Help my husband and I were planning on a trip to Hawaii but have changed our minds and want to go to Germany. This will be our first trip to Europe and need all the help/advise we can get. We plan on going in September 2010 for 17 days. Can you suggest a route to go on? Places/cities we would love to go to are Rhine, Badden-badden, black forest, Rothenburg, Munich (not sure because of Oktoberfest we don%26#39;t drink and this doesn%26#39;t intrest us) we would like to however see Austria/Alps/Bavaria and a must for my husband is Berlin. He is a hugh WWII history buff and that is a must city for him. Can you help us plan where we should go how many night in each area ect..? Any advice on car rental or train info would be great to! Thank you so much!
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I would start with a travel book dedicated to sight-seeing. Michelin Green Guide has some maps in the front that would help you see where things are in Germany. I would not try to cover all the areas that you mentioned in a single trip as it would mean too little time in each. I would try to limit my time to two or three areas. All the places that you mentioned are worthwhile and deserve a bit of time to really enjoy.
After you know where you want to focus, it would be easier to make good recommendations.
Regards, Gary
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I agree with Trikist, do some homework first. The Green Michelin Guide is an excellent suggestion. You don%26#39;t need the latest edition; whatever you local library has will do. The sceneries don%26#39;t change that much!
Then decide if you want to travel by train or car. Trains in Germany are good and there are many regional discount ticket offers, usually on slower trains. Trains are a fast way to cover greater distances from one major city or region to another; but also local trains can get you to many places other than the big cities. A good website for trains is www.bahn.de. It has an English language version.
With a car you are more flexible, especially with finding lodging in off-site places; yiou can do more poking around and exploring. In big cities, a car is a nuisance - - finding directions and places to park.
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I agree with the others that your plan is pretty frantic and covers a lot of ground. The Rhine/Mosel area is at least close to a major airport - FRA - and is wonderfully scenic - a good place to tour castles , hike or bike, and take a river cruise. Berlin is a good distance from your other destinations and requires a good bit of time - 4-5 days is typical. I%26#39;d drop Munich based on what you%26#39;ve said and the places people normally daytrip to from there. I%26#39;d also drop Baden-Baden, which gets a lot of hype but is overtouristed and overpriced and not all that much fun unless you are spa/massage types (even then there are spas all over Germany.)
So I guess I%26#39;m saying 4 days for the Rhine/Mosel (including first day of jet-lagged travel), 5 days for Berlin (w/ travel), 2 days for Rothenburg (w/ travel), 2-3 days for the BF (w/ travel.) Look into St. Goar (convenient because of ferry, very scenic) or Cochem (adorable, very close to Burg Eltz Castle.)
In the BF, consider Gengenbach, Schiltach, and Hinterzarten, all very attractive small towns on train lines so that you can take outings at whim.
Then I think it would be smart, if you want the best Alp experience, to head to the real alps - the ones in Switzerland and the Bernese Oberland - for 3-4 days; after the Black Forest, you%26#39;re quite close. The Bavarian peaks may not have much snow by then but you%26#39;ll probably be able to see the Swiss Alps in all their grandeur from atop Schilthorn peak or the Jungfrau.
It would make sense to use FRA and Zurich airports to do this trip - start in one, end in the other.
A car is going to be pricey, time consuming, and very inconvenient in Berlin. And driving is a lot of work. I%26#39;d definitely recommend the trains.
If starting in FRA, you%26#39;d have 4 major train legs in Germany - FRA - Rhine, Rhine - Berlin, Berlin - R%26#39;burg, R%26#39;burg - BF.
For the German part, your best bet is very likely the German Rail Twin pass for 4 days of travel at $195 each to cover the long legs I outlined. Short outings along the Rhine can be done on daypasses costing 27 Euros total for the two of you. If you stay in a participating BF village, you%26#39;ll get a Konus Karte (pass for trains and buses) from your host that will allow daytrips and passage to the Swiss border for free.
Switzerland: check the Swiss pass options and the German/Swiss combo pass; you%26#39;ll probably use some combination of trains/lifts for 3 days if you go there. Understanding what lines are covered by the passes is confusing, so read closely.
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Thank you for the replies so far. I like the idea of flying into one airport and out the other.
Ok so I was thinking of flying to into Frankfurt-Rhine(3days)-Berlin (4days)- then- Rothenberg (2days)- then towards Salsburg? down around Munich on Austrian boarder? (3-4days?)- then Black Forest- then (3days?)-then Switzerland? remaining 2? Fly home. I have 17 days to work with. Is this to much? Or would it be wiser to fly into Berlin first? My husband is a hugh WWII history buff and wants to see for sure Dachau and Eagles Nest and Berlin. Not sure how to fit these in.
Thanks again!
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I think for 17 days your original ideas are fine, but you can spend your whole vacation in and around almost anywhere in Germany and not run out of excellent things to see and do. Therefore, you can actually visit a lot more interesting places by restricting your travel somewhat. As your husband is interested in WW II, he might be interested in seeing the Maginot Line fortifications south of Wissembourg, France.
As the Black Forest and Baden-Baden are in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, have a look at www.baden-wuerttemberg.de
www.tourismus-bw.de
www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de for the excellent castles, palaces, monasteries and gardens operated by this German state.
If you want to visit a very large beer festival without the price gouging by hotels that is rife in Munich at this time, consider visiting the world%26#39;s second largest in Stuttgart ( www.stuttgart-tourist.de ), the Cannstatter Volksfest ( www.cannstatter-volksfest.de ). Stuttgart is where the automobile was invented and has the excellent Mercedes Benz and Porsche Musuems. For your husband, in the Old Palace is a memorial to the Stauffenbergs with some historical things, and a small exhibit in the Württemberg Museum on them, as the family lived in this palace when their father was an advisor to the king of Württemberg.
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I think that%26#39;s an awful lot on your plate in that amount of time. Of course, it%26#39;s possible to do all that. The question is this: how much time will you really have to explore, learn, and enjoy, and how much time will you spend in transit to cover all those destinations - packing, unpacking, picking up a car or getting to the station, etc. It seems to me you might be shortchanging your destinations in favor of moving around a lot.
I was suggesting Switzerland instead of southern Bavaria and Salzburg - not in addition to it. If you think you%26#39;d rather see Bavaria than Switzerland, you should have time. It would surely be cheaper that way.
Before you decide to spend travel time on southern Bavaria for sure, consider this:
1) it%26#39;s possible to see a concentration camp and avoid the Munich/Dachau snarl; just daytrip from Berlin to Sachsenhausen Concentration camp as a substitute for Dachau. It%26#39;s about 1 hour north of Berlin.
2) Reviews of the Eagle%26#39;s Nest are a bit mixed;
tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187296-d1…
- nice scenery but not so much to see there otherwise is the complaint.
It might be better to spend one day longer in Rothenburg (which also is in Bavaria, by the way) and daytrip to Nuremberg (lovely old town area) to see the Nazi documentation center at the site of the old Nazi rally grounds:
tourismus.nuernberg.de/v04/pub/index.html…
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Besides the castles and the cruise boats, there%26#39;s a good reason for WW II buffs to extend their stay on the Rhine - the WW II museum in Remagen at the site of the battle for the Ludendorff bridge - the %26quot;Bridge at Remagen%26quot;. The museum is housed in the bridge supports you see on the river bank in this photo:
…about.com/od/worldwarii/p/remagen.htm
www.bruecke-remagen.de
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And as you are probably mainly interested in American military history of WW II, Remagen and the initial crossing of the Rhine would definitely fit in. As well as going somewhat west of there to Luxembourg and nearby Belgium where the Battle of the Bulge (the last German offensive on the German%26#39;s western front) was fought. General Patton is buried in the American military cementary at Hamm just ouside Luxembourg city, and there are several WW II museums such as the one at Diekirch.
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