Rhine/Mosel/Cologne 3 day Itinerary - Sanity Check

Bacharach TI: closed Sundays (9/7) so you'd be bag-burdened in Bacharach.
https://rhein-nahe-touristik.de/en/info/kontakt/

You do need more time to do what you have in mind. IMO you're wasting time in Frankfurt on Saturday. Take the train from FRA airport to Bingen Rhein Stadt at 11:30, 12:00, or 12:30. Trip is 55-60 minutes. Board the 14:00 B-R boat or the 14:30 KD boat straight to St Goar (ar. 15:45 w/ B-R or 16:10 w/ K-D.) Drop bags. Then decide if you have the energy to go to Bacharach that day. It's only 9 min.s by train from St Goar. If so, lv 16:56, come back at 19:50. (The TI cannot take your bags as it closes at 14:00 pm on Saturdays.)

Su 9/7: Wake up in St Goar. Day trip to Cologne, back to St Goar.

M 9/8: Mosel biking + Cochem

T 9/9: Boppard chairlift. Castle tour in PM: advise you to tour MARKSBURG in BRAUBACH rather than Stolzenfels.

When you take a train, take an RE ( express ), not an RB ( local train which makes many more stops ).

When we came back from Cologne, not all the train cars went all the way to Koblenz. some were disconnected in Remagen. I don’t know if this is typical, so just be cautious.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/can-i-see-enough-of-cologne

Although Cologne has fewer old buildings than some cities, it is nice to walk around. It's worth more than 4 hours, especially if you spend four hours getting there and back. There are several superb museums. Even people who don't like paintings hung on the walls (4 museums) often enjoy the Roman history museum, and the Decorative Arts museums. It takes an U-Bahn ride to see the (adjacent) Medieval and Ethnological museums. I enjoyed crossing the Rhine on one bridge, and returning by another.

Thank you all for your replies. I should have asked all this earlier but I thought I’d had it all figured out until I started planning out each minute (so to speak)

Yes Bityke I will look for RE trains. Thanks for the heads up. So many options ..I was ready to give up and rent a car instead (driving seems so much easier - sorry -typical American perspective )

Yes Tim I agree that 4hiurs is totally short changing Cologne - 4 hr transit to spend 4 hours is def not worthwhile.

Yes Russ - you are so right re schedule allocation. I guess I wanted to pay homage to EU capitalism. Ugh Now I am awaiting response from the hotel in St Goar re room availability on Saturday night. I think I may have blown it as its website shows no availability. if I must stay in Frankfurt overnight, perhaps I can take a speed train to Cologne early Sunday and rearrange all my days. But if all the planets line up, I like your suggested schedule. The reason, I was thinking Stolzenfels vs Marksburg is because I’m intrigued by the gardens in the palace vs armor and fortifications (this is also why I like the guided tours cuz ya just don’t know what you may end up liking..) Anyway we can decide all that on the fly at this point. But I take your recommendation to heart.

Meanwhile Thank you….I am waiting and regrouping. Weather is looking quite delightful a week out. I am excited!

Here is a possible fix for you. I would be good with this myself.

9/6:
1) FRA > cruise > St Goar as suggested.

2) train to Koblenz Hbf (just 25 minutes away); overnight at the Ibis (€166, room available) which is an easy walk from the station. Or choose something else in the area that appeals to you (I saw some apartments a little further out on booking.com.) If you feel energetic, catch Bus #1 into Koblenz' old town zone for a meal. Or try the popular Königsbacher Treff near the station.

9/7: Now, instead of being hours away in FRANKFURT, you are half way to Cologne for your day trip. Yay! In the morning, leave your bags either with the Ibis front desk or in a Koblenz Hbf station locker for the day. Take the train to Cologne and return to Koblenz in the pm (your train will either end there or stop there) then continue to St Goar and your reserved hotel there for the night.

One more hotel option: Hotel Pinger in Remagen, < €100/double, just steps from the Remagen station. Direct train from St. Goar takes one hour and puts you closer to Cologne. on 9/7, it's possible to just take bags with you to Cologne Hbf (which takes less than 1 hr.) and store them at that station's facility. Remagen is a smallish town that has a handsome old town and a nice waterfront:

"wasting time in Frankfurt". Wow, as if there was nothing of importance here to see. In a city that has always been historically important, full of sites that can keep you busy for days.

I guess being the chosen location for the election of the Holy Roman Emperors since 1356 isn't important, nor the coronations after 1596, nor the 1st parliament in 1848, nor the birthplace of Anne Frank or the Rothschild family, nor having once been home to the 2nd largest Jewish community in Germany, nor being the location of the Berlin Airlift that kept a city of over 2 million alive by having a flight leave Frankfurt every 3 minutes for a year, nor having one of the oldest churches in Germany (830 A.D.), nor having several other medieval churches in the middle of the city that were NOT destroyed in WW2, nor having the largest religious wall paintings in Germany dating from the early 1500s, nor that the city is centuries older than Munich, that the city sadly had the 1st walled in Jewish ghetto that existed for over 350 years (and yes, you can visit this location and go into the ancient cellars, and so much more.
Oh, almost forgot, there is the Rheingau Wine fest in Frankfurt that week, along the Fressgasse. Delicious food and great wine.

Your hotel looks out over the Eschenheimer Tor, an old guard tower built in 1428. All original. Or you could ride the Pater Noster elevators at this hotel, which are fairly unique. Not a lot of places have these anymore.

Cologne has a lot to see too besides just the cathedral, so perhaps weigh what is important to see that matches your interest. Plus, how much do you want to travel on your arrival day from an overnight flight?

You might just want to check that Farina fits into your plans. Farina consists of the historical museum part (2-3 rooms) and a shop, which is free for everyone. You won't get into the museum by yourselves, you have to book a tour, and they are in German or English. The first part is a short lecture upstairs, and then they take you down to the rooms with display cases and testing (i.e. perfume smelling), and there is some interactive / lecture-type stuff downstairs as well. I think the lectures are really key to understanding that museum. So in that case I would contact the museum in advance to find out the times of the tours and if you can get into an English-language tour at the time you want, or at a time you can shoehorn into your very brief stay. Even a lunch with Koelsch would be nicer if it were more than an hour. I think Cologne merits more time but you have what you have. And if you had some more time, there are some really awesome museums in Cologne. Maybe you need to come back for a second round (and another Koelsch)!

Lavandula

@Jo: Scdub says they're "finalizing the Rhine/Mosel portion" of their trip; 3 of the 3.5 days in their working plan are aimed at this region, which lies due west of FRA airport. For river cruising, biking, castle-touring, etc. in this area, a detour eastward from FRA into Frankfurt proper - for a token afternoon visit - just increases ground travel time and shortchanges their time in the R/M area AND in Frankfurt too. That's why it's a waste of time, as I see it. You make a strong case for Frankfurt, as always, but Frankfurt's history, charm, or other merits are an entirely different subject, I think. Chucking most/all the R/M plans and just doing Frankfurt and Cologne - as you seem to suggest - is possible, but that was not the itinerary "tweak" that first came to my mind, based on my read of their intentions.

For what it’s worth my German train experience last year in October taught me not to assume I could keep to a tight schedule such as you have here. I experienced endless delays- closed stations, detours, stranded on the tracks for two hours, backtracking and taking a much longer route because another train was broken down on the original route, and 1.5 hour delay due to immigration checking trains coming into Germany from another EU country (Austria).
(Traveling around Bavaria as well from Aachen to a small town west of Frankfurt and Bamburg to Amsterdam)

It's a real problem, Greg. The DB long-distance trains have a very poor on-time record of late. Only 56% of them are running on time. Thankfully, the regional trains do better, around 90%,

Russ- On two different occasions on my trip people (Germans) told me that Switzerland was stopping German trains at the border and turning them back if they were more than 5 minutes or so late, as it was messing up the Swiss timetables. It seemed too bizarre, I didn’t believe it at first, but I checked a couple news sites that seemed legitimate and they said the same thing.

That's completely true. The Swiss aren't too tolerant of those late IC/ICe trains from D-land messing with domestic transportation in S-land! And who can blame them? Sadly, way too much deferred maintenance and development is now crippling Germany's long-distance trains. My most recent trip went well enough, but the one prior had some unbelievable glitches.

I am back..after much discussion, "we" decided that Cologne is what we will skip.

ok here's an anecdote...In my profession (interior design) 90% of the time, the woman decides on the aesthetics and finish materials. The husband doesn't have an opinion..until he has an opinion .. well you know where I'm going with this.

So in this case, DH had no opinion at all on any of the sites we visit... until he did ...and his opinion is that no church and certainly not a perfume museum was worth all this logistical grief. So here we are. We will "relax" on arrival day, see Frankfurt, stay overnight and then move on and spend the rest of the time in the Rhine Mosel.

He did express an interest in the idea of Remagan, as he is interested in WWII history, so we may stop in there on one of the remaining 3 days.

Thank you Ms. Jo on Frankfurt ideas - we may be too jet-lagged to see much but I have copied ideas from your previous posts.

Thank you Russ for all the work you did on hotel options. We'll likely take up the Remagan site.

Lavandula - next time when we do Cologne justice, for sure I will make an appt for the English tour. No matter what DH thinks, I want to go to the Perfume Museum as I find scent fascinating and look forward to this! Thanks for the head up

Now I will work on planning out a more relaxed 3 days on the Rhine/Mosel - with much less on our plate, I think it will be easier.

Greg I am forewarned..It really is kind of a bummer hearing about the German train system delays. I guess we'll be sticking to regional trains anyway. I think I should buy the 38Euro RhinePalatine Day pass for 3 days, yes?

Everyone, thank you for your help. It would have been so stressful trying to fit all this in (and without a car ..hehe)

If hubby hasn’t seen the movie The Bridge at Remagen, he should watch it even if you don’t go to Remagen this trip.

As indicated, I'd relax on the boat that first day, heading first from FRA by train to Bingen. But it will be a different trip from Frankfurt proper. Assuming you are heading to Remagen on Day 2, I think your trip starts from 1) the Eschenheimer Tor U-Bahn station near your hotel to... 2) the Hauptwache train stop to... 3) Frankfurt Hbf to... 4) Rüdesheim for your Rhine cruise; DB calls the walk from R'heim station to the K-D dock at 15 minutes.

You can use the DB site to get details for this journey of around 1.5 hours. After the cruise to St Goar, it will be... 1) St Goar to 2) Remagen by direct RB train (every hour on the hour, 64 mins.)

I think I should buy the 38Euro RhinePalatine Day pass for 3 days, yes?

Definitely not. The R-P ticket does not cover travel to the north beyond Bonn. It also does not cover FRA > Frankfurt proper or Frankfurt proper > Rüdesheim. You'd pay €114 for what it does cover and have to supplement that with additional tickets for the rest. And you'd have early-mornning travel constraints on weekdays.

The solution is two Deutschland-Tickets, which cover ALL your subway, bus, and Regional train needs for the entire time you are in Germany for €58 each. And the details are here:

https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-germany.htm#Deutschlandticket

Your Deutschland-Ticket could also be handy for use in Munich on Day 8 of your tour during your block of free time. Catch a free ride to...

BMW-Welt?
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187309-d856420-Reviews-BMW_Welt-Munich_Upper_Bavaria_Bavaria.html

Andechs Monastery and Brewery? (w/ traditional Bavarian food specialties - see also Rick Steves guidebook)
https://blog.ricksteves.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Andechs1.jpg
https://www.andechs.de/en.html

Nymphenburg Palace and Gardens?
https://schloss-nymphenburg.de/englisch/tourist/index.htm