Fairytale Castles & the Glacier Express

Titan Travel VIP door-to-door travel service collects you from home, for your flight to Düsseldorf. Upon arrival, embark MS Serenade 1 (4T), where light refreshments are available. A welcome cocktail and captain’s gala dinner are served this evening.

Schloss Drachenburg is a castle-like villa with a Gothic fairytale finish, built on a hill cited in dragon folklore. Built in the late 1800s for a baron who never lived here, the villa has been restored and renovated with tapestries, murals and some of the questionable artefacts collected by the list of owners. Once we’ve admired its spires, battlements and landscaped gardens, we sail on the Moselle River to the charming medieval town of Cochem.

The old town of Cochem sits amid sloping vine-clad banks in a beautiful part of the Moselle Valley. Look out for the marks of the Middle Ages as you explore, or take an optional tour to the Imperial Cochem Castle, with beautiful medieval towers and fairytale turrets. A tasting of local German wines is part of the excursion.

Hidden deep in the forest, on a small hilltop clearing, sits the particularly picturesque medieval Eltz Castle. The 80-room castle is still occupied today, by the same family who moved in 850 years ago. You’ll discover little has changed since 1540. Even the medieval knights are said to still haunt its corridors. The Treasury and Armoury boast world-class artworks in gold and silver.

Relax on board as we cruise through the glorious countryside of the Rhineland-Palatinate region, with views of quaint, historic towns, rolling hills, woodlands and medieval castles along both banks of the river.

At the point where the Moselle meets the Rhine, sit Koblenz’s most famous sites. On one bank is Deutches Eck, where a statue commemorates Kaiser Wilhelm I. On the second bank is the 19th century Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, the last incarnation of the fortifications that have watched over Koblenz through the last millennia. There’s an optional excursion to the fortress. We set off later for an afternoon of cruising along one of the river’s most scenic stretches, the UNESCO-listed Upper Middle Rhine Valley, and through the fabled Lorelei Passage, to Rüdesheim.

Join an included tour to the gorgeous Rheinstein Castle, situated on a rocky ridge with stunning views of the Rhine. Originally built in AD 900, the castle served as a customs post for the German Empire, and was home to the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph von Habsburg in the 13th century.

Join us for an optional walking tour of Speyer, or explore at your own pace. Sights include the city’s glorious red-brick Romanesque cathedral, the ruins of a 12th century Jewish synagogue and the Old Mint, with its beautiful baroque façade. In the afternoon, we take a walking tour of Baden Baden, a fascinating town nestled in a beautiful landscape along the border of the Black Forest.

We take an included excursion into the heart of the Black Forest to visit the quaint town of Triberg. This is home to Germany’s highest waterfall; foaming and roaring, the water plunges 163 metres down and was used in 1884 to power the country’s first electric street lamps. Triberg is also where the first cuckoo clocks and the original Black Forest gateau recipe were made. We return to our ship in the afternoon to spend the rest of the day at leisure in Strasbourg.

Discover Breisach’s pastel-shaded buildings and hilltop cathedral, or join our optional excursion into the Black Forest to wind through wooded valleys to the shores of Lake Titisee for a cruise, and visit Freiburg, home to one of Germany’s oldest universities and a Gothic sandstone cathedral.

Travel to Montreux, with time to explore on arrival. Check in to the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic (4T) for two nights with dinner this evening.

Take a scenic boat ride from Montreux to Chillon Castle. This wonderful lakeside fortress has been a toll station and summer residence of the Counts of Savoy, an arsenal and a prison. Take time to explore before we head to Aigle Castle, a turreted medieval château with strong roots in the local wine industry. It contains the Vine and Wine Museum, which holds implements used for wine-making through the centuries. Visit the museum and enjoy tasting the delicious wines of the region.

We board a train to Brig, where we join the famous Glacier Express, the world’s slowest express train, to Chur. The spectacular journey takes us across the river Rhone and into the narrow Upper Rhone Valley, crosses the Oberalp Pass and descends into the dramatic Rhine Gorge. Our hotel for the night, the ABC Swiss Quality Hotel (4T), is just next to the station.

We transfer to the airport for your return flight to the UK. Upon arrival, your Titan vehicle will be waiting for the journey home.