KD Rhine questions

From Bingen (Rhein) Stadt to Bingen (Rhein) KD, it's a 10-min. walk at most, a little longer if you start out from the HBF station. But either one can be used. St. Goar: a very short but uphill walk from dock to station of maybe one city block. Boppard - a little longer, 15 minutes at most. The German Railpass can be used as you discussed for trains and the cruise on one day - though whether it's worth using a day depends on how many travelers there are and what distances you'll be traveling by train before and after the cruise. If you're staying in one of the Rhine villages (a good idea) then it's probably a bad idea to use up a railpass day - local train fares + cruise fares will likely win out.

Bob, everyone travels a little differently. And I know from reading here that many people take their bags on the KD boat with them, getting in the excellent scenery, lunch and beer, while moving from one overnight stay to the next. For those with a more leisurely schedule, the previous advice about wasting railpass usage makes perfect sense. We (using Rick's "Germany") left our hotel in Andernach on a (I think, weekend discount) rail ticket to Bingen that was only about $5-$7 per person. We rode KD downstream to Boppard and took the train back to Andernach for dinner (We had already had an evening and dinner in Koblenz, but that's another option.) To put that another way, if you're not going somewhere, you don't really need to spend too many hours on the river. And in fact, the commuter train is so much faster that it got us back in time for some Andernach sightseeing. (Not urging you to stay there, just talking about the train ...) In addition to reading here, you should look at an old copy of Rick's book in the library. The KD itinerary hasn't changed in years. The biggest problem with our trip above was operating the unattended small-station rail ticket machines without a chip-and-pin card.

"The biggest problem with our trip above was operating the unattended small-station rail ticket machines without a chip-and-pin card." Cash works well, particularly for 5-7 Euro tickets, and I have never had trouble using mag-strip cards in ticket automats in Germany. Actually, from what I saw in Germany last May (2012) the old ticket automats have been entirely replaced by the 2nd generation, Bahn touchscreen automats, which take mag-strip cards.

If you are buying a ticket from the Deutsche Bahn, that credit card will work, but it won't if you are buying a local ticket in the cities, even though they share the machine. Cash only, unless you have an EC card.