Hello,
A friend and I will be arriving in Frankfurt Hahn airport in late November and will be making our way to Heidelberg. We would like to make some stops along the way, but want to go via public transportation rather than renting a car. Can anyone make any recommendations? We are interested in history, walking tours, castles, Christmas markets (if any are open that early), wine, etc. We have about 4 days to make this trip. Thanks in advance for any help!
You can take the bus from Hahn to Mainz, a nice city on the Rhine with a very good Christmas market, an interesting Romanesque Cathedral and old town. Ruedesheim, across the river and downstream, has a good one too - get there (and everywhere else) by train. Then continue north for a tour of Marksburg Castle in Braubach - www.marksburg.de . Across the river from here, the villages of Boppard, and to the south, St. Goar, Oberwesel, and Bacharach are scenic wine towns along the Rhine that are worth a stroll through.
Sarah, Mainz is a very good idea for a stop as even the Ryanair bus from Hahn stops there. The other rhine river villages and towns would be side trips from Mainz, are even further North than Hahn airport. So stop at Mainz and then continue your journey to Heidelberg. By the way, if you're into Christmas markets the one in Mannheim, only 10 miles from Heidelberg, is actually even nicer than the one in Heidelberg... http://weihnachtsmarkt-deutschland.de/bilder/weihnachtsmarkt-mannheim.gif
From F'furt train to Wurzburg to see the Residence. Train to Rotenburg for xmas market, and then to H'burg
If you want to see the middle Rhein (Marksburg, Boppard, St. Goar, etc), there is a bus from Hahn to Koblenz. It makes more sense to start there, since the Marksburg is close.
There is plenty to see between Hahn and Heidelberg, you don't need to go to Würzburg or Rothenburg. And the Residenz is not the most interesting sight in Würzburg.
We just returned from a tour Mainz,Rothenberg, Heidleberg, Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Leipzig, Fulda and Frankfurt. After Berlin we were on train. We wish we would have purchased our tickets before we left home to receive the discount via internet. When you go to the ticket office, they charge an extra fee. Internet cafes don't have printers to use. We did have a hotel help us print to get the discount for train. Train was excellent, if it stops in the town you want to see.
Rothenberg, old walled city, wonderful Christmas store and Night Watchman Tour were highlights on trip. So was the Residence for us. It is a muse filled with extraordinary wealth, riches, unusual muse pieces. We saw the one in Munich. So much to see so little time!!!!
