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Help me turn lemons into lemonade ~ EDP gone badly and now need itinerary!

Help me turn lemons into lemonade ~ EDP gone badly and now need itinerary!

Old Jun 30th, 2012, 05:13 AM
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Help me turn lemons into lemonade ~ EDP gone badly and now need itinerary!

Thanks for help and sort of a good problem to have. Brief background: my wife and I were picking up new car in Stuttgart Tue Oct 2nd. Made plane reservations few months ago (frequent flyer miles). Have 3 other friends making trip with us. MBUSA called this week and said we could not pick up car on Oct 2 (nor Oct 1 or 3) because it is national German holiday. The 5 of us have hotel, etc. reservations ending up in Paris about a week later for return to US and to drop auto off.

After hours of discussion (along with another 100,000 miles and several hundred $) with Delta, my wife and I have changed our plane reservations to arrive in Stuttgart on Thurs Sept 27. Our friends will be keeping their plane reservations and will arrive Stuttgart 5 days later. We plan on picking them up (along with a rental car).

Now, about that lemonade. We get to plan a 3 night/day trip. MB has an Alpen Route Tour (we prefer to plan our own itinerary) that: dep Stuttgart for Ludwig's Castle (stay Fuessen); dep Fuessen drive Serpentine Alpine (not sure what that is) to Schwarzenberg, Austria then to Lindau for night ~ 2 nights. Can you help with a three day/nt itinerary, returning the 4th morning to Stuttgart airport, through roughly that part of Europe? Looking for absolutely most beautiful scenery and charming towns and inns. Help please with.............

1. Route with places to stay at night
2. Nicest charming inns
3. Best local restaruants
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Old Jun 30th, 2012, 10:09 AM
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ttt - not that familiar with Germany but I hope you get an answer...
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Old Jun 30th, 2012, 11:43 AM
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I t looks like the intent of the MB tour is to take you from Fuessen (The Castles) through the Alps in Austria over to Lindau and then back to Stuttgart.

Personally, I don't find Neuschwanstein worth the effort. If coming from Munich, there is more to see in the area, Oberammergau, Mittenwald, etc., so Fuessen is worth consideration as a stretch target, but if coming from the opposite (Stuttgart) direction, it seems quite a way to go just to see the castles and then head over to Lake Konstanz. It would get you into the Alps though.

In the area, I think the highlights would be Meersburg and Lindau, both on Lake Konstanz. Meersburg really is unique German town, with half timbered buildings tumbling down a hillside to a lakefront promenade.

If it were my thee days, I would head south from Stuttgart and stop in at Tuebingen, and maybe Donaueschingen and end up in Meersburg, staying there for the whole 3 nights. Lindau, and Mainau, and even Konstanz, in Switzerland can all be done as a day trip.

If you want to get into the Alps, which didn't seem to be part of your original plan anyway, Schwarzenberg (which I have never heard of) is only about 1:15 from Meersburg.

Perhaps someone else can recommend an scenic Alps drive from Lake Konstanz that doesn't take you all the way to Fuessen. Obertsdorf is in a nice valley in the Allgau and is only about 1:45 from Meersburg
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Old Jun 30th, 2012, 02:37 PM
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Hi Philip,

might sound silly, but I wouldn't make any definite plans until I got reliable info about the weather.

End of September, beginning of October can be marvelous or it can be continous rain.

Depending on where it's sunny, go south to Bavaria or north to the Rhine valley. Both are just a few hours of driving from Stuttgart.

You can get hotels and all that in short term even though there's a public holliday.

If it rains everywhere, look for a nice pub and a few days of drinking
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Old Jun 30th, 2012, 02:56 PM
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{pssst - for future reference; this wouldn't have happened with a Volvo Overseas Delivery - they pay for airfare and make arrangements for you based on when you can actually pick up the car. We did it last year and it was seamless. Just saying~ }
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Old Jul 1st, 2012, 12:50 PM
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Aramis suggestion is a good one, although I probably would only spend one night in Meersburg, then move on to Lindau in the afternoon.
Make that my "headquarters", and visit Oberstdorf, as suggested, driving from Lindau on the Munich Autobahn to exit #4 (about 5 miles), and take the B-308 (Deutsche Alpenstrasse/German Alpine Highway) to Immenstadt and Sonthofen.From Sonthofen trake the B-19 ( a good road) to Oberstdorf. In Oberstdorf take the cable car to the top of the Nebelhorn. In the afternoon, if you have the time, take the short (13km one way) drive from Oberstdorf into the Kleine Walsertal, an Austrian enclave, with three scenic villages. Return the way you came, or on the way back to Lindau, at Bad Oberstaufen, take the Austrian Route 205 and follow signs to Dornbirn, Bregenz. Lindau. From Dornbirn on avoid the Austrian Autobahn, or buy the toll sticker for aboutm $10 BEFORE you get on the autobahn.

My favorite hotels in Lindau: Hotel Reutemann - Seegarten, on the island at the harbor, upper-mid price range, or Montfort Schloessle, on the maiunland. The latter is mid-priced, in an old winerey, a bit out of town. No elevators, quaint and rustic, no credit cards, but fun and a place where the burgers of Lindau go for Sunday dinner. Check their webside, or that of Bavarian Ben.

The distance Lindau - Oberstdorf is about 70km, one way.
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Old Jul 1st, 2012, 12:57 PM
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Sounds like you're picking up a snazzy new Porsche.
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Old Jul 1st, 2012, 02:21 PM
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I really want to thank y'all for the comments. I have the German map out and have marks all over it. It does look like it will work very well. I hope to be able to do Tubingen, Meersburg, Lindau, the stretch Kleinwalsertal area (several towns) and may stay Hohenschwangau. Not all that surprised but some of the hotels are already getting full. I did make one reservation at the Hotel Villino in Lindau. I understand is very nice hotel and they were sold out of the rooms (suites still available). I did check carefully on cancellation policy because now I will pay attention to weather.

OK "lincasanova" thanks for making me feel bad. Actually, car is a new Storm Red 2013 MB CLS. Have had a 500SL for about 10 years. Getting older and want more room. I should have looked into the Volvo. I did know they gave better discounts than Mercedes. My only recommendation ~ work with an European Delivery Program specialist. My salesman was excellent but not expert in EDP. More experience ~ on my part as well ~ could have saved some headaches. Hey ~ not turning out so badly.

I sent an email to EDP in New Jersey to see if their Alpen Route Tour can get better prices. About two years ago I checked and it did not seem like they could beat what the open market offered.
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Old Jul 1st, 2012, 02:52 PM
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"Storm red". Sounds gorgeous. I wouldn't feel TOO bad.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2012, 10:22 AM
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treplow

Have a question about the Austrian Autobahn. Is the toll sticker to avoid getting a ticket if stopped or to give to, say, a booth attendant?

Does Germany or Switzerland have the same requirement?
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Old Jul 2nd, 2012, 01:52 PM
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It is the law in Austria (and Switzerland, Czech Republic and others)that before you get on one of their autobahns, you have to buy a toll sticker. With it you cane use all their autobahns and Schnellstrassen (sort of "junior" autobahn). This is in contrast to the autobahns in Italy, where the booth system exists for the use of a given autobahn.

There are some exceptions to that in Austria: If you use the Brenner Autobahn, you have to pay and additional toll at a toll booth. That is also true on the A-10 from Salzburg going south for the use of the Tauern tunnels.

The Austrian toll stickers (called Vignettes) can be bought for different times of validity. A fw months ago, the cheapest was for 10 daysand cost something like 8 Euro.

I just watched a Video on the website of the Spiegel Magazine, that showed how the Austrian police use every trick in their book to catch violators. The charge is EUR140, payable on the spot. Th Austrians love their tourists!

So, should you decide to use the autobahn, stop at a gas station before you get onto it, and buy the Vignette. In your case, I probably would buy it, because after Dornbirn, especially between Bregenz and Lindau, you really have to know your way so that you don't wind up inadvertently on the autobahn.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2012, 05:56 PM
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If it rains while you are near Meersburg (as it did for us) try the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen (http://www.zeppelin-museum.de/home_en.0.html). If you're in Bregenz, the Wirtshaus Am See restaurant is good. In Konstanz we stayed at the Apartment Hotel which was unexpectedly very nice. The room & breakfast were both huge (http://www.apartment-hotel-konstanz....x.php?id=1&L=1).
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