Special interest - trains and river cruise

Hello,

you can combine a river cruise with a train ride, i.e. get to your embarkation port by train, or after your cruise to get to an airport not close to your debarkation port. Usually very easy and comfortable in Europe. There are those people, though, who love trains beyond a simple means of transport. :)

So for mondane, yet stylish, travel there is Eurostar and Thalys as well as many French TGV and German ICE, etc.

http://www.eurostar.com/rw-en

http://www.seat61.com/thalys.htm#.U8gyGrGeL5k

http://www.raildude.com/en/

For the train lovers:

For Nuremberg the river cruise lines have itineraries focussing on its connection with sad history. This museum does not seem to get mentioned in reviews, so, rarely visited I guess, it is the Deutsche Bahn Museum:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attract...a_Bavaria.html

The slightly disappointed reviews come from British people, which is understandable because they have the National Railway Museum in York on home soil. That one is just stunning!

The German website is:

http://www.dbmuseum.de/museum_de/home/

While you are on a river cruise along the Rhine you can visit the “outpost” of the German Railway Museum in Koblenz Lützel (a suburb). That little museum focusses on old electric engines but also contains an infamous railway carriage from the 1930's. I cannot be specific otherwise I will get those asterisks in my post. Very interesting. The opening times are very limited though.

Along the Rhine the railway routes are excellent and you can see many trains of different type going along its banks in the Rhine gorge because, well, the valley is so narrow.

Oh, and one of my favourite spots (I am a train enthusiast, in case you have not noticed) is the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne. One of the busiest railway bridges in Germany and now covered at the walkway in love locks. It is right next to the Cathedral.

notamermaid

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notamermaid - thanks so much for the information.

Fantastic - thank you! Bookmarked the German museum site!!

Thanks. We knew about York, but will add the German one to my list. I spent nearly three years in Germany but never made it over to Nurnemburg. Also, I have heard about an amazing museum in Munich - the technical one?

I also would like to give a shout out to the Zeppelin Museum in Friendrichshafen. It is not very big, but very cool. I spent several months living down there, and visited this several times.

One question regarding train travel in Germany, pre 9/11, you used to be able to ship our luggage ahead on the train and they would hold it for you at the next station - do they still do this?

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Thank you everyone for the feedback.

RSLeesburg,

yes, the Deutsches Museum München! I have not been but it has been highly recommended to me:

http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/information/

With Deutsche Bahn you can still have your luggage picked up at home and sent by train to your destination. But I have no idea if this works for passengers from abroad. Perhaps you will find this section of their website useful:

http://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/offers/luggage/kuriergepaeck.shtml

Or the sites I had mentioned above can help perhaps.

notamermaid

Thank you everyone for the feedback.

 

RSLeesburg,

 

yes, the Deutsches Museum München! I have not been but it has been highly recommended to me:

 

http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/information/

 

With Deutsche Bahn you can still have your luggage picked up at home and sent by train to your destination. But I have no idea if this works for passengers from abroad. Perhaps you will find this section of their website useful:

 

http://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/offers/luggage/kuriergepaeck.shtml

 

Or the sites I had mentioned above can help perhaps.

 

notamermaid

Thanks. I will try to find out. When I suggested that we could travel around a bit by train, my wife asked if we would need to lug our suitcases around the entire time. With this service, I thought maybe we can have the DB send a few ahead for us.

By the way, here is link for the Zeppelin Museum. I think people interested in trains and river cruises would also be fascinated by this other mode of transportation.

http://www.zeppelin-museum.de/home_en.html

They have a full size replica of the Hindenburg gondola that you can walk through. What I wouldn't give to fly from Germany to NY in one of these.

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There is also a great technology museum in Speyer...

http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en

Something else to think about when you are cruising the Rhine!!

Fran

Thank you franski for pointing this one out. They have the "full range" of technology including trains:

http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/en/locomotives

There is also an old Rhine ship from 1907 in the museum.

I recall having read in an itinerary of a river cruise company that they offer the technical museum as an optional tour. Cannot remember which one.

notamermaid

Rhine river at a comfortable level for sailing.

Here is another one in Mulhouse, France:

http://www.citedutrain.com/en/home

The Mulhouse train museum can be reached from Basel by train and then tram.

notamermaid

Thanks for the tips. DH is a train buff and we have taken many train trips in the US and Canada. I took a 30 day trip around Europe in the early 70's and found it fun, but I was a lot younger! We took a WWII bus trip last June from Paris to the eagles' nest with stops in Germany and Belgium. We want to go back to some of the places and thought a river cruise on the Danube would be good. I have done more research and I'm not sure I would enjoy the boats as much as our ocean cruises while paying a lot more. Now I am considering a train trip. It would involve a lot more research on my part, but I have time.

Could we manage a train trip and still get to Budapest, Nuremberg, Vienna and Prague, staying in moderate hotels and eating moderate meals for less than the $1000 per day price of the river cruises? Could we find tours in each city on our own? Do they still sell the train passes for all of Europe? How much are they? Thanks for any help.

When I suggested that we could travel around a bit by train, my wife asked if we would need to lug our suitcases around the entire time. With this service, I thought maybe we can have the DB send a few ahead for us.

 

Here's a page from the German railroad site with info on luggage services.

FuelScience

http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/prices/luggage/courier-luggage-service.shtml

There is also a great technology museum in Speyer...

 

http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en

 

Something else to think about when you are cruising the Rhine!!

 

Fran

This was an option on our recent Avalon cruise, they charged a lot of money for it, when in reality it was perhaps less than 1/2 mile walking to the museum from where the ship was docked. So if interested investigate DIY.

If the Rhine River runs low, and your cruise turns into a bus tour, you can certainly use the train to see all the castles, the train runs directly along the river passing each little town. Not sure if the River is flooded if that would work.

Hello Got2Cruise,

Thank you for the information. When the Rhine river has bursted its banks and river traffic has been halted you can still take the train to all towns. As the flooding increases access to stations might get difficult and eventually the water would reach a few stations. The train lines are on embankments in the Rhine gorge, mostly above road level.

notamermaid

Hello sunshine nana,

there are actually short cruises on the Danube available with European river cruise companies and there are also local companies that do day trips on the Danube.

For train travel the websites I mentioned above

http://www.seat61.com

and

http://www.raildude.com/en/

are good places to start looking for the options.

notamermaid

Thanks. I will try to find out. When I suggested that we could travel around a bit by train, my wife asked if we would need to lug our suitcases around the entire time. With this service, I thought maybe we can have the DB send a few ahead for us.

 

By the way, here is link for the Zeppelin Museum. I think people interested in trains and river cruises would also be fascinated by this other mode of transportation.

 

http://www.zeppelin-museum.de/home_en.html

 

They have a full size replica of the Hindenburg gondola that you can walk through. What I wouldn't give to fly from Germany to NY in one of these.

 

 

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Is this museum along the Rhine or Main with access form the river cruise ports? The site said it's on Lake Constance but I have no idea where that is. Thanks, m--

Is this museum along the Rhine or Main with access form the river cruise ports? The site said it's on Lake Constance but I have no idea where that is. Thanks, m--

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Zeppelin+Museum+Friedrichshafen/@47.6507925,9.4830611,6z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x479b00e2e656a333:0xd5963a18b8ac90a6

If your cruise includes a stop in Speyer, the Technical Museum there includes a display of locomotives. http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/en/locomotives

That said the highlight for me was the aviation displays.

Is this museum along the Rhine or Main with access form the river cruise ports? The site said it's on Lake Constance but I have no idea where that is. Thanks, m--

Unfortunately it is not on the rivers, but if you are using the trains in Germany, you can take Intercity or regional train to Ulm (I think), and take regional train down to Freidrichshafen, which sits on Lake Constance. The museum is a short walk from the train station.

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Unfortunately it is not on the rivers, but if you are using the trains in Germany, you can take Intercity or regional train to Ulm (I think), and take regional train down to Freidrichshafen, which sits on Lake Constance. The museum is a short walk from the train station.

 

 

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Thank you! It sounds amazing! m--

Thank you! It sounds amazing! m--

If you never been to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) area, you are in for a pleasant surprise. Very beautiful. The lake is the second biggest in Europe. On a clear day you can see the Swiss alps. Frierichshafen has a very nice park right on the water (and this is directly across the street from the train station). I lived in that area for 5 months, and loved it! I hope you enjoy it.

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Thanks notamermaid for the train info. I am starting to do the research. I think the trip will be put off another year! The website is great. It is a lot more work than the bus trip or our usual ocean cruises, but it will be worth the work.