Rhine Cruise Logistics and St. Goar Lunch

I thought the dining room at the Hotel am Markt in St. Goar had reasonably good food. I really liked the view of the river traffic from the dining room. Watching all those large boats maneuver around one another in a strong current is like a ballet. Gary

Your schedule takes you to the Bingen Hbf station (9:46) which is a longer walk and possibly a little confusing. But you can transfer at Bingen Hbf to the 9:55 train to Bingen Rhein Stadt station (9:57 - the closer of the two stations.) This costs nothing extra and you still have time to get cruise tickets. Show your train ticket at the KD dock for a 20% cruise discount.

What else is in your plans this day? You'd have time to visit Rheinfels in St. Goar of course as well as to take in Boppard, about 10 minutes to the north by train, or Oberwesel, about 5 minutes south by train and on the way back to Bacharach.

Boppard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2IjTma6VRY

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198627-d3306006-Reviews-Sesselbahn_in_Boppard-Boppard_Rhineland_Palatinate.html

http://schnuggel-elsje.de/upload/Bilder/IMG_0131.JPG

Oberwesel:
https://www.weinhaus-weiler.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/DSC_2434_1920.jpg
https://www.oberwesel.de/en/wandern0/stadtmauerrundweg/

BTW, October 30 is the final day of the wine fest in Boppard. If you're around on the evening of the 29th, you can catch the outstanding fireworks there as well.

I see your cruise schedule link is from the "KDRhine" site - don't pre-purchase that day pass they sell for €32 - your cruise to St. Goar costs only €16 with the discount I spoke of.

Gary, thanks for the suggestion. Watching the dance of the boat traffic does sound fun. Though we're probably more incline to a simple lunch, e.g., sandwiches to go eaten on a bench somewhere.

Russ, thank you so much! I always find multiple train stations in a given city confusing. Hard to know which is the right station. I'm surprised that a transfer is needed on such a short journey. I doubt we would have figured this out, and then confusion would have ensued, so you have spared us that! Is there just one platform at Bingen Hbf? Will it be obvious which train to get on? Still a 10 minute walk from Bingen Stadt to the KD dock and ticket office?

Thanks again.

Russ, thanks also for mentioning the discount. We were not sure if that is only available to rail pass holders. (We won't be.)

Oberwesel looks great, so we lean towards that if time and energy permit after Rheinfels Castle.

Perhaps it's less of an issue in October, but we had a slow, indecisive, , no German, French, or English speaker in front of us at the single KD ticket window. It took foreeeever.

It appears that the link to the KD schedule and fares information provided by the OP is in reality a link to a third party ticket reseller (i.e. travel agency), TravelToe.com. Like RailEurope, they don't seem to have a complete array of tickets to sell. If you want to go from Bingen to St. Goar, from TravelToe all you can buy is a travel pass for Koblenz to Rüdesheim, for 31€ (32€?). Instead of using TravelToe, buy your tickets for just the segment you want at the dock from KD; as Russ points out, Bingen (Stadtbhf) to St. Goar is only 16€ with the 20% rail ticket discount. Here is the URL for KD's brochure with their complete array of tickets (pg 24).

TravelToe does not seem to give the 20% rail discount, nor do they give the 30% senior discount (60 years and older, no rail ticket required) shown on the KD brochure.

Perhaps it's less of an issue in October

I wouldn't expect that to be a problem any time of year. I've never experienced it. In fact, the only problem I had in two instances was getting the woman at the kiosk in St. Goar to "accept" my German. Although I never spoke any English to her, she insisted on reaching outside the window for the English brochure and showed it to me, circling the schedule and fare tables with her pen. She handed it to me, then gave me the ticket I had asked for in German. I made sure she saw me return the English brochure, unread, to the rack before leaving.

"Is there just one platform at Bingen Hbf? Will it be obvious which train to get on?"

No, there are a few platforms there. The transfer in this case is from track 101 to 102. I only know this because I looked under "Show details" for itinerary out of Bacharach at 9:36 which popped up at the DB itinerary search page. You can find the track numbers for any itinerary in the DB system by doing the same (as long as the numbers have been decided.)

The track numbers are clearly posted at the station. Look around when you step off the train for directional signage to track 102. Here is a photo of the station taken from the platform that serves tracks 202 and 203 - as you can see, you'll use a staircase and an underground passageway beneath the tracks:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Bingen_am_Rhein-_Bingen_%28Rhein%29_Hauptbahnhof-_auf_Bahnsteig_zu_Gleis_203_18.7.2009.jpg

With 9 minutes between trains you won't have a problem as long as the first train is on time. You could choose to avoid this transfer if you like. If you board the 9:06 train in Bacharach, it travels DIRECTLY to Bingen Rhein Stadt (9:26.) (Not sure why this trip did not appear as an option for you with your original search.) You would have an additional half hour in Bingen this way - which isn't a bad thing if you want to stretch your legs along the nice waterfront promenade there:

https://zollamtbingen.de/media/image/e2/0c/89/zollamt-publicviewing-072016-4803.jpg
https://static.panoramio.com.storage.googleapis.com/photos/original/22272394.jpg

I picked up sandwiches at Cafe u. Backer St. Goar. It’s on a street that parallels the main road but just a little further from the river. It’s more bakery than sandwich shop. If you have a sweet tooth then pick up some dessert too. Both were good. They offer food to go.

I quite like having lunch on the terrace of the hotel that is next to Burg Rheinfels. You overlook the Rhine which is a perfect view. The food is quite tasty, better than much of what I have had in the places along the main street in St. Goar and I think I have eaten at every restaurant there at one time or another. The food isn't bad, but none of it is outstanding. Just basically, ok dining.

There are six tracks through the Bingen Hbf, three on each side of the station, which sits on a wide platform accessible via a ramp form the nearby bridge. The tracks on the river side of the station are numbered 101-103, with 101 next to the platform and 102 and 103 on a separate platform accessible via the interconnecting tunnel. Same with 201 and 202/203.

So if your train comes in on 201, you just walk across the wide station platform to 101. You do not need to go into the tunnel. It will only take a minute or so.

If the transfer is from 101 to 102, you have to go down the stairs and through the tunnel under tracks 101 & 102.

I'm surprised that a transfer is needed on such a short journey.

A transfer is not really required, but as you observed, the direct trains don't "sync up" well with the KD boats. There are RBs that run hourly direct from Bacharach to Bingen Stadt and stop at every station (milk run). The faster RE makes fewer stops, Bacharach, Bingen Hbf, but not Bingen Stadt, hence the need for a transfer.