simplyme

I am hoping Treplow (or someone equally as knowledgeable) can help me with my itinerary! I paid RS $60 for a half hour consultation and I was hoping I would get more detailed info. - such as how to get from place to place (roads) and where to stay etc.

I've seen Treplow give WAAAAY more helpful info. than what I got for my $60.00. On my own, I came up with us (my husband and I) staying at the Alstadthotel in Fussen and the Acanthus in Munich. Does this sound good? Also - not sure I need the third night in Fussen and am thinking it might be better spent in Munich. My last concern is how to get from Cochem to Landau in one day without wasting a whole day driving - any suggestions? We were going that far up because we wanted to visit the Berg Eltz castle but am thinking this may be stretching our distance out too far.

We are flying in and out of Zurich and would like to spend at least one day in Austria and the bulk of our time in Germany. This is what RS gave me for my money....
March 31 - Arrive Zurich - pick up car (www.autoeurope.com) Drive to
Fussen (www.viamichelin.com or www.mappy.com - driving times, distances
and directions) Sleep Fussen

April 1 - Fussen - castle day - sleep Fussen
April 2 - Luge and day trips - Oberammergau, Garmisch, Reutte etc Sleep
Fussen
April 3 - Drive to Munich - find hotel with parking - sleep Munich
April 4 - Munich - daytrip via train to Salzburg sleep Munich
April 5 - Drive Romantic Road to castle hotel - visit nearby Rothenburg
April 6 - Drive to Mosel - stay in Cochem or Zell
April 7 - visit Burg Eltz castle - sleep Cochem or Zell
April 8 - Drive to Lindau - sleep Lindau
April 9 - visit Lindau - sleep
April 10 - drive to Zurich airport - drop off car - train to Zurich, sleep downtown Zurich
April 11 - fly home

Can you help????

bobthenavigator

See viamichelin.com for routing and distance.

treplow

Well, let's see. Can't help you with the hotel in Fuessen and Munich, because (a) having spent some of my life near Fuessen, I never stayed there, just passed through (b) I either actually lived in Munich or spent time there on business when I stayed in business hotels.

I don't know when you will be arriving in Zuerich, but after a lonmg flight, I would probably jusy drive as far as Meersburg or Lindau ( Zuerich - Konstanz - Ferry to Meersburg - Lindau), and stay there overnight. The car rental place in Zuerich can helpt you get onto the Konstanz autobahn. In june, there was some construction around the airport and you will benefit from good instructions,

The distance to Konstanz is about 75km on the A-42. You won't actually go into Konstanz, but look for the signs to Konstanz-Staad, where the ferries to leave. From Meersburg to Lindau it's 53km. In Lindau, I have stayed on the island at the Hotel Reuteman-Seegarten,across from the hartbor and the RR station, or on the mainland at a real quaint place, the Montfort Schloessle. It's a bit hard to find. For details on it, check the web site of BavariaBen.

To continue from Lindau to Fuessen, take the A-96 autobahn a few km north and watch for the B-308 (Bundestarsse= Federal highway 308)exit. I think ity is marked Lindenberg, Oberstaufen.

You want to take the B-308 to Oberstaufen, part of it is a section of the Deutsche Alpenstrasse (German Alpine Highway). Past Oberstaufen, you will continue on the B-308 to Immenstadt (I lived there as ateenager), Sonthofen, Hindelang. From Hindelang you will climb the Oberjochpass (easy driving) and conmtinue on the Austrian B-199 to Tannheim- Nesselwaengle -Weissbenbach, where youwill hit the Austrian B-198 to Reutte, and from there on to Fuessen. The distance Lindau - Fuessen is about 125km. Spend 2 nights in Fuessen, but while there take a half-day trip to Leermoos (Austrian B-314, and take the cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, part of which is in Germany (highest mountain of the country) and in Austria(an "also ran" as far as the Austrian alps in terms o) Be prepared that in April there will probably still be snow along the roads both along some stretches of the Lindau - Fuessen, and the Fuessen Leermoss road.

Next, leave Fuessen heading north on the German B-17 to Steingaden. There turn right and follow thye signs to the Wieskirche, about 10km from Steingaden. Visit that beautiful church.

Now, you have to make a choice: Do you want to see Munich and Salzburg , with and then on to Rothenburg, or skip Munich, Salzburg and see Rothenburg and Cochem? I don't think you have the time to do everything.

My recommendation would be to drive from the Wieskirche to Salzurg, spend a couple of nights there, then take the car to Munich (it's about 2:15 hrs.)After Munich, drive to Rothenburg for the night, and on the last day before you leave from Zuerich, drive on the A-7 autobahn to the A-6 autobahn, take it to the A-81 to the Swiss border and on to Zuerich. That's about 380km, all autobahn, or roughly 7 hours, including stops and border crossing.

Let me know your decision,and I'll help you then.

treplow

Sorry for all the typos in my response, but I hit the send button when I actually wanted to correct my copy.

simplyme

Thank you so much for your help - I was so hoping you would see my post!! I was very excited to find someone so knowledgeable about the area. After considering your advice I am thinking of the following itinerary - what do you think?

We arrive at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, March 31 (still cold, lots of snow)...

March 31, Friday (day) drive to Landau and spend two nights (31st and 1st). I am sure we will have terrible jet lag! Is there anything to do there? I know this sounds silly but does your car cross on the ferry with you to get there?

2nd - (day) drive to Fussen and spend the night
3rd check out of hotel in Fussen - see castles in the morning and spend 2nd half of day driving to Salzburg (after seeing recommended church!!) Is this too much in one day?

If too much on 3rd - could we see castles in the afternoon of the 2nd with a reservation?

Night of 3rd and 4th spent in Salzburg
Night of 5th and 6th spent in Munich
Night of 7th & 8th spent in Rothenburg seeing Rothenburg, Dinkelsbuhl and possibly Wurzburg (I would rather stay outside of Rothenburg and just visit because it is so touristy and crowded but it seems the most central for trips to Dinkelsbuhl and Wurzberg.)

Night of 9th spent halfway back (??) from Wurzburg/Rothenburg to Zurich
Night of 10th spent in Zurich
Fly home on 11th

A seven hour drive from Rothenburg area back to Zurich does not sound fun. I'm wondering if we could either - stop somewhere halfway and stay the night or if we train into Germany from Zurich and rent our car in Germany - could we possibly drop it off in Rothenburg and take some type of scenic (or even overnight) train trip back to the Zurich area. Is this possible? I always like to stay in everyplace two nights so I am not constantly checking in and out of hotels but I know this is not always possible. Does any of this sound reasonable? So sorry for all of the questions but your help has been invaluable and I so appreciate it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you

treplow

Before I forget it, do the Zugspitze from Leermoos only if the weather is good. Then, you don't want to go to Landau (I think), but Lindau. These are two diffrerent cities.

On the car ferry, you drive onto the ferry, then you can leave the car and go upstairs. In the summer, people usually sit outside; in April you will most likely want to sit inside. As you approach the other side of the lake, you go down to your car and drive it off. As the current phrase goes "No problem".

You then will take the B-31 to Friedrichshafen and Lindau. There is a F. by-pass, if you find it on your map, OK. If not, driving through the city is no big sweat. (You can print out a map of F. and L. on Mapquest or on the Michelin site.) I would go for the Hotel Reuteman-Seegarten, although it is a bit more expensive, it has a great location on the island. To get there, follow the signs to Seehafen or Hafen.

Lindau itself is a very charming walking city, with many good restaurants. If the weather is decent and the boats are running, you might take the boat to Bregenz (it takes about 1/2 hr.), there walk to the station of the Pfaender cable car and go up to the top of that mounain. Great view of the Swiss, Austrian and German alps. Return by boat or train.

I think driving from Fuessen to Salzburg in an afternoon, while possible, is stretching it a bit. You won't need a reservation to get into the castle at that time of the year. In fact, in my opinion, the castle is more interesting from the outside (especially, the rear, Alpsee side) than inside.

What you could do is spend 2 nights in Fuessen, during the day see the castle in the AM, drive to the Wieskirche in the afternoon and return to Fuessen. It is only 60km round trip.

Then on the next day, drive to Leermoos, from there take the Austrian B-187/German B-24 to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where you catch the B-2 to Mittenwald and continue on the Austrian B-177 to Zirl. In Zirl you catch the Austrian Autobahn A-12 and head east to the German Autobahn A-8,which runs from Munich to Salzburg.

When you are done in Salzburg, head on the A-8 back to Munich. I would suggest that before you get to Munich, you take the Munich by-pass Autobahn A-99 (it is marked Muenchen Flughafen, Nuernber, Berlin) to the Munich-Nuernberg Autobahn A-9 exit, and enter Munich from there, and stay at the Holiday Inn Schwabing. (Check their directions on how to get there from the autobahn. It's easy.) This way, you will be avoiding driving in Munich, are close to streetcar and subway connections into the city center, and when you are leaving, you are on the easy way out of the city.

When leaving Munich, take the A-9 autobahn north to the Allersberg exit. Take it, heading to Roth. From Roth, head to Windsbach and on to the Autobahn A-6. Take it west to the Autobahn A-7, and head on it going north to Rothenburg. Although Rothenburg won't be crwoded at this time of the year. If you still want to stay outside of town, you can go a bit past R., to the exit of the B-470 and take it to Bad Windsheim. It is a nice, small spa and has some good and reasonably priced hotels. It is about 30km (45 minutes drive) from Rothenburg.

If you want to split your trip between R. and Zuerich, you may wish to stay overnight in Freiburg.

Now, this is important: When you pick up your car in Zuerich, be sure it has the road toll decal for the Swiss Autobahns. Then, before you get on any Austrian Autobahn, be sure you buy at the border or in one of the gas stations an Autobahn toll decal for the Austrian Autobahns. If you get caught without that, it is very expensive. The German Autobahns are as yet free, at least for passenger cars.

Now, get yourself a decent road map covering southern Germany, Eastern Austria and Northern Switzerland and check my redcommended itinerary.

Distances Fuessen-Salzburg about 315km, all quite scenic. Salzburg - Munich, A-9 exit about 175km; Munich - Rothenburg about 260km.

simplyme

Oh how my head aches from planning this trip! I've made a few changes and I hope you can help. I've decided I would like to drive as little as possible (don't need a car in Munich or Salzburg anyway!) since I can't read the signs, etc.

Here's the plan -

Arrive March 31st 8:30 a.m. in Zurich. I read that there are hourly train trips to Konstanz even though they aren't showing on the raileurope website. Still need to get to Lindau from Konstanz OR I can take a train directly to Lindau but it won't leave until 1:30 pm (arrivng Lindau 3:30 pm) - that's a long time wasted in an airport/trainstation. Any advice?

Spend the 31st in Lindau and train to Fussen on April 1st. ALSO NO TIMES SHOWING ON RAILEUROPE - how do I get from Lindau to Fussen without renting a car?

Stay April 2nd and 3rd in Fussen and train to Munich on 4th (is there train for this (the raileurope site stinks!).

Spend 4th and 5th in Munich and train to Salzburg on 6th. (This train trip I found - so I'm all set.)

Spend 6th and 7th in Salzburg.

On 7th I need to get to Rothenburg to rent a car - I can't find a train to Rothenburg - CAN YOU HELP ME?

After getting my car in Rothenburg I've got the rest of the trip squared away (drive to Stuttgart and take ICE train back to Zurich after dropping off car.) Looks like I can use Bayern tickets except Zurich to Germany and ICE train from Stuttgart to Zurich. Any help is appreciated.

germantour

Hi,
We seem to be planning similar itineraries; I have a post elsewhere in the Germany/Europe forum about a trip late March/early April in the Bodensee, Fussen-Salzburg-Munich area. For more detailed train info, check out the English version of the German rail website (http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e) rather than RailEurope's; you can get train schedules as well as fares from Zurich into Germany (we're flying into Z and out of Munich, so this has been helpful). If you click on the "get details" and "intermediate stops" buttons, you can get a sense for which towns the trains pass through. I discovered that there's a nonstop train from Zurich airport (you can enter this in the search window, rather than Zurich) to Lindau in the morning at 9:28; I'm hoping we'll make this as our flight gets in at 8:10, but that might be pushing it, especially if the flight is delayed.

Does anyone know anything about train travel with young children in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria? From what I gather on the respective websites, kids under 6 travel free. But the Eurail passes for some (not all) countries say there are passes for kids 4+. So I'm not clear on whether we'd have to buy tix for them only if we're all travelling on passes, as opposed to point-to-point tickets. Also, perhaps there's a difference if we're crossing borders into another country versus travel within one country.

Have a great trip!

simplyme

Thank you for your help with the rail travel. I can't make the 9:28 direct train because we don't land until 8:30 and I just don't see how it would be possible. My next option involves 2 chgs. - I'm assuming that means changing trains twice - is that right? (It seems obvious but you never know until you ask!) If so, I am concerned about making these changes with limited time. Anyway, thanks again for your help!

treplow

simplyme, you can shoot for the 9:29 train to Lindau, but more likely you will be better off taking the 10:52.You have to walk or take the shuttle from the arrival terminal to get your luggage and then walk some more to the ticket office. The trains leave at a lower level, with the escalator close to the ticket office.

The 10:52 gets into St. Gallen at 11:53, on track 1; your conneting train leaves at 12:04 from track 2, which is either on the same platform,or the one right next to it. The St.Gallen station is not big, and 9 minutes is plenty of time for changing trains .

Your next train arrives in St.Magrethen at 12:30, and it looks as if your next train, leaving at 12:36 leaves from the same track 2BC.

The train arives in Lindau at 13:03. The station is right at the harbor.