Mainhattengirl

Well, except that I don't think Omaha or Detroit have any medieval churchs in them, nor ghetto walls from 1180, nor guard towers from their defensive walls that were built in 1425, nor did they kill half of their Jewish citizens and then decide to build a memorial to them, nor did they have any coronations going on in Iowa or Michigan the last time I checked and the Romans certainly didn't visit there either. Did you know that Frankfurt was the Passion Play center? That the script for the Oberammergau play came from here?

Comparing those cities with Frankfurt is a tad lame. What I see when I open most guidebooks is that most of them could use some help to find the fascinating things about Frankfurt. We may not have huge tourist attractions like the Mona Lisa or the Eiffel Tower, but most people do enjoy visiting the Teutonic Order of Knights church which was built in 1309, if they know about it. Try finding it in a guidebook though. Did you know that our city archives are in an old cloister and that they contain the largest wall paintings north of the Alps and that they were painted in 1513? Have you visited St. Leonhards to see the "hanging vault" in there? You can't see this any place else cause this is the only one. Even tourists in the 1700's came here to see this.

There is a ton of stuff here that is simply not on the tourist radar. It is just accepted that there is nothing here to see and no one has bothered to see if this is really the case. This is one of the reasons I come on here, to tell people that there ARE beautiful, historic sites here. That many of the exhibits in the museums are world class and definetly worth visiting. If folks would stop writing Frankfurt off and spend a few days here, then they would discover some of this.

robertino

Since you are flying into Berlin and out of Frankfurt, and have been to Munich before, I would suggest Berlin, Dresden, Bamberg, Wuerzburg, Rhine, last afternoon / overnight in Franfurt or Mainz.

This itinerary may seem a little too full, but you don't have to spend days and days in, say, Wuerzburg. You could just visit the Residenz there and move on. But don't miss the Residenz. One of Europe's best palaces. Really.

I will add that if you had a car for the Bamberg - Wuerzburg segment, a trip to Rothenburg would be very easy. It's doable by train, but complicated and time-consuming. Some people love it; some people hate it. If you're there when the tour buses are not, it's really pretty atmospheric.

A car on this segment would also make Vierzehnheiligen possible.

seafox

16 year old son .... I'm thinking a side trip to Sindelfingen (by Stuttgart) to visit Daimler Benz .... Porsche is close by too - not sure what tours may be available, but worth checking it out

Paul1950

But Omaha does have the longest pedestrian bridge linking two states, Boys Town, El Museo Latino, a Navy Museum, the Gerald Ford birth site, the Malcolm X birth site, the General Crook house, the oldest bank in Nebraska, Nebraska's biggest art museum, the Kenefick Park locomotive display, Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, the Mormon Trail Center, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and Riekes Museum, the Omaha Children's Museum--well, just too much to list here.

But I'll still put Omaha below a few other travel destinations in the USA.

jj100

Thanks all. So much to see and not enough time. My son is very interested in seeing the Porsche factory near Stuttgart as suggested by seafox. He would love to visit Audi in Ingolstadt. I guess that is close to Munich. Anyone know much about that place? anything else interesting in Ingolstadt?
We are looking at the following cities/towns:
Berlin - 5 days (includes day trips to Dresden and Potsam)
Nuremberg - 1 day
Munich - 3 days (includes day trip to Ingolstadt)
Nördlingen and then Dinkelsbühl - 1 day
Stuttgart - 1 day
Rothenburg - 2 days
Heidelberg - 2 days
Cologne - 2 days
Frankfurt - 2 days

This was the second go around with my itinerary. I cut it down to 19 days. I am hopping to shave another 4 days. I might have to cut Cologne, Nördlingen and Dinkelsbühl and then cut one more day.

We will be traveling via train everywhere. Is it pretty easy to get to these places via train?

logos999

Ingolstadt is within commuting distance from Munich. To visit the factory, you have to take the train to "Ingolstadt Nord" station. There's a bus from there. Downtown is nice but nothing special. The factory is HUGE and the new visitors center is about 2 blocks from the main entrance.

Cowboy1968

Most places you want to go are easily accessible by train.
Rothenburg, Dinkelsbühl, and Nördlingen might be a bit more time-consuming.

Heidelberg/Frankfurt -- either/or, and day trip to the other.
2 days in Rothenburg are a bit too much IMO.
The new part of the Deutsches Museum in Munich which focuses on transport (cars, trains, subways, etc) is also an interesting addition to the museums here. And the new BMW museum, of course.

Since you plan to leave from Frankfurt, you could fly Berlin-Munich.
The only other major attraction of Ingolstadt is an outlet shopping center, but I guess that does not count for your guys

kfusto

You can easily get to Frankfurt airport from Heidelberg by shuttle or train and that is where I would opt to stay instead of staying in Frankfurt at the end of the trip. Take those two days and add one to Munich and one to Nuremberg.

From Nuremberg you can visit Regensburg and from Munich there are many wonderful options for daytrips: Garmisch, Mittenwald, Salzburg and many more.

You are doing too much moving around in my view when some of these cities are easily visited as day trips without the need to change hotels.

I do agree that you need to study some guidebooks as well as map and also use banh.de to plan your routes by public transport.

We love Germany and choose to use public transport when we visit. We are headed to Berlin in 24 days and have 12 nights in Germany. As we usually do, we plan to base in three cities and make day trips to maximize enjoyment and limit time lost in moving hotels.

mdwahoo

Kfusto and all-

We are tentatively planning 12ish days in Germany from 26/12 to 6/01. Berlin is the focus and then hoping to do 2-3 other places. I've been to Munich + surrounding in the summer before but travel mate has never been anywhere in Germany. Do the typical highlights do as well in the Winter? Are there cities that are better winter destinations than others? Would be interested to hear from anyone with experience before we get too set into a plan. We are intersted in museums, architecture, history (WW2 tours), and being outside (Mike's Bikes and Fat Tire as well as any walking tour recommended are our typical day one in any city) to just take it all in! Also wine! Anyone visited wine regions in the winter?

Thanks!

Palenque

We plan on spending about 4 days in Berlin, maybe a couple days in Munich (so we can visit the museums and walk around the city). Perhaps a couple of days in Frankfurt. Where else should we visit and for how long? What is the best route? should we travel by train or air?>

German trains are tops - some go nearly 200mph - i'd take the traina and see the lay of Germany in between the big cities. I have traveled on trains in Germany for decades and always marvel at how nice they are (compared to Amtrak it don't take much but German trains are modern, fast and fairly punctual - two ICE (InterContinentalExpress) trains an hour between nearly all main cities so you can just show up at the station and hop the next train. Two alternatives: Consider the German Twin Railpass (two names on one pass - cheaper than two individual passes) which allows fully flexible just show up travel to hop on any train or you can do the online discount fares (act well in advance however to get the best ones) at www.bahn.de - the German Railways web portal - you can often score 39 euro train-specific (i think), non-changeable (i think), non-rrefundable (i think) fares so if you want to lock yourself in that could be the cheapest way to go. I love flexibility to just get up and get to the station on my own time and hop the next train and for these types of fares as you can see on bahn.de they are very expensive and even a few long train trips, like you envision can make the pass pay off. For lots on German trains, in addition to the www.bahn.de site i always recommend these info-laden sites: http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id9.html; www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.euraide.com.

kfusto

My last two trips to Germany and Austria have been in late November and early December. We go for the markets, though more for the ambiance of the markets themselves than the shopping etc. We enjoy strolling the streets with a hot mug of gluhwein, stopping for a bite, listening to carolers, etc.

We leave on the day before Thanksgiving for our next trip.

Last year we went to Salzburg, Vienna and Munich and did great daytrips from Salzburg and Munich into the alps. Stunning scenery and markets everywhere with music and festivities. I did a similar trip the year before to Salzburg and Munich. This year we start with 4 days in Berlin then we are taking a 5 night river cruise to Bamberg, Wurzburg, Nuremberg and a few other small towns then ending with a few days in Munich.

We are visiting Dresden for a day from Berlin and Regensburg and Mittenwald from Munich.

I agree that the trains are superb! We buy a Selectpass for first class train travel, 5 or 8 days and love the flexibility. We can change our plans due to weather or anything else and just jump on a train. While one can save a bit on advance purchase tickets, these do not allow changes. We prefer to be flexible as our time is valuable.

Palenque

And there is a special 20% off on German Railpasses if bought before this Nov 20 (2009) and then you must activate it only within six months after issue - meaning you can travel with the pass for seven months after issue

For a 4-day Twin flexipass (four unlimited travel days over a one-month period) costs $156 p.p. in 2nd class and $208 in first class

For solo passes it's $214 and $271 p.p. on the special

So with the 4-day 2nd class Twin pass that would be less than $40 a day or about 25 euros a day - cheaper than the online discounted fares for most journeys and fully flexible!

the special is in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall and i think you also get some kind of free Berlin Sightseeing Tour.

Palenque

And yes, checking the RailEurope site the 20% discounted pass even includes a free Berlin City Sightseeing Tour via a double-decker bus that circulates around town and you can get on and off all day long (i think)

NanBug

You could stay in Nuremberg 2 nights: 1 day for Nuremberg and then take a daytrip to Rothenburg via train. Nuremberg has a day-pass for the trains which covers Rothenburg that's dirt cheap -- hopefully someone who's been there recently can pipe up.

You may also want to trim Heidelberg to one day, too. Or, stay 2 nights and take a daytrip to Bad Wimpfen (great little town with incredible half-timbered architecture) or Speyer, for its beautiful cathedral.

Gute Reise!

NanBug

Forgot to say, I would definitely add at least 1 day to Berlin. There's so much to see, especially if you're already using 2 of your 5 days for daytrips.