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Germany Trip Report - Family of 4 with 2 teens

Germany Trip Report - Family of 4 with 2 teens

Old Jul 31st, 2010, 10:44 AM
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Sheets are to big to hang inside your appartment, but towels fit nicely on the Wäscheständer

http://www.household-discounter.de/m...gimitempo1.jpg

or in many houses you can just put them on a shared clothes line in the basement.

http://wohnen.pege.org/2005-keller/waeschetrocknen.htm

or you use the washer-dryer.
Many houses have a coin operated (Miele) and shared washer and dryer in the basement.
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Old Jul 31st, 2010, 11:03 AM
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Keep it coming! Enjoying your report very much.
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Old Jul 31st, 2010, 12:11 PM
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Day 8: Woke up to the rain still coming down. As we were to check out of the hotel in Fussen today, hanging around and reading was not an option. The original plan for this day was to go to the "crowd-free" Ehrenberg Ruins in Reutte about 15 miles away and to ride the nearby Biberwier luge. Due to the rain, the latter would be shut down so not an option...major bummer as it's supposed to be the longest and wickedest. I'll have to hit in on my Austria trip someday.

With not a lot of options in the rain and cold (temperature was in the mid-50's that day), we decided to head to Ehrenberg anyway. Stop and crawl traffic the whole way...took us about an hour. Turns out it was because of a Ritterspiele festival being held at Ehrenberg. They had all the parking blocked off and you had to park in a nearby town and be shuttled to the museum area. So much for no crowds. Ritterspiele turns out to be a medieval version of a Renaissance festival. DD thought it was really cool. Medieval tents everywhere and everyone dressed up in medieval garb. We watched a jousting match. It was announced in German but was still easy enough to follow. Then we ate some mixed grill lunch and visited the museum. The museum is just a few euros apiece and is a pretty hands-on friendly one. We all enjoyed trying on the knight's armor.

After this, we were trying to find out how to climb to the ruins (rain and all), but they had blocked off the path from the museum because of the festival and the only way to get there was a trail 40 minutes away. It would be about 4 hours of walking round trip...past our tolerance level in the rain. So...another thing for next time.

We thus started our drive to Rothenburg and our first experience with a full speed autobahn. In getting from Munich to Berchtesgaden and from Berchtesgaden to Fussen, we had driven on autobahns but they were pretty congested. DH got as high as 106 MPH on the drive to Rothenburg, and this is evidently a pretty timid speed, because folks were whizzing by us. Experiencing a non-congested autobahn was a lot of fun though.

Arrived at Rothenburg and checked into our hotel, the Goldener Hirsch. Again we have a 2 bedroom suite. This hotel is pretty fancy. Huge common areas and fancy furniture. The view from our suite was spectacular. The hotel is right inside the wall and we have a balcony that overlooks the wall, the Tauber valley, and grape vineyards.

Walked down the street a short way to a Chinese restaurant for a good meal then called it a day.
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Old Jul 31st, 2010, 12:20 PM
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One more interesting note. One goes from Germany to Austria and back with less fanfare then we go between states in the US. No "Welcome to XX" sign or welcome center. You'd never know you had moved to a new country..other than what I assumed were some abandoned border stations off to the side.
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Old Jul 31st, 2010, 06:12 PM
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I'm really enjoying your trip report. Thanks for taking the time to post it. I look forward to the next installment.

Robyn
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 04:40 AM
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Day 9: Beautiful but fairly cold day (for July) in Rothenburg...probably hit highs in the 60's. DH, DD, and DS took their morning run. Very nice but fairly hilly path through the vineyards.

Standard breakfast at the hotel, but this one was enhanced with waffles (albeit the pre-packaged kind), bing cherries, and hot sausages. It was definitely the best we had of all our hotels.

We headed out to see the city. Checked out a lot of stores for souvenirs but bought almost nothing..we're very poor consumers.

We then tried to follow the Rick Steve's walking tour but our ADD tendencies kicked in about half way through.

Climbed the old tower at the town hall. You take a more modern staircase half way up and then some "very original" staircases and a ladder to the top which is very tiny...fits probably only 6 people or so. Visited the Historiengewölbe museum. It was cheap and the dungeons were cool. Checked out the wood carved altar in St. Jakob's church...it is worth seeing...very detailed and elaborate like the wood carved bed of King Ludwig in Neuschwanstein. We skipped the Kriminalmuseum although it was highly recommended, because we had seen a similar torture museum in Italy a few years ago. Walked through the Castle gardens. On our wanderings, we stopped and sampled a Schneeballen. Rick Steve's book said these were something to pass on but with every 5th shop selling them seemed like a must to at least try. We tried 4 different types and found them a little boring but not bad. Not as scrumptious as other pastries we tried during our trip.

Then a pizza stop for lunch and a walk of the wall. The wall doesn't go all the way around and we had some starts and stops at first to find out where to find the contiguous part. Probably took us less than a half hour to walk it. Then we decided to take a walk outside the city to DeTwang..which is supposed to be a village that is the oldest part of Rothenburg. It's a very steep walk down (and back up) to DeTwang. The village is nothing too interesting..indicated by the fact that the highlight for my kids was the playground which of course includes equipment way too small for them. There is a church in the village with another wood carving but we passed on it because of the fee. Sometimes, you just feel like you have your hand in your pocket too much. It would be wonderful to have some 1-price church/museum/castle pass for Germany.

Back in Rothenburg, we had a refreshment break and played some pool at the hotel in one of their fancy rooms. Then out at 8 to the town square for the Night Watchman's tour. We were very nervous at first as we saw the number of folks waiting in the square for the tour. There was probably between 100 and 200. However, the tour was great. The Night Watchman is very interesting and funny. Definitely take this tour.
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 06:36 AM
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Day 10: Early morning run then off to Bacharach for our last stop on the trip. The road from Rothenburg to Bacharach is mostly autobahn but a very different experience from our trip from Fussen to Rothenburg. Seemed like every bridge was under repair causing major traffic congestion...lots of stop and roll. Ultimately we arrived and checked into our hotel, the Pension Im Malerwinkel. At 118E a night, this place was a bargain. We had a two bedroom suite with a bathroom. We could see the vineyards climbing the hills outside our room. The hotel was very convenient...and reasonably quiet. It was right outside the city wall (and the city is very small) so it was probably a 2-minute walk to what one might call the city center. The hotel has a small garden in back with tables and chairs that would be a pleasant place for adults to hang with a bottle of wine in the evening. Unfortunately, our teens don't hang very well...at least not with us.

Off to Burg Eltz. This was supposed to be about 40 minutes away per Garmin but due to autobahn backup and tiny, winding roads (which Garmin says you can go 62MPH on!), it took us about twice that.

We stopped at a small restaurant/bar in town and had lunch. The food was good but it was a restaurant that made you wish the August 1st "no smoking" law had already kicked in. We then headed to the Hotel Ringelsteiner Mühle where the trail starts. By the way, this was another rainy day so raincoats and umbrellas were the fare. Even so, the trail was a very nice, pleasant one to walk. Unfortunately, the facade of the castle was marred by scaffolding but it was still an impressive castle...and by positioning the camera just right, we were able to get a family photo in front of it that masked the scaffolding...made up for our cruddy picture of Neuschwanstein. We waited about a half hour for an English tour and in the interim toured the treasury that they have there. The tour was interesting. This was definitely my favorite castle, I think mostly because of its secluded location in the woods and the nice hike to it. Without scaffolding, it'd be even cooler. Back down the trail and home to the hotel.

There is a path from the hotel up to the Castle Stahleck hostel. We took this and checked out the castle. It was very active with its patrons milling around...would probably be a fun place to stay but not as convenient to town. Then we headed into town and selected a German place for dinner. We hadn't tried the German sauerkraut yet so DD got braun brat (spelling probably incorrect) with sauerkraut and this turned out too weird for her. It was sort of a sausage meat loaf with potatoes and carrots. I got the fried trout but it came a little too anatomically correct for me with head and tail intact. I'm the hypocritical type of carnivore that likes to pretend meat comes from the super market and not envision the animal behind it.

Home to bed.
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 07:04 AM
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Day 11: Up early to run...easy flat path along the Rhine river. Breakfast at the hotel then off to take the 10:15 K-D Rhine river cruise to St. Goar. It was a cold day at this point but we had overheard someone say it was supposed to be a nice day so we were attired in shorts and jackets. Sky was overcast so we didn't know if rain was also on the agenda. It was breezy and kind of chilly on the deck...long pants would have been good. The cruise was only supposed to be about 40 minutes but the kids lasted about 2 before they had their heads laying on their arms and their eyes closed. It was way too slow-paced for them. There are only about 4 castles to see in the 40 minutes and the Loreley rock...which is a rock . So if you have teenagers, I'd skip this. However, if it's just adults, and it's a sunny day, I would take a longer cruise. I found it very pleasant floating down the river and if the weather was nicer, wouldn't have minded floating down for another couple hours. With a bottle of wine to share, it'd be great. The 40 minute cruise seems very short especially because a good % of it is docking/undocking at the next port.

At St. Goar, we decided we should probably return to the hotel and get long pants on or we'd just be thinking about being cold all day. So we caught the train back to Bacharach...perhaps a 10 minute ride at most, and returned to our hotel (with a pit stop into a pastry shop on the way...wonderful pastries...well worth the back and forth to St. Goar just to discover this place!).

We then drove the car back down to St. Goar to see Rheinfels Castle. We parked at the river and hiked up...a short perhaps 10 minute hike. Of course now that we had long pants on, that was the signal for the sun to come out and things to warm up. We explored Rheinfels. DH, DD, and myself probably would give this a "medium" rating. However, DS says this was his favorite place...which shows how hard it is to make itinerary recommendations to other people. We had flashlights and DS loved going through all the dark tunnels.

Back down to the car and to Bacharach. We parked the car at the hotel and rented bikes from them...also changed back into shorts. This is so convenient and cheap that it's another great thing about the hotel. It was 6E a piece for all day. We stopped with the bikes at a pizza place in town then took the river path towards Bingen. Our destination, just to have a destination, was the Rheinstein castle. It took us about 40 minutes to get there. Very pleasant, flat, easy ride. We walked up to the castle but didn't go inside. It was only 20 minutes until it closed and as it was our last day in Germany, we were rationing our euros to get as close to 0 as we could. We had also already seen 3 castle insides on this trip so felt fine passing it up. There is a 2.5 km trail from here to Reichenstein Castle also if you have the time to take it. If I had to replan this day, I would probably skip the Rhine cruise and rent bikes 1st thing in the morning...ride down to Reichenstein and see it..then hike to Rheinstein and back and then ride down to St. Goar to see Rheinfels, eating in St. Goar. The real experience is the bike ride I think. It gives you the same views as the Rhine cruise but in a more active way. Lots and lots of folks biking in this region. Lots of folks that seemed in their 50s and 60s also...good to see.

Rode the bikes back and grabbed some gelato. Then home to pack for the trip home the next day.
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 07:27 AM
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Day 12: Flight home day. We had to catch an 11:20 flight out of Frankfurt so decided to leave at 7:30 given our recent experience with autobahn congestion. The hotel didn't start serving breakfast until 8 so we thought we'd just get pastries at the airport.

No problems getting to the airport and to the Hertz checkin...arrived around 8:30. After that, we found the Frankfurt airport to be the worst one ever. It is truly an international airport...seems like 1, maybe 2, billion airlines flying in and out. DH had looked up US Air and found that it was in terminal 2 but after checking in the car at terminal 2, we found that it was in terminal 1. There are no signs outside as in smaller airports, saying which airlines are where...probably hard to fit a billion names on a sign. So off we go to terminal 1. Now how to find US Air. There are rows upon rows of airline counters for EVERY airline in the world and no obvious signs that direct you one way or the other. Eventually, we find it...lots of luggage dragging. I'm not sure if they had the luggage carts there...but these would be a good idea.

We saw one pastry shop but thought we should do the "must do" stuff first before relaxing with breakfast and waiting for the plane. So we went through passport control and one other checkpoint (forget what it was...but both took us about an hour) to get to the gate section only to find that there is nothing near their gates. There is a Duty Free shop and a small stand selling pretty much water/juice and unenticing croissants/muffins. No real restaurants or souvenir shops (DD was hoping to pick up a last minute souvenir for a friend). We grabbed some of the stand's offerings as we had no other choice then went through the final gate security. The gate security is a very small space at the bottom of an escalator. They had to turn off the escalator because folks were backing up on it.

My recommendation if you ever do an open jaw is to do it in reverse of what we did so you don't have to fly out of Frankfurt. Fly into Frankfurt and out of Munich...or another final destination.

Home on the plane. US Air had trouble with their seat back televisions and they kept rebooting the whole system to try to fix it. Each reboot took 30 minutes. Ultimately, DH ended up with no working TV but the rest of ours worked. This was the "screaming babies" flight. One, I think, lasted the whole 8 hours...quite impressive.

In Philadelphia, we had an hour and 40 minutes but had to do the whole passport control/luggage recheck so just made it to our next flight when check-in was starting.

Landed tired and hungry...off to our favorite quick Mexican restaurant before heading home.

Just a note about what the family says their favorite things were:
DH: Ritterspiele (would be even better warmer and dryer)
DD: English Garden and Ritterspiele
DS: Rheinfels
myself: Burg Eltz and the ice caves
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Old Aug 2nd, 2010, 07:46 AM
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Great report - thanks for sharing!
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Old Aug 2nd, 2010, 08:33 AM
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Enjoyed it very much. Have been to many of the same places -- luckily withOUT the rain.
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Old Aug 4th, 2010, 04:55 PM
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Thanks for finishing your trip report. I must say, I was quite impressed that your family chose to hike in to Burg Eltz, in the rain, none the less, when you could have easily opted to drive to the castle parking lot. IMO, hiking in is the best way to first set eyes on this castle (sorry to hear it was covered in scaffolding).

Robyn
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Old Aug 8th, 2010, 02:56 AM
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"2) Subway tickets seem to be a suggestion. We hardly saw anyone buying a subway ticket and you don't need a ticket to get onto the platform. They supposedly check them sometimes and fine you if you don't have a ticket...but we never saw any checking going on."
Most of the ones who did not buy a ticket have a monthly ticket. Better don't misuse our sophisticated based-on-trust system, because it will be pretty expensive if they catch you without a valid ticket.
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Old May 14th, 2011, 10:00 AM
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i loved reading this, thanks for recording it.
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Old Nov 2nd, 2011, 09:12 AM
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landed on this thread after reading your trip report on Vegas, Zion and Bryce.

great report! lots of valuable tips for future travellers.
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Old May 8th, 2012, 09:03 PM
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I just read your whole report. Really informative and good
tips for my upcoming trip. Glad to know about the Eagle's nest,
etc. so that I will spend more time in the park instead.
Thanks much!
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