Burg Eltz

Sandy, Unless you take a taxi it takes at least 4 hours to do Burg Eltz by train. It's an hour to 90 minute walk through the woods each way from the closest train station, and a minimum of 1 hour to tour the castle. In reality it's a full day. We did this from the town of Bacharach on the Rhine, but if you want to be even closer you should stay in one of the towns on the Mosel. I definately think if this is something you want to do you should plan on spending at least one night in the area.

Burg Eltz is not easy to get to w/o a car and spending a night somewhere nearby ie. Cochem. I drove from Bacharach on Rhine River, a slow drive, saw the mosel river valley and stayed 2 nights there in Bielstein. It is very nice indeed but to me not just for one day w/ all the transport difficulties.

I don't think it's that hard. Are you thinking of a train direct from Wurtzburg to London or just going that direction. I tend to travel in a general direction, taking in sites along the way rather than making "California or bust" type legs.

If it's direct, then yes it's a time consuming stop.

If you're just heading that direction, it's really not out of the way. Train down the Rhine from Wurtzburg to Koblenz, transfer down the Mosel river to Cochem for the night.

I really liked the walk to the castle. It was a peaceful stroll through a light forrest along a small stream only slightly uphill for the most part.

As Brad says, trying to add Burg Eltz on the way to London would be time consuming.

According to Bahn.de, you could do Würzburg to London in a day. If you left Würzburg just before 9 AM on ICE 728 to Köln, Thalys from Köln to Brussels, and then the EuroStar to London, you could be in london at 3:56 PM, 8 hours later.

To do the trip including Burg Eltz in a single day, the best route according to the Bahn is leaving Würzburg about 7 AM on another ICE to Koblenz, then a regional train to Moselkern. If you hustled through, you might get back to Moselkern in 3h40m, in time to catch the northbound train back to Koblenz to finish you trip in London at 9:30 PM.

That would add 6½ hrs to your trip, 3½ hrs in Moselkern and 3 hrs of travel.

If you do this you should probably stop somewhere near Moselkern, check in for the night, leave your luggage (there are no lockers in Moselkern), visit Burg Eltz, then come back for the night and continue to London the next day.

On the other hand, I'm not sure Burg Eltz, by itself, is worth so much effort. There are a lot of interesting things to see in that area. You might consider a longer stay.