Wurzburg

"Should we take a train to another close town during our time there? Rothenburg or Bamberg?"

A day trip might be nice. Those are some common choices. I like Bamberg a lot. But there are others too, smaller, less populated and less overrun places...

Iphofen is about 20 minutes away by direct train.
town info: http://tramino.s3.amazonaws.com/s/iphofen/685626/stadtplan-iphofen-english.pdf
photos of Iphofen: https://www.stadtbild-deutschland.org/forum/index.php?thread/2985-iphofen-galerie/&s=f083afed3f6e5414d36fd00637b9e2321ca02d37

Bad Windsheim has an outstanding don't-miss open-air museum - and a nice brew-pub / restaurant:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198421-d284746-Reviews-Frankonian_Open_Air_Museum-Bad_Windsheim_Middle_Franconia_Franconia_Bavaria.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g198421-d1037903-Reviews-Brauhaus_Dobler-Bad_Windsheim_Middle_Franconia_Franconia_Bavaria.html

https://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/-IRfSCidZCuhO2fzG3kiBw/o.jpg

Marktbreit and Ochsenfurt are a few minutes apart on the Main river and only 20 minutes by train or so from W'burg:

Marktbreit:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Marktbreit_BW_6.JPG
https://www.marktbreit.de/?id=82

Ochsenfurt:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Ochsenfurt_Stadtbefestigung.JPG
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Stadtmauer_Ochsenfurt_02.JPG
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Ochsenfurt_am_Rathaus.JPG

Here's a rail map to help you find these towns:

https://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/-IRfSCidZCuhO2fzG3kiBw/o.jpg

My sister lived not far from Wurzburg and Bamburg, so she showed me around those two towns on my first visit. In Wurzburg, we parked at the residenceplatz and toured it and the attached gardens. We walked west on Hofstrasse to see Kiliansdom and Neumunsterkirche. We exited out the west side and on to Domstrasse. We walked two blocks west to the Rathaus which has a small WWII display with a three dimensional model of the town as it appeared after the firestorm. The marketplatz is there on the corner where the tram turns. Continue west through the square to the river and the Mainbrucke (bridge). There is an amazing restaurant (Alte Mainmuhle) on the right side of the street at the start of the bridge in a building which looks to have been a mill. Great food and views. Lots of people were buying a glass of wine and drinking on the bridge with friends and then bringing the empty glass back to the restaurant. The bridge is lined with statues and from here you get a nice view of the town behind you and the fortress on the hill in front of you. Cross the bridge and climb the hill to the castle for amazing city, river, and vineyard covered hillside views.

At the Residenz, be sure to see the small chapel on one end of the main building. Very easy to miss if you are not looking for it. Absolutely over the top beautiful. There is also St. Kilian's Dom which has a very interesting history. If you find time is tight, the view of the fortress from the town is better than the view of the town from the fortress. Just my opinion, of course.

A day trip to Rothenburg is very doable by train. While a bit farther away, one can also to a day trip to Heidelberg.

"That is fine for someone who experiences them all the time but new travelers will have problems and I mean will have problems. Not a time goes by that we haven’t had delays, cancellations, etc."

I won't deny your own personal experience, but I can say with confidence that the odds are really quite small that the average person will get delayed or cancelled every single time. If delays and cancellations were such a problem, they would affect ALL users - and it's only logical that those who ride them "all the time" would be affected even more and give up. Yet they still ride them all the time. So I suspect that this warning about trains is a bit overstated.

And the regional trains we are discussing in this thread - the ones used for short day trips - have a better punctuality record than the long-distance, high-speed trains. The data in fact show that in the first 5 months of this year, 95% of the regional trains were "on time" (which according to DB means either early, on time, or less than 5 minutes late.)

https://www.bahn.de/p/view/service/auskunft/puenktlichkeit_personenverkehr.shtml

There are learning curves with train travel for sure. But they aren't insurmountable - ticket machines and DB counter persons can generally help you in English, and like the OP said, English is very common these days on the street as well - so asking someone a question or for help is usually productive. I see no reason to raise a red flag about trains - especially in Germany.

I wonder whether car trips in Germany, if similar data were kept, could manage a similar rate of punctuality... cars always have to stop for gas - and bladder problems - and they are certainly not immune to traffic jams, accidents, car problems - and train crossings (where cars of course always take a lengthy break.)

I can echo what Russ said about the trains. We were just in Germany last month and traveled exclusively by train, both ICE and regional (mostly regional). We had 2 (minor--10-15 min) delays out of more than 12 regional trips and 1 delay on an ICE, about 40 minutes (of a 3 hour trip). Mostly, they ran right on time. We used trains in Italy last year but other than that, we are not experienced train travelers, but it is not hard to navigate a German train station. Have fun! We loved Rothenburg...and Nuremberg. Wanted to go to Bamberg but got rained out.

Took a fairy across

What kind of transport did the "fairy" use? Car? Train? or bus? Or did he take you on a ferry? (BTW, they prefer to be called "gays" nowadays.)

I have to side with those advocating public transportation. In almost six months travel (cumulatively) over 18 years I have traveled exclusively by public transportation, mostly rail, and I have had no significant problems. Most regional trains have been within 5 minutes of being on time. A few trains have been part of an hour late, but never a full hour. And since most trains run at least once an hour, being a little late is a minor inconvenience - there is usually another in an hour.

Using public transportation means that I am free to do whatever I want with my time - not just watch the road. I can view the scenery, if there is any, eat, review my schedule, do my expense report, write in my log, etc. I've even fallen asleep. Good thing I wasn't driving!

I've looked at car rental vs public transportation for each of my trips going back to at least 2007, and I have always found that, even without CDW, a car rental (including fuel, tolls) is 2 to 3 times as expensive as public transportation.

In Würzburg we liked the castle across the river including the museum devoted to the Main Franconian region. The walk up to Kapelle pilgrimage church through the vineyards is also interesting. The stages of the cross are featured along the way.

We lived in Germany and had our own car. The road system works well.

Since, We have made 14 return trips in the last 12 years and have relied on trains. We have made over 125 train trips, mostly regional trips. Only once did we miss a connection. Another time we had a long delay as a burning farm silo collapsed on the line. We have had a few other minor delays. The trains have been very dependable.

Russ made some great day trip suggestions. And, count me as another fan of Rothenburg, though I would prefer an overnight.

And, count me as another fan of Rothenburg, though I would prefer an overnight.

Yes, definitely stay overnight in Rothenburg. My first (of three) visits to Rothenburg I came in for the day from Ansbach. The next time I stayed two nights and the extra time allowed us to walk the wall, which I found interesting. The third time I also spent two nights.

In Würzburg I found Marienberg, the fortress across the river from town, far more interesting than the Residenz.

I don't usually take recommendations for restaurants. I prefer to just walk around town looking a menus, but in 2007 my host recommended Am Stifthaug to me. It was very good. I recommended it to Gary Mc and he liked it too. It's half a block south of Stift Haug church on Textorstraße, close to the Hauptbahnhof.

A word about Iphofen. Don't go too late in the fall. We were there last year in mid-October and the town was virtually dead. I think we were in town for 20 minutes before we saw a single person (2, actually) on the streets. It reminded me of the Twilight Zone pilot, "Where is everybody", where a guy wanders into a town that appear to have been recently deserted - coffee still on in the cafe, etc.

"All I am saying is be fair about trains and their reliability."

That is what I hoped to do by injecting the objective statistical data - which show 19 of 20 regional trains to arrive on time.

Funny story... Mr. Train Lover here was on a IC train from Koblenz to Düsseldorf two weeks ago - with Mrs. Train Lover. Just after leaving Cologne, the train stopped in a small suburban station, and we were told a re-routing was necessary because emergency medical services were on the tracks... D'dorf and 3 other towns on the route would no longer be served, and we were to hop out and catch a local train for D'dorf. OK. But the next train was almost an hour later, according to the master schedule. I checked the electronic platform boards at that point and (luckily) found a regional train leaving in 2 minutes... why that?, I thought. Turns out that train was 30 minutes late! So yeah, we were around 45 minutes late in D'dorf that day.

(A consoling thought... If I'd had a heart attack or a stroke that day, the train might be stopped and medics sent in to save me!)

Definitely a bad day for trains in our case. And I have had other similar experiences over the last 4 decades. But if I were asked to predict what others will experience, I think it would not be fair of me to advise against trains altogether based on my isolated misfortunes - especially in light of the on-time statistical record of the German train system.

You are doing people a disservice about your advice.

And so are you!