JennaJ

My husband and I are in our late 20's and are heading to this area for Europe for the first time (everything is already booked). Each year we take a jam packed 3 week trapse across a new area...so we LIKE to be busy. Our favorite past time during these trips is eating and drinking. I would like advice if we are missing any major landmarks, and would also like suggestions as to your FAVORITE places to drink and dine with the locals! Thanks!

2 nights Rothenburg
Day 1. Tour Rothenburg, relax (maybe do Night Watchman if we’re up for it)
Most restaurants are only open 11:30 – 13:30 and 18:00 – 20:00
Dinner at Gasthof Rodertor beer garden pg 147

Day 2. Medeival Crime and Punishment Museum (1 block from Mkt Sq.)- follow yellow arrows inside
St. Jakob’s Church & the Reimenschneider wood carving there
Town Walking Tour- self guided, start at Market Square
Walk along the Wall (1 ½ miles) – best at sunset. Start at Spitaltor (south end) and walk counterclockwise to the “forehead” (look on map to see face)
Dinner at Restaurant Glocke

2 nights Fussen
Day 1. Drive the rest of Romantic Road south to Fussen.
Early start, drive South on RR. Quick stop in Dinkelsbuhl, cross the baby Danube River (Donau) and continue South to Fuessen. Stop in Garmish
Day 2. Royal castles. Get there by 8am (pg 84). See H castle at 9 and N castle at 11. When making reservation insist on the tightest schedule with no lunch break. Need to hike 10 minutes up from Ticket office to H castle and 30 min up to N castle. Must arrive at ticket office 1 hr before scheduled appointment.
Mary Bridge

3 nights Munich
Day 1. On the way north to Munich, stop at Tegelberg Gondola & luge and ride the luge (pg 85)
Drive 3 hrs to Munich
Drop off car rental
Marienplatz square
Dinner Hofbrahous

Day 2. Morning, stroll and shop
Afternoon Mike’s Bike Tour and English Garden

Day 3. Afternoon Residenz tour
Olympic Park

3 nights Salzburg
Day 1. EED TO BOOK 2 hour train to Salzburg
½ day Sound of Music Tour, Bob’s Special Tours – 2pm tour
Steingasse Pub Crawl

Day 2. Salzburg Cathedral
Stroll Getreidegasse street (old, iron signs)
Mozart’s Wohnhaus (1 hr. Open till 7pm)
8pm concert?

Day 3. rent bike and do 4 mile river bike

1 night Hallstat
Day 1. 10:30am Pickup rental and drive to Hallstat
Go after 3 for shorter lines- salt mine tour (buy E21 combo tix for tour and furnicular) and/or do short 2 hr hike

2 nights Melk
Day 1. Drive from Hallstat to Mauthausen Concentration Camp.
Drive from Mauthausen to Melk

Day 2. tour abbey
Bike Danube Valley Melk to Krems (take tram or boat back to Melk)

3 nights Vienna
Day 1. Drive from Melk to Vienna
Drop off rental car
Circle the Ring by tram (follow RS diy tour) 30min Use #2 tram, sit on right, front seat of front car
35 min Opera tour E4.50 English at 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, sometimes 16:00
Behind opera house is statue of Against War and Fascism
Night in Vienna’s wine gardens (pg 392)-take tram

Day 2. Walk along Kartner Strasse to the Cathedral (St. Stephan’s Cathedral (open till 4:30pm)
Walk from Stephansplatz (church square), walk along Graben St (st performers), left on Kohlmrkt. Kohlmrkt ends at Michaelerplatz
At Michaelerplatz, go to Hapsburg Palace Treasury (jewels)
Evening Mozart concert or opera
Bermuda Triangle area for pubs pg 394

Day 3. Schonbrunn Palace. Take Tram #58 from Westbannhof or ride the U-4 to Schonbrunn and walk 400 yds. Get the Grand Tour Pass E15, 50 minutes. MAKE RESERVATION IN ADVANCE
Concert, or, at New Town Hall there are nightly shows on big screen at park, get food from vendors

4 nights Prague
Day 1. Book 4.5 hr train to Prague
Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) at Dawn (Old Town)
Old Town Square at Midnight

Day 2. Catch Tram #22 or #23 at Namesti Miru Metro station. Go through some of New Town, Old Town, cross river and hop out just above the castle at Hotel Savoy, Pohorelec stop.
Prague Castle-Prazsky Hrad and St. Vitus Cathedral (Castle Qtr-Hradcany). Early at 9am or late afternoon best. Ticket option A.
Walk through Little Qtr (Mala Strana) and Little Qtr Square (Malostranske Namesti)
Could go see a band or concert. Check ent section of RS.

Day 3. 9am Jewish Quarter (Old Town)
Charles bridge (Old Town)
Wenscelas Square (New Town-Nove Mesto)

Day 4.

Day 5. Depart for home

runco

Wow, you are so organized - is your trip soon? My husband and I are also taking a 3 week trip and visiting a lot of the same cities. Unfortunately, I don't have any advice for you, but your itinerary has helped with ours so thanks!

Trophywife007

Only one picky tweak... In Salzburg, you might want to call it the "festung" i.e. fortress. If you ask for directions to the entrance of the "cathedral" you might wind up in a different place.

Sounds like a great trip!

baby108

You might want to fit Tricky Fountain (Helburn Palace) into you Day 2 or Day 3 in Salzburg, it's really worth a trip and only 20 mins by bus from the town center.

Betsy

If you see some roses be sure to stop and smell them.

JennaJ

Thanks. We are leaving in 2.5 weeks! CANNOT wait!

Keep the suggestions rolling. Any memorable places to dine & drink?

tcreath

I think your itinerary looks fantastic. Sounds like you will have a great time!

I don't have a lot of restaurant recommendations, as we usually just menu shop, but I will recomment Stiftskeller St. Peter in Salzburg. The food was wonderful and the restaurant itself very atmospheric. Supposedly the restaurant has been around since 803 and visited by Charlemagne.

In Rothenburg we ate at the Hotel Restaurant Kloster-Stuble, the same place we stayed at. The food was excellent.

Dinner at Hofbrauhaus was so much fun! Sure, its touristy, but the food was surprisingly good (and the apfelstruedel excellent!), the beer was great, and the atmosphere so lively!

We did the bike tour from Krems to Spitz and it was one of the highlights of our trip last year. We loved it! Be sure to stop and try some wine at the various wineries.

Tracy

baby108

Yes,Stiftskeller St. Peter in Salzburg is very nice, we did the Mozart dinner and the music and the vocal was very nice, even my 2 sons (age 7&8)loved that. I think the Mozart dinner is about 30 Euro each person, well worth the money.

baby108

Didn't see that you are planning to do Mozart dinner at Vienna. I think it will be nice too, might be more expensive to do it in Vienna though. We had the best Sacher cake at Palmenhaus in Vienna, better than that at Hotel Sacher. Also the Steirereck in Vienna is very nice, supposingly the best restaurant in Austria, very expensive but well worth the experience.

pja1

In Fussen we liked dinner at Gasthof Krone. May not be the best place in town but it had a great medieval atmoshere and we LOVED the Honig (honey) wine! Also, on the way from Fussen to Munich, take a break for lunch at Andechs Monestary. Nice church, great beer, sausages and pretzels!!!
www.krone-fuessen.de
www.andechs.de

RufusTFirefly

Dining in old Rothenburg and at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich doesn't correlate very closely to dining with the locals. But I imagine you don't need to experience every meal with local people.

A restaurant that we liked in Munich:
The Liebighof im Lehel-- http://www.liebighof.de/
Had some very pleasant Bavarian dishes at reasonable prices. It's not far from the Bavarian National Museum and Schack Galerie. One of the museum guards recommended it.

Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles are in the village of Hohenschwangau, just a few kms. from Fuessen. We stayed in Hohenschwangau village and found a very pleasant restaurant that did actually have locals dining there as well:

Alpenhotel Meier on the road to Schwangau on the outskirts of Hohenschwangau.
http://www.alpenhotel-allgaeu.de/engl/e-willkommen.htm

Don't know what the hotel itself is like inside (it looked nice from the outside), but we sure enjoyed that evening--even had a cowbell serenade as the local cows headed back to the barn. It was very reasonably priced as well. At least it was 3 years ago.

5 minutes drive from the middle of the village.

noe847

For the most part, your days are organized but not really PACKED. You will most likely be able to fit in some other sights along the way in most of your cities, imo.

Vienna is home to some of the world's best art, especially the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Albertina has wonderful Old Master drawings. I think you could fit a visit to either museum on your Vienna day 2, unless you plan to do a lot of shopping on Graben or Karntnerstrasse. The Hofburg Palace doesn't take a ton of time. Also stop for coffee or pastry while you are in the old town - Vienna is known for its coffee culture. Our favorite restaurant is Am Drei Hacken, not far from Stephensplatz. It features well cooked local specialties, and is not at all filled with tourists. We go at least once each time we visit Vienna.

I'm a bit confused by your Salzburg day 2. There is a cathedral in town, but it is a fairly quick stop. The Fortress/Festung on the hill is a must. It is worth a couple of hours. Also, the 'catacombs' are very interesting. The gardens at the Mirabell Palace on the other side of the river should be very pretty (All my visits have been in winter, so I can only imagine).

Munich is fun for shopping - stop in Dallmayr's for coffee. Walk down Maximillianstrasse for window shopping at the high end shops. We had a fabulous meal in Munich, but cannot remember the name of the restaurant. It was a couple of doors down from the Hotel Opera (which is where we stayed). Another night we enjoyed a meal at the Ayinger Brewhouse - because the Hofbrauhaus was absolutely mobbed (this was a few days before Christmas). The food and beer were good and the atmosphere cozy.

bettyk

The restaurant at the Seehotel Gruner Baum in Hallstatt is quite good as is the restaurant at the Zauner Hotel. The Gruner Baum is right on the lake so you might enjoy the view a little more than at the Zauner.

JN

Munich sights suggestion: You might consider going to Schloss Nymphenburg, perhaps as an alternative to Olympic park. For Munich restaurants, I'd suggest any of the following--in my order of preference:
--Hackerhaus on Sendlinger strasse--awesome food, huge selection (try the Obazter appetiser), excellent beers and terrific apple strudel.

--Andechser am Dom--near the Frauenkirche, behind Marienplatz. their schnitzel is the best we've ever eaten, many other pork dishes, terrific beers.

--Donisl, on Marienplatz. Many pork dishes, good beer, oompa band atmosphere, great prices

Salzburg: I'd second the recommendation of Mirabell Gardens. As for restaurants, we loved St. Peters, Cafe Glockenspiel and Eulenspiegel, all in the Altstadt. For an entertaining "beer under the trees with locals", go to the Augustiner monastery/brewery.