Germany travel plans.

We recently travelled over 4,000 kms in Germany and France by rail. Germany must have one of the best and most efficient rail systems in the world. I organised/planned all of our journeys via the DBahn web site. We did our sums and bought a two country rail pass. Wouldn't hesitate to do it all again. What I loved about the German rail web site, we knew weeks in advance which platform our train was leaving from. I could plan our traintravel using either zero or one change of trains between destinations. Unlike France where you stand around gazing up at Train Info boards waiting for platform information, which is displayed 20 minutes before departure!!!

"This is my first trip to Europe and plan on visiting 6 countries in 22 day's." Obviously your first trip. First, Rhein cruise, Koblenz to Rüdesheim. Save your time and limit your boat time. Use the train and visit some Rhein sites, Marksburg, St. Goar. Look up schedules at http://www.k-d.de. The most interesting part of the Rhein is from Bacharach down to St. Goar (in that direction), but you seem to be going the other way. Oh, well, St. Goar to Bacharach is only ½ hr longer. You can use a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket, hop on hop off, for all of your travel that day for only €24 for two of you. Bacharch (or Rüdesheim) to Rothen burg: With advance purchase (3 days required, 92 day recommended), this trip can be done with express trains for only €29 for the first person, €20 for the second. Rothenburg to Munich, with a Bayern-Ticket on regional trains, €29 for both of you. You can make all of those stops using a rail pass. It would be justified, but not very cost effective.

Lee, I have a rough itinerary: Paris Amsterdam Germany as listed before Prauge Vienna
Italy and back to Paris 22 days later. I am planning on getting the Global Saver Pass since there will be 2 of us traveling. I was wondering if my Germany plans were possible with my pass only. Thank you for mentioning just visiting some of the highlight towns. I may choose that if I can use my pass for this section of the trip. Can I get from Rudesheim to Rothenburg easily? PS. Thank you for your help.

"Can I get from Rudesheim to Rothenburg easily?". Not particularly. It's about a 4 hour ride with several transfers.

Tami: The Rhine area deserves another day if you can manage it. If you start a cruise in Koblenz, you're floating right past Marksburg Castle in Braubach, a finely-preserved 800-year-old medieval castle with a very good tour. St. Goar's Rheinfels Castle is also worth seeing, and the half-timbered villages of Bacharach, St. Goar, and Boppard are all worth exploring. Across the Rhine from St. Goar at Burg Maus Castle, there's a unique falconry show twice daily at 11 and 2:30 (closed Mon): http://www.burg-maus.de/voell/burgmaus/bildgalerie.php http://www.marksburg.de http://www.bacharach-germany.net/ You can't see any of this stuff from the cruise boat.

Four hours, three train changes. I wouldn't call that difficult. All changes have a change of platform but plenty of time if you know where you are going. On the connection I saw, you even have 12 min in Steinach, which is unusual. You can find the schedules on the German Rail webpage. Use "Rothenburg ob der Tauber Bahnhof" as the destination.