Koblenz - Trier - Calais

Gebr. Kolb does round trips on the Mosel. http://www.moselrundfahrten.de/pdf/moselfahrplan_cochem_2014.pdf
They are round trips in various parts of the river. You might want to just by train and take a couple of trips, or just do the Koblenz-Cochem part, spend the night and go on to Trier by train, or by bus along the river.
PS. To avoid international drop charges, you might want to take a train to Metz. France and rent a car there.

I don't want to talk you out of it, but while the Mosel is lovely, it's not nearly as interesting or historic as the scenic part of the Rhine from Bingen to Boppard. Referring to this board's favorite sights, you'll miss Burg Eltz (if you care ... )

Trier is a huge city, we didn't rent there, but it seems obvious you could reserve a car there.

Although Google Maps shows 5 hours for the continuous drive, there's an awful lot to see, and lots of city-area traffic invoved. I suggest you do some hard research (harder than you did for Trier) and plan your stops. Are you taking a ferry in Calais? Anyway, check the other-country drop-charge and driving permissions for the car rental. And make sure (I haven't ever taken a channel ferry) that it takes pedestrians. I believe I saw that some ferries only take car-fulls.

I am just researching the Mosel for a Sept. trip and I have rejected the idea of taking boats because they take so long - probably due to all the locks they must go through. Check the K-D and Kobe boat schedules and see for yourself. The trains are speedy and still scenic.

My suggestion, stay the night in Koln (much more to see) or even Bonn (nice small city).

In the morning, two options - may be able to do both in the time it takes to boat to Trier:

Use a rail daypass, Schoenes Wochende, for your group. It allows unlimited on-off privileges on local trains (which is what you will want for either of these suggestions).

If a boat ride is a top priority train to Bacharach, take a quick look around, ride the KD line to St. Goar (about a 45 minute ride of the most scenic part of the Rhein). Look around St. Goar, possibly visit Rheinfels castle, catch a train to Trier (connection in Koblenz).

If time on the Mosel is more important, Train to Moselkern and walk to Burg Eltz through the forest (easy trail to follow, easy walking). Tour Burg Eltz, walk back, train to Trier.

Trier has some of the best Roman ruins outside of Italy. Be sure to visit them.

We've spent a couple of weeks in the Cologne, Rhine, Mosel and Trier areas and think all the suggestions you've gotten offer good choices. I have one point to add: as Same said in the first post, to avoid charges for dropping the car in France after picking it up in Germany you should take the one-hour train ride from Trier, Germany to Metz, France and pick the car up there.

If you do, indeed, hope to get a foot passenger ferry ride to Dover from Calais - I can't think of any other reason to visit such an ugly town - you really ought to search or archives back a few days to a really bad sounding recent experience for foot passengers at Calais. It isn't the fun you might think it would be.

I haven't looked up boat travel the full German length of the Mosel from Deutsches Eck to Trier but it would have to take an age. The Mosel - have a look at a map - is one of the windiest rivers I have ever seen. Very little is straight. And much as I love the Mosel Valley, after the 20th or 30th identical bend in the river with a small town on it and surrounded by grapevines it would start to look the same, IMHO.

Other than Luxembourg, Gent and Brugge there isn't a whole lot more to see on the routes to Calais. Maybe Dinant, if you like saxophones. In general, I'm sorry to say, for those Wallonians reading, Wallonie doesn't do it for me.

Maybe south from Luxembourg to Metz and visit Champagne country, and up through Lille - another completely underwhelming city.

Generally when I - frequently - drive from Calais, coming from England, I try to get to Luxembourg as quickly as possible (fill up because of the cheapest fuel in central and western Europe) and then continue to Germany and onwards to Switzerland.

Hi,

My suggestion is that you visit Calais and Koblenz but only if you are deeply interested in tracking down historical sites and museums. Since you have a car too, go also to Kaub am Rhein while you're in that Middle Rhine area. Every time I was in northern France esp in the Pas-de-Calais area, I always got sidetracked visiting somewhere else with the result of not even once making it to Calais.

If you're travelling into Britain to end your trip, I would agree with Nigel about not going to Calais. End up at Lille or Brussels and take the Eurostar.

Bill, we haven't seen you for 10 days.

Is this helping?

If your older posts, with your interests in history and the original plan of Amsterdam to London, are still operative it would be helpful to know.

We could then help with the routing ...

I apologize for being absent - In Michigan summer is short and we have had some really nice weather recently so I have been involved in summer fun with the grand children, etc.

Here is where we are on our trip planning - 1) three days in Amsterdam, 2) Rent a car in Amsterdam (I know, I know).

Last 5 days in London, taking train trips out during the day and returning at night.

That leaves 6 days unaccounted for from Amsterdam to London. I really appreciate the post that suggest that taking a foot ferry in Calais may not be a good idea. And once we arrive in Dover , we still have to get to London.

I am going to send your suggestions to my 3 travel partners immediately.

For me personally, I have it in my mind to go to the Ypres area and go to the WW! museums around there. That probably is only one or two days. Other than that, I am ignorant of the area (other than we did do a nice trip on the Mosel as previously mentioned).

Please don't give up on me - keep the suggestions coming!

Bill

Hi,

Adding on to an above suggestion here: yes, better to stay in Köln than in Bonn, although I've done both. Take a day trip to Bonn from Köln, if only for a few hours; see Beethoven's House/Museum.

I can see that with 4 travelers, it's not just the American fascination with freedom and the open road ... but a car is a burden in medieval cities. First, you need to decided on your desired destinations, THEN you will decide if a car or the train is better. (Are you prepared to leave all your belongings in a retractable soft-cover trunk all day, repeatedly?) As previously noted, boating from Koblenz to Trier is a horrible idea. Even if the train were uncomfortable (which it isn't), it's so much faster that it wouldn't matter.

For example, if you care about the Netherlands Delta Works (which we didn't have time to see), or Ypres, or Hooge Veelue, or D-Day Beaches, then maybe you need a car. But to see Haarlem, Leiden, Den Haag, Antwerp, Gent, Bruges, Leuven, Brussels, Mechelen, Lier, a car is a pain in the neck. We take a nice hotel and day-trip. BTW, what's the point of automotive freedom if one of the travelers (making this up) has a bad knee, and you have to take the awful tourist tram in Trier to think you saw the town? There are great public transit busses to take you to the slightly out-of-the-way sights, like the Amphitheater, that you CANNOT see with a rental car.

I can tell you from personal experience that it's annoying to take the train from Belgium to Lille, Flandres (Chunnel terminal.) But there are a few good connections from Antwerp, a multi-day worthy city.

Did you come up with WW I because everyone's going this year? I would make sure that everyone in the group really wants to poke around dusty museums on a nice day. I'll admit I haven't been to Ypres, but an empty battle meadow is just an empty meadow to me.

Hi - Here is more info -
Past travels. We have already taken a Rhine River day trip, we stayed in Bacharach, took a Mosel River day trip from Koblenz to Cochem, and we have already taken the Eurostar from Britain to Europe to Brugge=via Brussels) and back via Eurostar from Paris to London. Also been to Paris 2 or 3 times. This trip we want to focus on the crescent area from Amsterdaam sweeping south and west into various areas with a "base Camp" for 3+ days to explore, ending in London.

We would consider finding a spot to stay for 3+ days as headquarters for day trips out to Belgium WWI spots, Champagne district in France (Epernay) Maastricht in Belgium, and perhaps Luxembourg ?? We could rent a car just outside the Jordaan district where we are staying Amsterdam...and leisurely travel through a curved area including Netherlands and then curving over to the west to some towns we can research to find in Belgium and/or France...wandering and discovering.. head twd WWI battleground or cemetery.

We are reconsidering whether we want to go to the Mosel area after thinking about it, and reading the posts on this blog.
BTY - I was just reading an article about the problem Calais has with immigrants trying to get into England. Made me nervous about Calais. Would anyone care to comment on that?

Finally, thank you all for your posts, we really appreciate them. More later - Bill

The problems in Calais have been going on for years and years. There are camps of people, majority young men but also some families, from central Asia, Asia, and Africa trying to hop onto, climb into, or hide under trucks loading onto trains going through the tunnel to England. In the past, England provided good benefits, job opportunities, etc. so many people entering the EU illegally were heading to England via Calais. This is nothing new. From time-to-time police break up the camps, community volunteers helping the migrants have an outcry, they move away but another camp springs up, more people fleeing wars and poverty arrive. Perhaps, one of the English contributors can get us up to date on the current benefits and restrictions on these people.

As Bets said, this is because of would-be migrants trying to hide on FREIGHT trains passing through the Channel Tunnel. There is absolutely no danger to passengers.

The bigger problem is that very few Eurostar trains stop at Calais, and the Frethun station where they do is some distance out of town.

I'm shocked to learn you've already boated the Mosel.

Perhaps it will be some help if I say that seeing Trier was important to me, even though I'd already seen Luxembourg city. And we wanted to do wine tasting on the Mosel. But although Trier is very nice, and has a full day of sightseeing (not, two days), as a "Roman" town in Germany, I prefer the Cologne experience. And it is a three-day stop, very walkable.

I think I am still being responsive to your interests if I say that focusing on Leiden-Hague-Rotterdam-Kinderdijk-Delta Works-Antwerp-Gent-Bruges-Calais meets all of your wishes, including car-a-bility, although the traffic and one-ways in Antwerp and Gent stink. That route could also be done with the train. There is an ugly high-rise business hotel on the ring road in Antwerp. Antwerp has been in many a war.

Hi - Thank you Bets, Philip and Tim, your thoughts are appreciated. I think that we are starting to get a "feel" for what we want to do.

One of our thoughts now is to swing down into the Champagne area of France, possibly around Reims. I am going to look through the France section of this web site for existing post on that.

Thanks - more later.

Bill