterdam and doing museums for 3 days, taking a train to Cologne and seeing the Cathedral and Chocolate factory, doing the Bike/Barge Trip and explore the Romantic Rhine to Mainz. Then taking a few days to see the sights around Mainz and fly out of Frankfurt or take a train back to Amsterdam (to save several hundred dollars in airfare). We have 4 nights before and 4 nights or so after the Bike/Barge trip to explore. Am I on the right track? Open to all ideas and advice! We are active 50ish couple. I have not booked flights or rooms yet other than the 8 day cruise.
Posted by
Paradise
7177 posts
I wish I liked today's Amsterdam now as much as I liked the Amsterdam of my twenties.
As an active couple with museums, history, and food on your plates (pun intended) I think I would look at using FRA airport only and spreading the 8 free days you have closer to Frankfurt airport and Mainz/Cologne.... Some ideas for the first two below...
- Trier, Germany's oldest city (Roman settlement)
- Trier Museums
- Old-world Mosel River towns and villages between Trier and Koblenz
- WW II bunkers/museums near the Siegried Line (near Trier: B-Werk Besseringen and Panzerwerk Katzenkopf in Irrel)
- Nazi Documentation Center/Museum in Cologne
- Remagen Bridge history museum (The Bridge at Remagen was filmed here.)
- Arp Museum in Remagen (art, in Rolandseck train station)
- Ehrenbreitstein fortress in Koblenz
- Marksburg Castle (medieval, never destroyed) in Braubach
- Burg Eltz Castle near Mosellkern (Rick Steves' favorite castle in Europe)
- Open-air culture museum in Bad Sobernheim (see how locals really lived.)
- Mainz museums
The Rhine is especially attractive for hiking options with its two premier hiking trails... The Rheinsteig and the Rheinburgenweg (Rhine Castle Trail):
https://www.rheinsteig.de/en/rheinsteig/stages/upper-middle-rhine-valley-stages
https://www.wandern-ohne-auto.de/Rheinburgen/Karte_Rheinburgenweg2.jpg
Speyer, to the south of your Rhine tour, might also interest you... great museums, Jewish history, and one of Germany's finest Romanesque cathedrals:
https://www.speyer.de/en/tourism/experience-speyer/museums/
https://www.speyer.de/en/tourism/experience-speyer/tourist-attractions/
It's a much quicker trip between Frankfurt Airport and Cologne. The rail journey from Amsterdam has been plagued by lots of delays. We had a horrible time getting from A'dam to Mainz ourselves just a few months ago. Hope that changes.
Posted by
OP
Minneapolis
2 posts
Thank you Russ! I appreciate your specific details and ideas and am following up by researching those.
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1670 posts
As I read this it appears you're going to be spending time between Koln and Mainz, which is where you'll end. In that instance I'd forgo wasting a day going back to Amsterdam and fly from Frankfurt. And backtracking the Rhine Valley, or the Mosel, is probably not the best use of the days you have remaining.
First, you need to spend, minimum, one day just looking around Mainz. Then I recommend you either go east to Wurzburg and visit Nuremberg, Bamberg, Bayreuth, or any of the smaller towns in Frankonia, or go south into the Pfalz and see places like Heidelberg, Speyer, Neustadt, etc. along the wine road, or even just spend the time seeing the area around Frankfurt, Mainz, Darmstadt, et al. Either of these options will offer up more "new" opportunities and sights to fill the time.
Take a little time and google these places.
Posted by
Bellingham, WA
553 posts
I agree to fly in/out of Frankfurt and spend your extra time in Mosel Valley. Gorgeous! Also, recover from your bike trip at a spa (or just the very nice public pool) across the river in Wiesbaden.