Help Visiting German Castles

Should be no problem to stop over on the Rhine. Marksburg Castle in Braubach and Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar are not far from each other and represent your two best choices.

Either town is accessible by train. I suggest you book in St. Goar. From there you ferry across the river and take the train from St. Goarshausen to Braubach (about 20 minutes) and hike up to Marksburg.

To take a river cruise, take the train south to Bingen and board a northbound cruise boat back to St. Goar - it takes only about 1.5 hours for this, the most scenic segment. You'll get a good view of the castles and towns from the boat. Here's a map of this segment:

http://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.com/images/map/rhine-valley290.jpg

Bingen-Ruedesheimer and Köln-Düsseldorfer are two cruise companies that cover this part.

If you want to visit some of the towns (Bacharach and Oberwesel are the best between Bingen and St. Goar) then do that by train on the way south to Bingen from St. Goar. There are only a few boats per day that you can hop off and get back on - but there are trains every hour in both directions.

Yes, it is easy to go on a castle sightseeing tour. But you have to plan which castles you want to visit. Because: castles everywhere. Please see this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_Germany From Paris to Berlin, you either cross Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Thuringia. Or North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Then Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg.

It's best to check the castles you want to visit first, then plan where to hop off the train. And you should at least add the local buses to your transportation.

Rhineland-Palatinate has lots and lots of castles, at the Rhine, Mosel and Lahn. These are known to most american tourists because they are advertised a lot. But you will find some equally interesting and less touristy sites east of that.

What Russian company runs night trains from Paris to Berlin?

I had seen people recommend this train in various forums so I did some searching on Bahn's site but had no success. I emailed them to ask about it and got the following response.

"Dear Mr. Hunt,

thank you for your email and please excuse that we were not able to respond earlier.

There used to be direct night train services between Paris Est and Berlin on a daily-basis, operated by City Night Line, however those services have been cancelled permanently.

The only night train that still operates between Paris and Berlin is a Russian night train (EN 453) which goes from Paris to Moscow, with a stop in Berlin. This train however cannot be booked online through our homepage.

If you wish to book that Russian night train service, please give us a call and speak to our rail consultants directly. The sales hotline can be reached under +49 1806 996633 (charges apply.). Please press 9 for English.

We hope that we have been of assistance and look forward to welcoming you on board our trains again.

With kind regards

yours www.bahn.de service-team"

Thanks for the castle info. I'll have to do some more research. When you visit these castles are ou able to explore the inside or do you just walk around the perimeter?

"...do you just walk around the perimeter?"
No. Marksburg takes you on a guided tour. Rheinfels is a ruined castle that lets you roam freely - it also has a small museum on site.

For your research:
Marksburg visitor info
Rheinfels visitor info

On the way to Berlin, you can also consider a stop off at the Wartburg above Eisenach. Somewhat fancifully resorted in the 19th century, but I don't think this should count against it. The castle once hosted Martin Luther, and it has a close association with St. Elisabeth of Hungary and the legend of Tannhäuser.

When you visit these castles are ou able to explore the inside or do you just walk around the perimeter?

That can a bit tricky to find out. I usually look at the bottom of the page of the individual castle whether it has its own website. If it's open to the general public, it sure has one. Then visit that website to find out about opening hours, guided tours etc.

@ brian...Thanks for the info on the Paris Est to Berlin night train run by the Russians. Very good to know. I had read about it vaguely somewhere, wondered if it was in operation.

If you are planning on stopping on the Rhein, you'll be close to Frankfurt (Main). There are some ICE Sprinters that make the trip from Frankfurt Hbf to Berlin in less than 4 hours. There are also direct ICE connections from Köln to Berlin in just over 4 hours. Night trains are disappearing because fast day trains have made then unnecessary.

Second the idea of Wartburg. You can look at the train schedule at www.bahn.com. From Mainz to Berlin you can specify a stopver in Eisenach of 4 to 5 hours. There are buses every hour from the train station up to the Wartburg. It is still a bit of a hike up the hill to the castle. English guided tours are at 1:30 pm.