I am mapping out an upcoming trip with my husband and elderly parents (dad would hate to know that I used that descriptive word in reference to his age, 92 by the way).

We are renting a car to travel from our arrival point, traveling to Salzburg then into Germany with final departure out of Berlin. We have three nights planned in Salzburg, two nights in Munich, two nights in Cologne and three nights in Berlin. I would appreciate any advice and suggestions for traveling by rental car between these destinations, parking, traveling into the cities and to the airport. Any suggestions on the WWII sites would also be appreciated. I have read that Eagle's Nest is best skipped since nothing remains from Hitler's retreat. Thank you for your help!

Getting your car in Austria should mean you get the vignette for motorway travel, so that is solved.

You'll find that German motorway rest stops now charge for the loo, so you'll need 50c cash, you'll also find the gardens/bushes in the rest areas have human p@e so step carefully.

Those are big steps to Cologne and back to Berlin I guess you know that.

This is the british -> German driving instruction http://www.rac.co.uk/driving-abroad/germany it should help.

There are numerous sights in Germany for the WWII buff but the vast majority of them are small memorials in towns and villages with the names of the soldiers from WWI and WWII killed in action. These are definitely worth searching out.

That being said, the Nazi Documentation Center, the Nazi Rally Grounds, and the Nuremberg Trials Museum, all located in Nuremberg are must visits.

There is a series of books by Maik Kopleck called Past Finder. They specialize in WWII sites in various parts of Germany, Austria, and Poland. The titles are mostly available only in German but a few titles have been printed in English. They sell some of them at the Dachau visitors center but Amazon.com sells them too (buy used to avoid the crazy markup): http://amzn.to/1WtccHf

I consider these books essential if you want to do more than scratch the surface of seeing the major WWII sites in Germany.


As far as renting a car goes, I prefer renting from Sixt as I can specify which model BMW I get. Whatever you choose either make sure it comes with a GPS or bring your own. My GPS advice from another thread:

Something to consider is that many TomTom models offer the RDS-TMC traffic information, something that your smartphone will not (unless you turn on data). The RDS-TMC is very helpful as it can help alert you of congestion before you get there.

Also, something to consider is that the GPS chipset in a dedicated GPS device is better than the one in a smartphone, i.e., faster and more accurate.

This one is $115 with free Prime shipping: TomTom START 55TM 5-Inch GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic & Maps and Roadside Assistance http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...U2FFZ6MVSOT2YJ
(The base model without lifetime traffic and maps is $90.00)

You should not rent a car in Salzburg and return it in Berlin - huge fees will apply when returning a car in a different country.

If your arrival point is in Germany, this is no problem, but then you need a vignette for driving on Austrian motorways. The price for a 10-day-vignette is € 8.80.

However, if your only destination in Austria is Salzburg, it may be more convenient to avoid the motorways.

Actually, I find nearby Berchtesgaden more beautiful than Salzburg, with an incredibly scenic lake, surrounded by mountains. In any case, do the boat trip on the Königssee.

Also, I strongly suggest to visit the Obersalzberg in Berchtesgaden when you are interested in WW II. There is a little museum showing many pieces from the daily life of Hitler, like menus and reports from conversations and dinners with him. You will get a better understanding of his strange (to say the least) personality but also of his way to convince other people. But the most impressive thing there is the huge bunker where Hitler had his headquarters. Almost the whole mountain has been hollowed out to create this prototype of a villain's lair. A most striking experience.

The Eagle Nest ("Kehlsteinhaus") is just a café on top of the mountain. The bus drive up is very scary and nothing for people with vertigo.

Other WW II sites:
- Near München, you find the concentration camp Dachau.
- Nürnberg has been mentioned.
- In Berlin, there are several sites. The most impressive one is the "Topography of Terror".

Driving in Germany:

It is alway a good idea to book hotels with onsite parking, usually in parking garages. Otherwise, in big cities, public parking garages are the best way to park.

The autobahn is the fastest way to move within Germany, but some of the back roads are more scenic. With a car, you have the chance to drive through small villages, to castles and through river valleys.

Your itineray will require a lot of driving, especially since Cologne is a bit out of the way. Here a few tips:

- While in Salzburg, include a daytrip to Berchtesgaden.
- From Salzburg to München, you may stop in Prien to take the boat to Herrenchiemsee to visit the spectacular castle on the island.
- From München to Köln, there are several possible routes. Net driving time will be around 6 hours. However, there are many attractions along the way:
-- If you drive via Nürnberg, you may visit the Hitler sites in this town and also the baroque Palace in Würzburg.
-- If you drive the Romantic Road, you will drive through the picturesque historic towns Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg, which are worth visiting.
-- You may visit Heidelberg with its castle on your way to Köln.
-- In any case, you should leave the autobahn in Mainz or Wiesbaden and drive through the Rhine Valley to Koblenz (where you go on the autobahn again). It is a most scenic drive with picturesque villages (e.g. Rüdesheim, Oberwesel, Bacharach, St. Goar) and many castles (Marksburg in Braubach is the best).

This said, you have to choose on which side of the Rhein you drive. Maybe the right side is the better one, with stops in Rüdesheim and Marksburg.

With so many attractions on the way between München and Köln, it might be a good idea to stop overnight somewhere in between - maybe in the Rhein Valley.

- Driving time from Köln to Berlin will be six to seven hours. You may drive via Quedlinburg and Wernigerode, two most picturesque historical towns.

Be aware that autobahns are often congested in Germany. So, you need a GPS with good traffic jam detection. In this respect, I can not recommend my Garmin at all. From my experience, Google Maps is the best system to identify congestions and find the optimal route. Apple's maps are second best, but still good and way better than Garmin. So, better install the Google Maps App on your phone.

For many German cities you must have a green umweltplakette on the vehicle. You will be fined if you enter the zone without one. A German hire car almost certainly will have one, whereas an Austrian one probably won't.

Thirdreichinruins.com is a good web site. The bunkers and the museum are worth a visit at Eagles nest. Nuremberg is very interesting. Long ride between Cologne and Berlin.

>>The bunkers and the museum are worth a visit at Eagles nest. <<

I see some confusion here. There are two sites which are often mixed up:

- Obersalzberg is the name of the mountain. On middle height, you find the bunker and the museum. Its official name is "Dokumentation Obersalzberg". It is also called "Berghof" after the name of the farmhouse where Hitler stayed. See here:

http://www.obersalzberg.de/obersalzb...ash=89852a3347

This is the main site of historical significance. And it is a most impressive experience to visit it. Please ignore older reviews of this site because it is brand new.

- Kehlsteinhaus or Adlerhorst (Eagle's Nest) is on the summit of this mountain, accessible only by special buses. This is a café which was built for Hitler, but is now operated commercially.

http://www.kehlsteinhaus.de/en/index.php

This is just a café on top of a mountain with a view.

Thank you so much for the help! The advice and insight is a huge help, from the little tidbit about the bathroom facilities at the rest stops (and given my parent's age, these will be used), to the clarification on the sites around Eagles nest. We are picking up our rental in Germany. We have asked for a GPS. I understand that I have to be precise with the address to avoid misdirection. Any advice there?

Our route is to retrace some of Dad's service during WWII (he was a medic and paratrooper). He wants to revisit the sites around Cologne and Berlin and see how the land and the people have healed (along with healing his memories). My husband and I are a bit anxious about getting them around so this guidance is much appreciated.

<i>I understand that I have to be precise with the address to avoid misdirection. Any advice there?</i>

I'm afraid I do not understand the question. The address is the address. There's little ambiguity. Just enter the postcode, street, and number. Done. Entering the postcode is preferred over the city/town/village because there could be more than one place with a very similar name -- like Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurt (Oder). Post code is just easier.

Go into the museum "Dokumentation Obersalzberg" the entrance to the bunkers are there. The bus to the Kehlsteinhaus (eagles nest) is there also. We had a freak snow storm and the buses would not take us the day I went. My husband went once in the summer and enjoyed it.
Typing on my phone earlier and was very quick. It is worth a stop.

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/

tapfree, my Dad was a paratrooper also during the war.

I guess "precise address" can mean that some, often built-in GPS devices do need the exact address (as sparkchaser explained) while others or Google maps on your smartphone can find a hotel just by typing the name and city in the search box.
When in doubt, I would proceed as sparkchaser wrote, i.e. use the 5-digit postcode and the street and number.

To decipher street names, keep in mind that in German the name of the street and the word for street are not seperated.
So, Wall Street becomes Wallstrasse (or rather: Wallstraße) in German. Abbreviated as Wallstr.

And as loos are usually of interest:
While you may have to pay 50c at motorway gas stations and restaurants to use the toilet, you usually get a voucher (for 50c) to redeem at the gas station's convenience store or cafe. Often you make the payment at the entrance via a machine which gives change.

The "off-line" gas stations are usually a bit cheaper than those with their own exits right on the motorway.
Those usually also do not charge for using the toilets. Or you use those of the next door McDonalds ;-)


Speed limits should be obeyed - even when "locals" speed all around you. Locals get speeding tickets all the time, they are not necessarily smarter drivers.

"Going with the flow" won't save you from getting a speeding ticket. You won't get chased by a cop, but cameras will just do the job - regardless how many cars go by over the limit.

Especially on regular highways, speed limits change all the time. Sometimes by random order that shows no logic or reason. Expect for those who own factories producing speed limit signs.

City limits sign = 50kph speed limit (unless posted otherwise).
City limits are designated by a yellow rectangular sign with the name of the town and the county.
You will NOT see a 50kph speed limit sign, though!
When you see the same sign again "crossed out" you left the city limits. And on regular highways, the speed limit will be 100kph again (unless posted otherwise).

NO overtaking on the right outside city limits. Never.
On motorways, you must always keep right except to pass.
Obviously, when you pass you should drive faster than the car in the right lane. But you are not obliged to race in the left lane(s). It's not reserved for speeds above 160kph.
In construction zones on motorways, the right lane keeps the normal width while the left lane(s) usually get narrower. Stay right.

NO right turn on red, unless there is a fixed green arrow next to the red light. Even then, you must make a full STOP before you turn right. Just to yield for cross traffic is not enough (as the aforementioned RAC website states incorrectly - and also many locals ignore it).

When you make right turns in cities, always expect cyclists and pedestrians going straight on. You must yield to both.

Spaces in parking garages are usually smaller than in the US.
When using parking garages, don't expect a guy at the exit to collect your fee. Almost always you need to find/pay at a machine before you get back into your car.

Thank you Cowboy 1968 and sparkchaser for this information. I had read another post about entering the correct information into the GPS so knowing to enter the post code is a big help AND will help us avoid some of the travel surprises!

flpab, you mentioned that your father was a paratrooper, my father was in the 82nd Airborne.

Thank you all for the guidance and advice!

Hi Tapfree- All of the advice received above is very useful. So I am going to go down another road.
You are not going to have much time to sightsee in the areas you have laid out. It will take you between 1/2 and a whole day to drive between all of these sights. For example , if you get off the plane in Munich, pick up a car, and drive to Salzburg, the whole first day will be shot. Then the next day will be spent in Berchtesgaden visiting the Eagles nest area. Then 1 day is left for sightseeing in Salzburg. So you are staying in Salzburg for 3 nights but only have 2 days for sightseeing. After the 3rd night in Salzburg you will dive to Munich on the 4th day. By time you get up, pack, eat breakfast, and get out of town it will be close to noon. The drive to Munich will take 3-5 hours depending on the traffic, accidents, and how long it takes to get across the border. So you will arrive in Munich just before dusk. Then the next day you will go to Dachau for one day, return to your hotel in Munich, then leave for Koln the next morning. This is an all day trip from Munich when you include packing, breakfast, etc. Then you will have 1 day to sightsee in Koln before you get back in the car and head for Berlin, another all day drive. So if you add all of this up, you will have 2 days in Salzberg/Berchtesgaden, 1 day at Dachau/Munich, 1 day in Koln, and 2 days in Berlin. This is 6 days of sightseeing with at least 4 days of driving in 10 days.
By the way, I hope you will reserve hotels in advance that have elevators. I am not quite as old as your father but the last time I lugged luggage up 3 flights of stairs in Rothenberg I almost had a heart attack. So now that is the first thing I check when I travel.
Notice you will not have time to stop in Nurnberg if you follow this itinerary. And I suspect your father will find this trip physically as hard as his trip from Normandy to Berlin some 70 years ago. And he won't have much time to review all that he would probably like. By the way, thank your father for his service...
If I may suggest, why don't you trade the 3 nights in Salzburg for 3 nights in Berchtesgaden. And substitute Nurnberg for Koln. This will give you a chance to see some of the areas in Nurnberg related to WWII previously mentioned by others above. And Berchtesgaden certainly deserves more than 1 day at the Eagles nest. Also, I suspect the shorter trips will be much appreciated by your father. I used to do crazy things like travel from Amsterdam to Munich (all day on a train), stop by the Hofbrauhaus for (quite) a few beers, spend the night in Munich, then catch the train back to Amsterdam to spend the night before catching a fight back to the US. But I was 40 years younger then...
Nowdays my stops are seldom less than 3-5 nights with a maximum of 1/2 day of travel between each stop.
At any rate I hope you have a wonderful trip and everyone survives...

Thank you travelforbeer (Love the tag by the way)! I hadn't thought about staying in Berchtesgaden although with your suggestion, I will look into that. Do you have any suggestions for accommodations in/around Berchtesgaden? I have booked the hotels and did make sure that we had elevators, parking available and A/C. My mother wants to visit the SOM sites in Salzburg. Would you think this could be a day trip out of Berchtesgaden and avoid the border on the travel day into Munich? Would we be better off to stay the first 5 nights in Munich and plan day tours to Dachau, Berchtesgaden and Salzburg?

My initial plan was to route us from Munich through Nurnberg, Dresden and then Berlin. Dad, however, wants to return to Cologne and the area where he served during the Battle of the Bulge before continuing on to Berlin where he was stationed for a year as a part of the occupation force. I really am concerned about the travel days and know that this will be very taxing and a hard push for all of us - more so for mom & dad - given that this will be my first visit to the country, driving in an unfamiliar area and trying to find destinations (not to mention traffic issues)!

Thank you for your help and encouraging words - and key will be that everyone survives!!!

<The drive to Munich will take 3-5 hours depending on the traffic, accidents, and how long it takes to get across the border.<

This is way too pessimistic. Border controls were reduced to a minimum recently, and the normal driving time should not exceed two hours. Certainly, the Salzburg - Rosenheim segment, preserving an almost original "Reichsautobahn" status, is congested often, but after all, it's 65 km only. Simply drive carefully and take your time.

When one must come to a dead stop on the autobahn and turn off your engine for 10 -20 minutes 3 or 4 times during the trip on A8 in the middle of the day during the middle of the week it is hard to make the journey from Munich to Salzburg in 2 hours. On the return it is hard to make the trip in 2 hours when traffic is stopped and creeping along at 1-2 KPH several times during the trip on A8 after taking an hour to get across the border alone. These are the conditions we faced last September the week before the Oktoberfest. I hope these problems have been solved this September. Just in case, we plan to turn off A8 at Siegsdorf and take B306 and B305 and stay Berchtesgaden this year.

Tapfree, the driving portion of a day trip from Munich to Salzburg or Berchtesgaden and back would eat up 5-7 hours, again depending where you stay in Munich and how bad the traffic is. And if your Mom is dead set on the SOM tour, your original plan of driving to Salzburg for 3 nights with a day trip to Berchtesgaden is just as good as staying in Berchtesgaden and day tripping to Salzburg. Don’t day trip from Munich to Salzburg one day and Berchtesgaden the next. Also, I assume you have reviewed the maps for the battle of the Bulge and realize it was southwest of Koln, and actually closer to Trier than Koln.
I hope you have a wonderful trip with good weather...

I've lived in Munich for eight years, and it's no black magic to know when the A8 will be crowded.

During the regular summer season:
Friday noon till Saturday noon (night time excluded)
Heavy traffic FROM Munich TO Salzburg and Kufstein
Saturday evening and Sunday evening
Heavy traffic TO Munich FROM Salzburg and Kufstein

First two weekends of summer school breaks in the more populated States (like Northrhine-Westphalia and incl. Bavaria) on Saturdays
Super heavy traffic FROM Munich TO Salzburg and Kufstein (incl. super heavy traffic on the Eastern A99 Munich beltway)

Last weekend of summer school breaks
The same as above in the other direction on Saturdays and Sundays.

Oktoberfest weekends
Again, heavy to super heavy traffic inbound Munich FRI/SAT, outbound Munich SUN

Between the A8/A95 interchange and Munich and on the Munich beltway, the breakdown lanes are opened when traffic increases over a certain level. That helps sometimes, but not always.

If you can avoid the aforementioned dates, the actual net travel time by car from Salzburg city limits to Munich city limits (i.e. excluding any inner-city driving to the Autobahn) is 90-120 minutes in moderate traffic (also excl. any refreshment stops).

>These are the conditions we faced last September the week before the Oktoberfest<

Sorry for your bad luck, but we certainly don't want to base general advice to other travellers on a single experience. As an frequent traveller on the A8 I can tell that the situations you described can happen, but they are mostly confined to certain dates as described by Cowboy 1968.

>I hope these problems have been solved this September<

The border controls have dissaperaed almost completely. As to the hopelessly outdated A8 itself, there is no hope for improvement in the forseeable future. The federal goverment is claiming that with the (some not-so-certain-day) opening of the new A12 things will improve drastically, while any maior improvement plans on the A8 are doomed to annihilation by angry environmentalists.

Tapfree
No real advice here, just visit the Dom at Koeln, and the Germano-Roman museum adjacent is great. Some beautiful mosaics and 2000 years old glass.

Please give my sincere regards to your dad. It is thanks to people like him that I learned German for the fun, not by obligation. We owe a lot to people like him, we haven't forgotten and we are telling our children not to forget.

82nd was called the All Americans I think ? Tough fighters...

Ps : Even if I have no problem to criticize Bush and Trump !
;-)

Strangely, the Germans consider Köln as one of the most beautiful cities in Germany while the Americans (at least the Americans on Fodor's) seem not to like it too much, because it had been 90 per cent destroyed during WWII and rebuilt since then.

Go with your dad into the church Groß St. Martin (the tallest romanesque church apart from the Dom, very close to the Dom, you cannot miss it). There, you see photographs how Köln looked after the bombings.

Otherwise, Köln has many outstanding attractions. The Dom is one of the largest gothic cathedrals at all and one of the few that had been completed (including spires). Inside, there is the tomb of the Three Magi and a most beautiful treasury.

As said, the Romano-Germanic museum is breathtaking - some of the best pieces from Roman times at all. In the basement of the City Hall, you can see the Roman Palace and you can walk through a 200-yard-long section of a Roman sewer. In front of the City Hall, there is a medieval Mikweh. There are outstanding art museums in Köln. And a Chocolate Museum.

And just walk along the riverfront and have a beer in one of the traditional breweries (e.g. Früh, opposite the Dom).