Germany's Rhine Itinerary

If I had to pick one town on the Romantic Road to stop at, it would be Noerdlingen (Nördlingen). I was there in 2007 and really liked it. Noerdlingen probably has the best preserved "Wehrgang" wall next to Rothenburg's. The only down side is that of all of the towns on the Road, it is the most like Rothenburg, although much less touristy. Noerdlingen is easily accessible by train on a line from Donauwoerth (Donauwörth), which is on one of the main lines from Muenchen to Rothenburg.

If it's walled cities you want to see, Donauwoerth might be another choice. It has portions of it's wall still intact plus the grisly ruins of a thousand year old fortress.

"I know some stops leave about every hour"

While the train runs hourly both ways on both sides of the river, the K-D boat has only 5 runs a day each way on the most popular stretch. I really wouldn't bother with Mainz to Bingen, and unless you are really fond of boats, I would go all the way to Bacharach and take the boat to St. Goar. That stretch has the Pfalzgrafenstein (mid-river toll castle) and the Loreley.

Burg Eltz is not an easy castle to get to (see here). There are no lockers at the train station to store your luggage; I don't know if an inn in the town of Moselkern would let you leave it there. So if you are going from your accommodations to Burg Eltz to Amsterdam, luggage could be a problem. As far as castles to visit on the way to Amsterdam, the Marksburg, in Braubach, would be a little more on your way, but luggage would still be a problem.

Thanks Lee, I've noticed your other posts and I'll definitely keep your advice in mind

Wednesday: The boat ride between Mainz and Bingen is slow and uneventful. Take the train to Bingen and start your cruise there.

Thursday: Burg Eltz will be time consuming. Marksburg Castle is on the Rhine just north of St. Goar, offers tours year-round, and is very worthwhile. Take the train to Koblenz, drop your bags in a locker, then catch the next train to Braubach and walk uphill to the castle or take the in-town shuttle (Marksburg Express, runs through 10/15.) You'll return to Koblenz to get to A'dam anyway and can just pick up your bags on the way.

http://www.marksburg.de/english/frame.htm

If you catch the 11:30 boat in Bingen, you'll be in St. Goar by 1:00, so it might be possible to drop bags at your hotel and head straight to Marksburg on Wed. afternoon instead. The ferry crosses over to St. Goarshausen and you catch a train from there to Braubach.

The Romantic Road town I like most is Wurtzburg. It's larger and has more to see than most of the other towns.

For the KD cruise. I also think the one hour (approx. 14 km) cruise between Bacharach and St. Goar is plenty. It's sort of a best of stretch. If you do more, it will take considerably more time and you won't see anything you didn't see during the one hour ride. As far as a place to stay, I love Burg Stahleck above Bacharach. It's a castle turned into a hostel. It's clean, quiet and very well run. It's always full, so reservations are a necessity. Rheinfels castle is one of my personal favorites and appealed to my whole family.

On the Mosel, I really liked touring Berg Eltz. The walk there from the train station was more than half the fun. The castle is nice, significantly different than Rheinfels because it isn't a ruin. The tour is pretty brief. If you can include it, Trier is great. Trier has (I think) the most extensive Roman ruins outside of Italy, apart from that it's a nice town in itself.

I'm not a huge fan of Amsterdam. I'd take a night in Cochem or Trier over one in A'dam but I think it depends on what you like.