Help with a blitz through the Rhine (and Mosel?) in a day and a half

You are not going to do everything on your list for Saturday.

The first boat from Bingen (KD dock near the Bingen Stadtbahnhof) DOWNSTREAM to Koblenz gets to Koblenz at 1:10 PM and there is no other boat all the way to Koblenz until one that gets there at 6:10 PM. You need to cut the boat ride shorter (say, to St. Goar at 10:55) and do the rest by train. The scenery from St. Goar to Koblenz is not that interesting, anyway.

If you are going to tour Rheinfels, you'll have to do it before Burg Eltz. You can't do the boat and get to Hatzenport for any of the morning buses.

The afternoon buses are:

Lv Hatzenport 15:21 Ar Burg Eltz 15:38
Lv Burg Eltz 16:15 Ar Hatzenport 16:29
Lv Hatzenport 17:21 Ar Burg Eltz 17:38
Lv Burg Eltz 18:15 Ar Hatzenport 18:29

Even if you take the first two buses to and from Burg Eltz, it only gives you 37 minutes at Eltz, which is insufficient time, and you leave Hatzenport on the 17:05 train, which gets you to St. Goar at 18:55, too late to enter the castle.

In any case, you need to get to Hatzenport for the 15:21 bus to Burg Eltz. That way you would have 2h37min to see Burg Eltz, but it would be 18:29 by the time you go back to Hatzenport, too late for any other sightseeing.

I love the idea of the shorter boat ride to. St. Goar. Thanks! Yes going north is DOWNSTREAM on the Rhine!

10/12: Arrive Bingen 11:16; walk or taxi with bags to hotel front desk, drop bags, walk to KD dock, take 14:30 cruise to St. Goar (15:55) and tour Rheinfels. Have dinner. There are several places along Heerstraße including the Hotel am Markt and a nice Italian place (Alla Fontana) just off Heerstraße on Pumpengasse. Take 18:56 train or 19:56 train back to Bingen.

10/13: The train-to-bus-to-train connections for Burg Eltz just won't work for you on this day. Eltz alone will consume your whole day. Not worth doing unless you can add a day to your itinerary. Suggest this instead:

7:39, 8:13 (w/ 1 chg of train) or 8:39: Depart Bingen Rhein Hbf for Remagen (9:04, 9:42, 10:04.) Museum, madonna, lunch, lots of walking.

14:15: Depart Remagen for Braubach (w/1 chg. of train in Koblenz (15:05.) Walk up 25-30 mins. to catch 16:00 Marksburg Castle tour (normally in English - check with castle.) Dinner in Braubach (very nice old-town) after tour. May be dark by the time you're all done. Take the train back to Koblenz and proceed from there back to Bingen whenever.

Marksburg is a serious medieval castle - you'll get a better picture of medieval existence there than at Eltz (which is more handsomely fussed up. The Rheinland-Pfalz ticket would cover all this train travel on the regional trains.

Note that the train ticket you used to reach Bingen also serves as a discount coupon for your KD cruise - saves you 20%.

Thank you very much for this info. I like all of the suggestions to the itinerary !

take 14:30 cruise to St. Goar (15:55) and tour Rheinfels.

According to the Rheinfels website, the castle closes at 5 PM, but last admission is at 4 PM ("Last admission is 1 hour before closing."). The boat arrives at the dock at 3:55. Unless there is a taxi right there at the dock waiting to take you to the castle by 4 PM, you can't possibly make it. Even then it would be tight.

Maybe you could take the train to St. Goar the first day and tour Rheinfels, then do the boat next morning to St. Goar but take the next train to Remagen, then Burg Eltz. Have to look at that schedule. Unfortunately, the train to Koblenz leaves St. Goar 5 minutes after the boat arrives. That's probably not enough time to get to the St. Goar Bahnhof. Might have to just do Bingen to Bacharach and train from there to Remagen. I think you could also take the ferry across to St. Goarshausen and take an earlier train from there to Remagen.

But I agree with Russ that Marksburg would be a good substitute for Burg Eltz.

OK, here's the plan.

On Friday, after checking in, take the train to St. Goar and see Rheinfels Castle.

Saturday morning, find your way to Bingen Stadtbhf. At Bingen Stadt, buy a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket from the automat. Walk to the KD dock and take the 9:30 KD boat.

Get off the boat in Oberwesel, walk to the Bahnhof. You will have 19 minutes. The Bahn says it takes 15 minutes to walk it but they are conservative; Google maps says it takes 6 minutes. By taking the boat to Oberwesel at 10:35, you won't be able to ride under the Loreley (it's just a big rock, anyways), but you will go by boat past the Pfalzgrafenstein, and you will save time. Take the 10:54 train from Oberwesel to Remagen with a change in Koblenz.

Arrive at Remagen at 12:04. I don't know how long you will need in Remagen, but you will have 1h47min, at least long enough to see the bridge (hint: it's not still there). Leave Remagen at 13:51 and go back through Koblenz to Hatzenport.

Arrive at hatzenport at 14:52, take the bus at 15:21 to Burg Eltz, have 2h37min to see Burg Eltz. Take the 18:15 bus back to Hatzenport at 18:29. Catch the 19:05 train from Hatzenport to Bingen via Koblenz. You'll get to Bingen Hbf at 21:19 (9:19 PM). A long day.

If you decide to see Marksburg instead, you should have plently of time. Take the train or bus from Koblenz Hbf to Braubach Bhf. Remember, it's a bit of a climb from the Braubach Bhf to the castle.

Google Maps says that the walk to your hotel is 8 minutes from Bingen Hauptbahnhof and 11 minutes from Bingen Stadt.

The K-D line timetable, if you have not found it.

To help with figuring out how much daylight you have during your visit to the Rhine, sunset on 12 Oct is 6:44 pm.

If you would consider an earlier train out of Nürnberg (7:24 am), you would be in Bingen at 11:04. That would allow you to go ahead and hit Remagen on your arrival day. Drop your bags at the hotel, grab a quick lunch, and then head to Remagen (taking the 12:39 departure?). You have a few options for your arrival in Remagen:
1. Go straight to Ludendorff Bridge (15 minute walk), visit the museum inside the remains of the bridge (highly recommended), then take a 15 minute walk to the Chapel of the Black Madonna. From there, you can return to the train station OR take the 25 minute walk to the Kripp-Linz ferry, take the ferry to Linz (pay the ferry worker on the ferry after departure), walk through the medieval tower into Linz's lovely old town that has several buildings built in the 1500's, eat dinner at Linz (I would recommend the tapas restaurant Spanischer Garten for great food and ambiance), and catch the train back to Bingen from the Linz Bahnhof.
2. See a little bit of Remagen before heading to the bridge. Walk down Bahnhofstraße to see Martinsbrunnen (a fountain), follow the signs to the TI to pick up a pamphlet on Martinsbrunnen and Ludendorff Bridge, admire the nearby Rathaus (city hall) and perhaps St Peter and Paul church with its nice courtyard, cut across to the Rheinpromenade (river walk), and then head to Ludendorff Bridge.

On Saturday, you could depart on the KD line at 10:30 and then choose if you want to get off at St Goar to see Burg Rheinfels or St Goarshausen (with train to Braubach) to see Marksburg Castle (English tours typically at 1 pm and 4 pm). You could probably do both, if you wanted; a ferry connects St Goar and St Goarshausen (pay the ferry worker as you get on the ferry). I agree with Russ that Marksburg Castle has much more of a medieval feel to it than Burg Eltz. I really enjoyed it.

"According to the Rheinfels website, the castle closes at 5 PM, but last admission is at 4 PM ("Last admission is 1 hour before closing."

The website reads,
"March 25th 2018 – October 27th 2018: daily from 9.00 a.m. until 6.00 p.m."

I don't know what date Lee is looking at but for October 13 the website shows a SIX pm closing time for Rheinfels with a FIVE pm last entry to the castle. Unless I am reading it wrong, if you arrive at 15:55 by KD boat in St. Goar, you will have time using the plan I gave you (if indeed it looks good to you.)

Hey, Russ is right. I didn't check the hours. I like Russ's plan better than mine. :)

If you don't mind ascents that are a little steep, you can walk up to Burg Rheinfels in 15-20 minutes from the K-D boat's landing site. The castle/ruins can be easily covered in an hour or less. There is also a shuttle that runs from the TI office up to the castle. I'll also endorse Alla Fontana for simple-but-wonderful, well-priced Italian food.

Thanks y'all. It would have taken me a painful amount of time to gather the time/schedule information and using google translator to help with the language. Currently my knowledge of the German language is based on watching Hogan's Heroes reruns - lots of them. I'm brushing up on the basics though!