Enchanting Rhine or Europe's Rivers & Castles?

[2animallvrs]

We're first time river cruises & were just ready to book The Enchanting Rhine on AMA when I read Chris & JP's wonderful review, with beautiful pictures, of their Castles of the Rhine cruise in '14. I know we'll have a "cruise day" to view castles, but are we going to miss the majority of them on the Enchanting Rhine itinerary? Thank you all so much in advance -- your help & tips are so appreciated!!! :)

 

Bob & Judy

[Host Jazzbeau]

I'm confused. Jpalbny did Uniworld's Castles Along The Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam, which is almost exactly the itinerary you would get with AMA's Enchanting Rhine. But your title asks about Europe's Rivers & Castles, which is a very different AMA itinerary from Luxembourg to Nuremburg -- but this itinerary does share with the two others the daytime sailing along the "Rhine Castles" stretch of the river. So you will see the majority of them on any of these three itineraries. Or did I miss something? :confused:

[notamermaid]

When people refer to the "castles stretch" or the castles on the Rhine what is meant is the UNESCO world heritage site Middle Rhine valley. It has the densest occurence of castles on a such a short stretch of river in the world. All the cruise lines will normally do this castle section in daylight and travelling North South or East West will be along this stretch, it is sort of in the Middle of the river (hence the UNESCO title). A few itineraries do not do this stretch. That is when a cruise travels upstream from Cologne to Koblenz and turns into the Moselle or a route that does Frankfurt - Mainz - Strassbourg -Basel or vice versa. Having said that I once saw an itinerary that did just that, but also did the castle stretch downstream and upstream again, i.e. turning at Koblenz.

 

It might seem complicated perhaps, I have the river map in front of my inner eye, perhaps you might like to follow my potentially confusing words on google maps.

 

notamermaid

Edited June 2, 2015 by notamermaid

[2animallvrs]

Shortly after I sent my original question, & before any replies had come back, I realized my mistake & saw that the itineraries were very similar. Thank you, notamermaid, for your helpful reply & for suggesting Google maps. I found a map that lists all the castles on the Rhine! Thanks too for all your other helpful tips & pleasant posts. :)