In May 2025 my sister and I will end our river cruise in Basel and then will fly home to Seattle from Frankfurt. I think I’ve figured out how to do this, but I wanted to make sure my plans are realistic, etc. How does this sound? -- Of course, we will need to leave the boat early in the morning, and we won’t know ahead of time where the boat will dock. My current plan is that we will stow our luggage at the train station then wander around Basel before taking an express, afternoon train (ICE 43) directly to the Frankfurt airport where we will stay at an airport hotel. We’ll fly home the following morning. I tied myself in knots trying to figure out the train situation, but I think I understand it now. Is this correct: We cannot purchase tickets until 90 days prior, but I’ll need to snap them up quickly to get the best fare. Other wise a less than 3 hour train ride becomes cheaper but several hours longer.
My questions – Does this make sense? Did I get the train situation correct? Anything else I need to take into consideration? I believe I can buy train tickets for boarding in either of the Basel stations – Bad Bf or SBB. Any reason to pick one over the other when I don’t know where our Viking cruise will dock? Buy tickets direct from DB or another website?