Planning a ten-day Rhine/Mosel - Bavaria trip for late April. DAY 1: Train to Bingen via Aachen and Koln (we will be leaving Amsterdam early that morning). Stay Bingen. (Yes, we are Hildegard fans, and also want to see more of the river than just the Bacharach-St. Goar stretch.) DAY 2: Bingen to St. Goar by boat. Tour Rheinfels. Stay St. Goar. DAY 3: St. Goar to Trier by train, via Burg Eltz or Marksburg. DAY 4: Trier DAY 5: Trier-Munich by train DAY 6-7: Munich DAY 8: Train Munich-Garmisch. Stay Garmisch. DAY 9: Garmisch/Zugspitze. Stay Garmisch.
DAY 10: Train Garmisch-Berlin (where we'll be visiting my sister for a while). You might ask why we are backtracking north on the Rhine when we ultimately plan to go south. The short answer is we already made our reservations in Trier, and now guard them jealously as we will be visiting during the Holy Robe Pilgrimage. Yes, we will brave the crowds of faithful - Trier is a must-see for us. Anyway my questions are: 1. Recommendations for cheap stays in Bingen, St. Goar, Munich, or Garmisch? 2. How many hours would you allow for Rheinfels? 3. Burg Eltz or Marksburg? The possibility of scaffolding on Burg Eltz makes me hesitant - anyone know the scoop on whether it will still be up this year? That in itself wouldn't necessarily put us off, but we will leave the question open and see whether we feel up to the Burg Eltz hike. 4. Considering renting a car in Munich and doing Garmisch and the Alps by car, if we're feeling flush. Am I crazy to think of driving in Germany? Or is traffic on the Alpenstrasse more "tourist-paced"? Also, will finding an automatic-shift car in Munich be prohibitively difficult? Thanks! K
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Congratulations on being the first person I have seen mention Hildegard of Bingen on this website, but you may be disappointed. There's almost nothing (if anything at all) left of her abbey. There are some pretty impressive klosters on the opposite side of the river, upstream from Ruddesheim, however. To answer some specific questions... 1) For Garmisch, check out Gasthaus Fraundorfer. 2) If walking up hill to Rheinfels, budget about an hour to 90 minutes. 3) They're both fairly similar. One thing that may influence your decision is that Marksburg only offers two English-language tours per day, whereas they run throughout the day at Burg Eltz. The scaffolding doesn't affect the tour itself. 4) Millions of people drive everday in Germany, why shouldn't you (Lee, Russ, please don't answer that question!)? You will only be driving on a small portion of the Alpenstraße. Traffic between Munich and GaP is about average. The only times when it would be heavy would be at the start of a German holiday.
Posted by
Paradise
7072 posts
Day 1-2: Suggest you first land in St. Goar so you don't need to switch hotels or drag luggage onto your boat ride. Once you drop your bags there, you can still visit Bingen that afternoon/evening - trains run all the time and take about 20 min. each way. 1.) Loved our apartment in St. Goar: http://www.loreley-apartments.de/die_4_wohnungen_en.php (probably 10% more for a short stay of 2 nights but already pretty cheap.) 2.) 1-2 hours. See the museum part of Rheinels too. 3.) Either one. Eltz is more impressive, but Marksburg is great too, and Braubach is a handsome little place to look around. Eltz involves 1.5 - 2 hours of walking, as I'm sure you know. 4.) That would be recreational driving. I'd spend my money on other diversions, but we're all unique. You don't need a car for Garmisch or getting to Zugspitze.
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3050 posts
renting an automatic car in munich won't be difficult, it will just be more expensive than a manual. but if you can't drive a manual, you just can't. (I never learned, either). i liked the 'hotel hahn' in munich. we paid 70/e night for a double. it's not super close to the center, but it's a block away from a tram that will take you there in about 10 minutes, and it's a few blocks to the Augustiner Brewery which is a great classic munich experienced for food and fantastic beer. they have outlets all over town but i like food and atmosphere the best at the brewery.
Posted by
Lake Forest, CA, USA
1633 posts
In ref to your Munich-Garmisch leg of the trip, renting a car will allow you to do a bit more exploring of the area. Driving in this region is easy. You could go to the Ettal Monastery, Linderhof Schloss or go south from Garmisch into Austria. In fact, I would stay south of Garmisch in the small town of Lermoos, Austria. This area is known as the Zugspitze Arena. You can take a cable car up to the Zugspitze from the town of Ehrwald in Austria. PM me if you want accommodation recomendations for Lermoos. Have fun on your trip.
Posted by
OP
Chicago IL
8 posts
Russ, thanks for the advice - might revise plans to stay in St. Goar two nights. I guess I was trying to avoid a lot of back and forth, but it sounds like that's just how the Rhine is. Denise, I am curious why you recommend Lermoos over Garmisch. On a quick glance it seems less charming, as well as not doable without a car.