Our family of 4 is taking our first trip to Germany in July 2011.
Facts:
• We are staying in a time-share in Mitterfels for 2 weeks. This is our planned “home base.”
• Renting a car in Munich for 2 weeks.
• After researching our home location, I referred to several travel books to try to maximize our sights while in Germany. So far, our intended “must-sees” include: Soccer match in Aubsburg, Munich, Dachau, Neuschwanstein, Bavarian towns (Oberammergan, Garmisch, Zugspitze cable car), Black Forest (Triberg) for a clock, Salzburg, and Auschwitz.
• Next is our planned agenda which is followed by some travel questions.
The following is our tentative agenda:
Day 1 (Sat) – Arrive in Munich. Pick up rental car and drive to Mitterfels (about 1 hour drive NE);
Day 2 (Sun) – Drive to Aubsburg for scheduled soccer match at 1pm. Explore some afterwards and return to Mitterfels.
Day 3 (Mon) – Drive to Munich. Sightsee area and visit Dachau camp. Return to Mitterfels.
Day 4 (Tue) – Drive to Neuschwanstein . Drive to Mittenwald and spend night.
Day 5 (Wed) – Drive to Oberammergan and sightsee. Drive to Garmisch (cable car to Zugspitze). Spend night in Garmisch.
Day 6 (Thur) – Drive to Black Forest (Triberg). Sightsee and buy a clock. Return to Mitterfels.
Day 7 (Fri) – Explore Mitterfels and area attractions.
Day 8 (Sat) – Drive to Salzburg. Sightsee and spend the night.
Day 9 (Sun) – Visit Eagles Nest. Drive back to Mitterfels.
Day 10 (Mon) – Spend day in Mitterfels. Take overnight train to Oswiecim, Poland.
Day 11 (Tue) – Arrive early morning. Visit Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. Spend night nearby.
Day 12 (Wed) – Return train to Mitterfels.
Day 13 (Thur) – Flexible day
Day 14 (Fri) – Flexible day
Day 15 (Sat) – Check out of hotel. Return car to Munich. Fly home.

QUESTIONS:
1. Is this travel itinerary reasonable, considering the travel distances and drive times. We plan on driving but open to train travel when possible.
2. I have read many good comments about the speed of train travel but have no clue about the availability of the route schedules and ease of getting to the station. Do we drive to the station and leave the car? Take taxi to the station? Do we each pack a carry bag when riding the train?
3. Any suggestions or comments regarding the trip itinerary would be soo greatly appreciated.

Rudy Moreno, Texas

Rudy;

I think you have some serious time/distance issues with this itinerary. For example;

DAY 6 Garmisch to Triberg is over 4 hours and the it is over 4.5 hours back to Mitterfels. An 8.5 hour drive to buy a clock?

DAY 2 Mitterfels to Augsburg is over 2 hours. That is a 4-5 hour drive plus parking for the game etc.

Stay in Mittenwald OR Garmisch for both nights of Day 3/4 - they are only 20-30 minutes apart.

You won't find an overnight train departing from Mitterfels or arriving at Oswiecim. The best connection is almost 12 hours and it involves getting to Vienna from Munich THEN an overnight train which arrives at 5 a.m..

If you actually want to try and leave from Mitterfels for Osqiecim by train, it is 14-17 hours with 6 changes.

You need to spend some time with an online mapping service like viamichelin or Google Maps and the the www.bahn.de train schedule.

You will only be able to see a professional football match in Augsburg in July if you are staying there during the second half of July and Augsburg manages to avoid proceeding to 1st division and stay in 2nd division (they certainly don't wish to stay in 2nd division). They are currently second in the 2nd division table which results in direct promotion to 1st division.

There is some hope for you that they miss promotion to 1st division as they have the same number of points as the 3rd (3rd place results in a play-off against the 3rd from the bottom of 1st division for relegation or promotion) and only 1 point ahead from the 4th (finishing 4th they'd stay down in 2nd division).

Kick off of the new season in 2nd division is 15 July 2011, whereas 1st division kicks off on 05 August 2011 only.

Aramis..
Thanks for the suggestion to stay in Mittenwald or garmisch for both days..I'll check into that. As for the Black Forest visit, it just seems so necessary to buy a cuckoo clock. I am trying to minimize the overnight stays away from Mitterfels since that lodging is already paid but we are open to spending the night anywhere along the way.
I read about overnight train rides that allow you to sleep..but the online train schedules are so confusing to decipher..since all the train stops are so confusing. I can't even navigate our own city bus system so I do have some more research to do..lol.

HSV....I found that the Women's world cup will be hosted in Germany around the time we are there. I found the closest hosting town will be Aubsburg on Sunday..to be hosting a quarterfinal match between 1st Category C and 2nd category D....If all plays right..USA should be playing....got our fingers crossed. I already ordered our tickets. I figured parking would be rough..but not sure about train option to the town from where we will be staying.....

Thank you for yall's input...I am printing every word of it.

Rudy

Long way to buy a clock. (back home, no one will care it came from the Black Forest.) Check the gift shop in the Munich airport.

It's Augsburg, not Aubsburg. You'll not want to miss your exit on the autobahn simply because you insist on spelling it Aubsburg.

Sounds like you want to see Nazi stuff (Auschwitz, Dachau, Eagles Nest). You might want to consider adding Nuremburg for the Nazi Documentation Center and the Trial Courtroom. I'd also recommend searching on this post for Eagles Nest; I'm under the impression that it's been so sanitized over the last 65 years that you'd be disappointed. Sort of like being served vanilla Jello pudding when you expected creme brulee.

Everyone to his own taste; I drove through Oberammergau (not N), which has a population of 5,000, in about 5 minutes. Obviously, it was not in an every-tenth-year passion play year. There are a lot more quaint villages in Germany worthy of more time. I probably spent 3 of my 5 minutes reading the sign on the gate of the NATO army base there, marvelling that the village warranted such a base.

Good point on the spelling of towns...can't afford to get stranded for getting the town name wrong. I actually took my cues for some destination towns from a travel channel episode on Bavaria. As far as the Holocaust sites, the history is so rich and I want to show our daughters examples of man's inhumane treatment towards man. I've ordered several traveler's guides that note Holocaust-related sites and read that the Eagles Nest site is nothing more than a cafe on a hill. However, the proximity to where we will be seems right around the corner, so that's the reason for it being on the list. Point well taken on the clock purchase. Who will know the difference, huh?
Like I stated, other than some of the major sites, the smaller towns are more like secondary goals. We will remain realistic about what we can see comfortably within our time frame there.
Distance between towns and train travel vs. car reamains our biggest question mark and concern.

I would only visit 1 concentration camp on this trip. I understand wanting your daughters to have an understanding of the Holocaust, but you don't want to over do it. A visit to a concentration camp is an emotionally draining experience and it can take awhile to recover from the visit. Twice in 2 weeks may be too much.

Nuremburg is a good choice for another location if you are interested in Nazi history - it is interesting for other reasons too. Has a neat old town and castle. Also, there is some pretty good clothes shopping right in the old town (teenaged daughters, you know )

I was underwhelmed by Oberamergau too. We visited after watching those same Bavarian travel shows shows - Samantha Brown, Rick Steves, Burt Wolf, Rudy Maxa - I think they ALL included Oberamergau in their itineraries. It was an ok town, but if it weren't for the passion play, I don't think it would be famous. It isn't nearly as charming or picturesque as the other places we visited. I'd spend more time poking around Mittenwald or just stoping along the way from Mittenwald to Garmish as the mood struck me.

Mitterfels is near Regensburg and Ingolstadt - you could visit those if you wanted to see some things closer in. Regensburg is very nice and Ingolstadt was the setting for Frankenstein, where the Illuminati started, and home to Audi - oh and the source of the german beer purity law. We are considering both as part of our upcoming trip to Germany.

Well then it's a good thing you aren't going on the trip november

november_moon,
We probably can do without Oberamergau. We do want to do the cable car up the mountain in garmisch. I really appreciate all the feedback on how to edit our plans. It is really helpful to hear from people that have been there. we are really excited about traveling abroad and really don't know what to expect as far as the language barrier and signage being in a different language. I have bought just about every guidebook you can think of but it seems unlikely that i would be referring to it while driving to figure out signs.

We recently went to Canada for a few days this past winter and was amazed at how french signage can be so foreign to understand. Luckilly, most sales staff and counter staff in Montreal spoke English and atm transactions were easily completed. We are both eager and anxious to see what awaits us across the ocean. Again..thanks for all of yall's suggestions.