Hello! I am planning a trip around Europe in the summer (mainly June)and would like to visit Gimmelwald, Switzerland and then travel to Rothenburg, Germany. I will be purchasing a Eurorail pass, but I know it has limited use in Gimmelwald. I THINK my travel partner and I have figured out how to get to Gimmelwald from Cinque Terre,Italy, but we're having trouble getting from Gimmelwald to Rothenburg by train. We are hoping to do a night train on 22 june 2009 so we can spend the day in Rothenburg and more time in Gimmelwald the day before. We have both researched this extensively, but are finding there are no night trains and only trains with about 8 stops. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we can do this? ANY help in this matter would be GREATLY appreciated!!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, US
519 posts
We did the trip from Lauterbrunnen to Rothenburg by rail and did the following. Train from Lauterbrunnen to Basel Bad (leave 8:03 arrive 10:41). We then bought a Dauer Spezial (before we left US) from Basel Bad to Rothenburg (leave 11:22, arrive 16:49). This was our longest train day of our trip, but was the best way I found to get there. We did have to change a total of 5 times (Interlaken, Basel Bad, Karlsruhe, Ansbach, and Steinach) but had no problems except in Steinach our train was late arriving. They held the departing train though as most everyone was transferring to the Rothenburg train.
Have to check the Bahn website, but this was the quickest way we found based on the times we wanted to leave.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
I can almost guarantee that no night trains exist from Interlaken to Rothenburg. Did you try Zurich to Frankfurt?
Posted by
Edmonds, WA, USA
88 posts
That does sound like a rough connection. Rothenburg isn't well-connected to other cities by train. It takes 2-3 trains to get there just from Munich.
I'd try:
Interlaken to Zurich (1 train) to Munich (1 train) to Rothenburg (2 trains)
I just flipped through my timetable to try to find something more direct from Interlaken to Munich, but I couldn't find one.
(From Cinque Terre to Gimmelwald, are you planning La Spezia to Genoa to Milan to Interlaken? I am trying to do the same trip in reverse myself in June, but was having the same too-many-trains problem.)
Posted by
dallas, tx, usa
1358 posts
I have been to Rothenburg twice by auto; I didn't see a RR station. I can guess that the bus may be the solution to your question.
Do a google search for "transportation gimmelwald to rothenburg".
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9110 posts
There is a small rail station in Rothenburg, and it's in easy walking distance of the historic center.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
For schedules from Interlaken to Rothenburg, use the German Rail website. There should be trains from Zurich or Bern/Basel to Stuttgart. That's probably a better route than through Munich.
Posted by
OP
the world
7 posts
Thanks everybody for your responses... all were so helpful!! We're going to take this difficult path into consideration and maybe consider another alp area...Halstatt is suposed to have beautiful alps : )