traveling by train in Germany

Are you aware that you can visit some REAL castles in the neighborhood of Bacharach? MARKSBURG is excellent and easy to reach by train (10 min. to St. Goar, ferry across, 20 min. to Braubach.) Marksburg has overseen around 700 years of European history. Füssen's Neuschwanstein isn't a castle, but a late 19th-century palace mocked up by a set designer to fake us all out. It served as Ludwig's home/palace for 6 months. Maybe Marksburg is already on your schedule. In that case, there are dozens of towns and cities in Bavaria you might visit that are superior to Füssen and easier to reach. If you are already visiting Rothenburg, you might want to look into Bamberg, Nuremberg, or small-town Bad Windsheim (just 45 minutes from Rothenburg, one change of train) where you can visit the fascinating Franconian Open Land Museum. It's absolute time travel to walk through this place. What? It's not a big highlight in Rick's book? That's OK - we can't expect him to know about all the great places in Germany.

"it appears based on the DB schedule it will take six trains to get there." I had to search pretty hard to find a connection from Bacharach to Füssen that involved six trains. It was easier to find a connection with three trains - MRB from Bacharach to Bingen, EC from Bingen to Augsburg, RB from Augsburg to Füssen. There are a few other connections with more trains but faster overall. I've flown in the US countless times in the last 10 years, and almost every flight has included a change of planes. Changing trains in Europe is not unusual and should not be a reason for concern. Get used to it.

thanks much for your input. As it stands now, my first stop in Germany is Bacharach and I will make certain we visit the castles in this area. From there my itinerary includes Fuessen, Munich, Salzburg, Rothenburg, Dresden and Berlin. I am still tryintg to figure out if this is too large an itinerary for 111 full days. Especially when you have trains to catch.

Soorry about my typo. we eill be therre 11 days not 111. You are probably right, changing trains should not be a big deal especially if you can do it in threee and not six.. Thanks again for your input.

Ops, Bacharach, Fuessen, Munich, Salzburg, Rothenburg, Dresden and Berlin - 7 stops in 11 days, maybe a little more since Bacharach doesn't have an international airport. A little too much traveling and too little visiting. Just my opinion.

I agree with Lee, this is too much to squeeze into 11 days. My concern would be that you will grow weary of all of the time spent in transit. I would focus on one region and limit your time riding the rail. Personally I prefer the Bavarian countryside but that's just me. We had 10 days and were based in Schliersee. We visited Fussen, Salzburg, Munich and that was enough to keep us plenty occupied without feeling train weary.

Where will you be flying in to and out of? Since I assume you already have your reservations, those cities will be givens, but I would re-think some of the in between towns. That seems like an anwful lot of moving around.

We are flyhing into Frankfort and leaving from Berlin. Maybe I should forget Fuessen Rothenburg and Dresden and concentrate on Bacharach, Munich and Berlin. The person I am traveling with really wants to go to Salzburg so that's a given.
Most people I speak to have never heard of Bacharach, but Rick Steves thought it might be a good place to start and after reading the chapter on Bacharach I agreed with him. But if you have other ideas, I would be happy to hear from you. And if we decide to go to these places I mentione omitting,, perhaps we could take the train from our home base. What do you think?

Hi, On "never heard of Bacharach"...if you're familiar with Prussian-German history, Bacharach is an historical site. The historical/memorial plaque (Gedenkstein) attests to that. My opinion I would skip Rothenburg and Füssen. See Salzburg and Dresden.

I think you're smart to just concentrate on Bacharach, Munich, Salzburg, and Berlin. You could do something like this with your 11 full days: Day 1 Bacharach Day 2 Bacharach Day 3 4:41 hour train ride (1 change) to Munich Day 4 Munich Day 5 Munich (possible day trip to Füssen) Day 6 2 hour train ride to Salzburg Day 7 Salzburg Day 8 8:16 hour train ride (1 change) to Berlin Day 9 Berlin Day 10 Berlin
Day 11 Berlin (possible day trip to Dresden, 2 hours each way) Day tripping to either Rothenburg from a home base might be pretty cumbersome. If you wanted to go to Rothenburg from Bacharach, it would be a 4.5 journey each way with 3-4 train changes. This sounds like a great trip - have fun!!!!