Viking Romantic Danube day trip to Rothenburg

My daughter and I are on the Viking Idun (Nov. 23)Budapest to Nuremberg with the 3 night Prague extension. I am trying to figure out a way to see Rothenburg. I know we arrive in Nuremburg on day 7 and stay overnight, but I'm not sure what time we arrive on day 7. Has anyone been on this cruise? I know we go thru locks that morning. I'm hoping to be able to take the train to Rothenburg for the afternoon. I put in a call to my travel agent and she thinks we won't have time:confused: I'm hoping to make this work... I really want to see this town!! Any advise will be appreciated:p

Have you called Viking to ask about arrival time? I admit that I have no idea of the distance or time involved but if it is doable, maybe Viking offers this trip as an optional tour?

Another option if you really want to go to Rothenburg bad enough (I've been there during Advent season and it is absolutely gorgeous), perhaps consider leaving the boat in Regensburg and taking the train on your own to Rothenburg. Overnight there and then train to Nuremburg to catch up to your boat the following afternoon.

Use this to check your possible train options. Each way looks to be around 29 to 45 euros per person depending on what you select.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Select Regensburg HBF and Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber HBF for Start and Destination. Looks like 2 1/2 hours, Regensburg-Nuernberg-Ansbach-Steinach-RODT.

The travel agent had asked if I had time to go to Rothenburg and they said no. I think I would be able to go because we over night. I would just skip the nuremburg tour. I guess I will just ask the cruise director when we get on board. I really do want to see it during advent.

Just a caution: Sometimes arrival times can change - traffic at locks can back up and take longer than predicted or something else goes wrong. So cutting closely the time after the published arrival time at a town to catch a train may be risky - ok if you are willing to wing it at the last minute. I have been on river cruises where the lock process took 2 - 3 hours longer than scheduled; then on other cruises the timing was exact.

Just a caution: Sometimes arrival times can change - traffic at locks can back up and take longer than predicted or something else goes wrong. So cutting closely the time after the published arrival time at a town to catch a train may be risky - ok if you are willing to wing it at the last minute. I have been on river cruises where the lock process took 2 - 3 hours longer than scheduled; then on other cruises the timing was exact.

I think because of the locks, main, danube they are not giving me a exact time. I'm hoping to go to Rothenburg in the afternoon. Since we stay overnight it would not matter what time I get back. We may do the night watchman tour at 8pm. I'm hoping the concierge on the boat will help me.

We did Rothenberg ob der Tauber as part of our land tour pre-cruise last fall. It is definitely worth the trip if you can make it. It was really a highlight. We spend the night in this beautiful, quaint medieval walled city.

I just checked the time stamps on my photos. We did an early walking tour of Rothenburg and then were in Nuremburg for lunch. The drive was about 1.5 hours. Maybe if you could rent a car, that might be the most convenient option to get there quickly. Since there is no rush to get back, Rothenberg is beautiful at night with all the lights and quiet streets, even though most of the stores are closed (but the restaurants aren't ;))

For anyone that is not familiar with Rothenburg ob der Tauber, just google it and click on google images ..... and it is just as magical as all the photos.

Mary