Planing to visit Germany after the Belgium-Holland Tour

This will be a really quick tour of fascinating places, without benefit of a tours' guides and point to point delivery. A lot of time will be spent getting around. At least two of your six/seven days will be spent traveling.

Check our travel times/routes on bahn.com.

Amsterdam - Rhine Valley - Nuremberg is an easy itinerary. Berlin and Dresden are then north and Munich is south. Too much to see if you are only going to be two nights in each place (one full day of touring on your own).

Maybe:

Day 1 - May 9th going to the Rhine Valley to Koblenz by fast train and then catch the local down the valley to St.Goar or Bacharach for the night. RS "Travel skills 1" video does this trip. The most scenic part of the Rhine only takes an hour on the river cruise boats and you can get off and train back to your base.

Day 2/Day 3 - May 9th/10th Rhine Valley to Nuremberg is about 3.5 hours. Stay the night and the following day and take a late train to Munich, which takes about an hour.

Day 4 - May 11th tour Munich.

Day 5 - May 12th Fast train to Berlin takes about 5 hours.

Day 6 - Tour Berlin

Day 7 - fly home from Berlin

OOPs, lost Dresden. Or skip Munich, or skip Nuremberg. Or add a day or two. Or come back

For a one week post Amsterdam trip to get a quick look at Germany I think you could go along the Rhine catching a river cruise, Nuremberg and Munich OR going over to Berlin and come down through Dresden to Munich. I don’t think one week is enough time for the grand circle, look at a map. If you want to spend more than a few hours in these beautiful and historic places you’ll need to eliminate a region for this short trip.

I don’t think I read which city in Germany you are departing from back to the USA? On second thought, I think Berlin or Munich could be a logical ending point for your trip. As someone else said, plan to return. There is so much to see in Germany.

On third thought and it is radical —- go on the Best of Germany tour which begins May 12-24, 2020. This will give you a wonderful overview. I’m signed up on the 8/25-9/06 tour.

Thanks a lot to all of you for your advice.
NickB your itinerary sounds good and very doable. It is necessary for me to re-write it here day by day pointing out some details that need some clarification regarding the train or boat trips and also to make sure that the changes you are about to see make any sense at all.

Day 1, May 9th-Fast train to Koblenz, do I take it in Amsterdam? Getting off in Koblenz and connecting with the local train to St Goar or Baccarach, correct? Here in Baccarach, on the same day I will take the boat to do the tour for one hour giving me some time to get off from the boat and come back on the same boat to Baccarach to sleep over. Did I get this day correct? How many hours total from Amsterdam to Baccarach? Do you think that I should add a day to this journey? is one day enough?

Day 2, May 10th- Train to Nurenberg 3.5 hours from Baccarach. Visit Nurenberg and late at night take the train to Munich. Stay over in Munich. Is one afternoon enough in Nurenberg?

Day 3, May 11th- Visit Munich- Stay over

Day 4, May 12th-Another day in Munich, Is there a night train to Berlin? I have done it before in other countries saving one day. If so, are you familiar with the schedule?

Day 5, May 13th-Fast train to Berlin in the morning in the absence of a night train- Visit in the
afternoon -Stay over

Day 6, May 14th-Visit Berlin-Stay over - I may add one day here if the first day is doable the way is
described above.

Day 7, May 15th- Fly home

Given that you are starting in Amsterdam, the efficient route is to follow the Rhine, preferably by car-- Koeln cathedral, the Mosel valley to Trier & return to the Rhine, pop over into France for Alsace, then if you have any time left, the Necker Valley (Heidelberg etc) or the Black Forest.

Berlin and Munich are greatly over rated. They suck. Don't waste your time (I have several post detailing why).

Well, I’d say Munich is overrated, but Berlin is one of the great cities of the world, and is inexhaustible. My opinion is that you should not pretend to see all of Germany in a week, and focus on a straighter line from Brussels to Berlin, with fewer cities. Perhaps Cologne, Boppard, Dresden, Berlin. And I’d consider leaving out Dresden this time. Erfurt is not as nice as Dresden, but is more on the route. A “garden” person might pick Dessau-Worlitz instead. (Look up EGAPark as well. ) Weimar is a richer stay than Erfurt, and could include Buchenwald if you have the stomach for it.

You have specific research to do, like learning that the only river boat time you need/want is Bingen to Boppard or St. Goar.

Ya know what? One may not like, enjoy, or appreciate a city for whatever personal reason, but it does not mean that a city "sucks". It just means one has different tastes or interests.
This is a poor mentality to have while traveling. Every city is worthy. Damning them because of personal opinion is not doing anyone a favor.

"So I really need help with Germany and I am pretty sure that I would get it in this forum."

Based on your newly-proposed plan, I'd say you are in the same needy situation. You have more questions about the plan than you have days to carry it out. That's OK at this point since your visit to Germany is 6+ months out. BTW, you are asking very good questions - like "is this enough time? - and right now you should have more faith in your own questions than in your plan, IMO.

A'dam > Rhine Valley > Nuremberg > Munich > Berlin would perhaps be doable if you had 12+ days. But not with 6.

Berlin is not "doable" in 1.5 days or even 2.5 days if you add a day. I would plan on 4 nights there, minimum. Munich in 1.5 days? No. Nuremberg is not remotely possible in one afternoon. And on the Rhine, after a train ride of 5-6 hours, you'll be on a boat for just one hour (and missing half of the great river scenery!) before your one evening in Bacharach.

Keep in mind that Bacharach itself is nothing compared with the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in which it's situated. The UMRV is a UNESCO World Heritage site. To the north and south and across the river, it is surrounded by other nice old-world towns, tourable medieval castles, wineries, and some great walking territory (try the Oberwesel town wall walk, or the Rhine Castle Trail.)

Right now you are trying to outpace the commercial bus tours of Germany - and skipping all sorts of nice places in favor of places that could be worth visiting but which may be nothing like what you are looking for - nearly all major WW II bombing targets, burned-out and newly-rebuilt metropolises. Your Belgium-Netherlands tour is ripe with smaller, old-world places that are mostly walkable... and the pace is lovely... 3 nights in tiny Bruges! In Germany, if you want the exact opposite of your Belgium-Netherlands tour, your plan is on track. But I sorta doubt that's what you want.

With 6 days, I would probably suggest a 2-3 night stay on the Rhine and a 3-4 night stay in Nuremberg (with a day trip to Bamberg - also UNESCO WH status.) Then fly home out of FRA or MUC, whichever gives you the best deal. Come back later to see the rest of Germany when you have the time.

Thank you all for your replies. I learned a lot and will change the itinerary adding more days in Germany, and this will be possible canceling the week in France I had initially planned to do before joining the RS's group in Ghent.