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Possible change to Neuschwanstein leg of our trip?

Posted by (Seattle, WA, US) on

I had posted a few days ago on one of the topics re: Neuschwanstein, and our train connections are tight, so now I'm re-thinking this leg of our trip. Comments/suggestions welcome! Here's our current itinerary:

Leave Lauterbrunnen and train to Fussen, bus to Hohenswangau. Spend night. Do castle tour at 9 AM. Catch bus at 13:40 and 14:05 train to Rothenburg. Arrive Rothenburg at 18:49. Do night watchman's tour. As discussed in previous posts, this is pretty tight for trains. Rationale was we want to see both the castles and night watchman tours, but will spend only 1 night in each place (going to Bacharach next day for 5 days along Rhine/Mosel). If we can't do what's proposed in each city, then we'd probably prefer to skip that part. This is the only part of our trip with one night stops. Rest are minimum 2 nights.

So, as I have second thoughts, I start to think...what's the best options? Keep what we have? Spend 2 nights in Hohenschwangau? Or, spend 2 nights in Rothenburg? Or go a different route altogether for 2 nights and still end up in Bacharach? Train Lauterbrunnen to Fussen is about 7-8 hrs, while train from Lauterbrunnen to Rothenburg is 8-9 hours. After our time on the rivers we'll be off to Berlin, so no other parts we'll be visiting in Germany. Thanks for feedback!

Posted by
2980 posts

Hey Jed,

As proposed, I wouldn't bother. Spend 2 nights in either Fuessen or Rothenburg. Which to stay at is a tough call, it depends what you'd like to see.
With a full day in Fuessen (Hohenschwangau) you could see both castles (Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau) and maybe take the Tegelberg cable car or ride the luge ride, which are 1 mile from the castles. Fuessen is a very nice town also.

Rothenburg has enough for a full day also. St, Jacobs Church, Crime and Punishment Museum, a walk along the wall and the Nightwatchmans tour (8pm). Rothenburg itself is beautiful, although touristy.

Paul

Posted by
519 posts

Thanks for the response Paul! My wife and I are still mulling this all over. I think we're to the point of giving up on our original proposal and now trying to make the tough decision between Fussen and Rothenburg for 2 nights. The kicker may be total time on trains. Going from Lauterbrunnen to Fussen is 7-8 hours and then another 6 to Bacharach. Lauterbrunnen to Rothenburg is about 8-9 hours, and 4 hours on day 2. Not a huge difference, but either way the first day is mostly eaten up whether 7, 8, or 9 hours, but 4 hours versus 6 on the second day would give us a bit more leisurely travel day and more time in either place.

We're going to talk some more the next few days about our options. Thanks again for the feedback Paul!

Posted by
2980 posts

Hey Jed,

Either way you really can't "lose". Both places are fantastic.

Paul

Posted by
519 posts

Just to update our post on our plans. I was reading in another a comment from a frequent poster about advice given and that often people who post ?'s just continue to do what they were going to do regardless of the advice of the "sage" travelers on this site! Well, because of the advice we received from Paul and others in a different post (Kent, Brad, etc) we have made the tough choice to change our original plans and have cut out Neuschwanstein from our trip. We are now going to train from Lauterbrunnen to Rothenburg, spend 2 nights there before continuing onto Bacharach and Cochem for 5 nights. We decided that Rothenburg will give us a bit of a different sightseeing opportunity as we'll spend plenty of time with castles on the Rhine and Mosel (though Neuschwanstein is a lot different), so we won't be castled out! Plus we plan to go to Munich some other trip, so we can do Neuschwanstein then. So thanks for all the help! Your advice probably saved a lot of stress/disappointment!

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