mjslacker

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m here once again to ask for your help.

We finally have an itinerary. Actually itinerary may be way to strong of a word, more like we have ideas of what we would like to do, and a very flexible schedule of when we’d like to do them.

A little back ground to begin with, we will be landing in Frankfurt Feb 7th 2008 and flying home, also from Frankfurt Feb 18th. We will pick up a rental car at the airport and drive to a small village near Marburg, where we will be staying with family friends. Our group consists of 5 people, ages 20-50, not including the family that we will be staying with.

So,
Day 1: Drive to Marburg,
Day 2: Drive to Austria maybe do a little shopping/sightseeing.
At this point we are not sure where in Austria, still looking for a good inexpensive place. We plan on spending
Day 3: Snowboarding
Day 4: Drive back to Marburg via Neuschwanstein

We would love some advice here, would we be better off waiting until Sat or Sun to make the excursion to Austria? We know that many places are not open Sun or Mon so thought maybe spending those days driving/snowboarding would be wise.

Days 5 + 6, Day trips from Marburg, and/or Marburg it self.
Day 7: Fly to Dublin, explore
Day 8: Explore Dublin and surrounding areas, we would like to see New Grange, the Connemara area, Mussenden temple, Trim Castle, the Hill of Tara and the Book of Kells. I realize that all of this is probably not possible, but would appreciate help with narrowing it down. We will not have a car there and so have to count on public transportation. Will buses be running during the off season? Can we get to these places by bus or is there a better way?

Day 9: Fly back to Marburg. (Actually I believe that we will be flying from and back to Frankfurt.) We have not bought the tickets for this part of the trip yet, so if anyone has any great ideas…
Day 10 + 11, Hanging out, visiting and more day trips from Marburg
Day 12: Back to Frankfurt and flying home

As far as day trips, we will be going to a village where we believe that we have family, hoping to visit the cemetery, local business, etc. If all goes well, maybe meet some distant relatives. We are also interested in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Alsfeld, and a bell museum, as well as a concentration camp. However we would probably have to see the camp on the way back from Austria.

Does this sound ok? Am I forgetting to take any important facts into consideration? Would you recommend any changes in travel days etc? Thank you in advance.

Cowboy1968

I don't want to sound like your own mother, but are you really, really sure that you want to drive all the way from Marburg to Austria and back for just one day of snowboarding?

If that is a mandatory part of your itinerary, weekends are very busy in the ski resorts in Austria. So if you went south on a Sunday, spent Monday on the slopes, and went back on a Tuesday, you may face less traffic than going Fri-Sun.

quokka

If you really really must do that long driving trip to Austria (which sounds quite crazy to me, but it's your trip), keep in mind that a) the ski resorts will be packet on all weekends, the roads will be horribly crowded Fri, Sat and Sun, and b) there are school holidays in several German federal states - some till Feb 9, some even till Feb 15. Go after Sun Feb 10.

hetismij

ALso if you are only going to be hanging out in Marburg on days 10 and 11 why not stay a bit longer in Ireland to give you more time to see what you want to see there.
Personally I would scrap Ireland from the trip altogether and spend more time on the snowboarding it if that is so important to you. Go to Ireland another time when you have more time for it.

mjslacker

I was under the impression that we could get from Marburg, to where ever it is we will snowboard, in 5-6 hours. I'm not sure of the area as our hosts said it would be in Austria, but not where. They had suggested we spend 2 days snowboarding.

The adults will probably not be joining us for this part of the trip, unless it is just for the drive and to hang out in the town. They have no interest in snowboarding.

However the host family wants to take us to Ireland. They had planned only an overnight, to spend the evening in the pubs and fly home. We decided we would be willing to give up a day snow-boarding to spend an extra day in Ireland.

Cutting it out (Ireland) is an option, however it is the only thing they have suggested and we would feel kinda bad to say no, as they have been so willing to do whatever we wanted. Do you think we should just spend the one day there? ( Ireland that is) and spend 2 snowboarding? We don't really count this as "seeing" Ireland, will just be for fun.

Also, most of us have been to Marburg before, so seeing it is not top priority. For that matter we have been to Switzerland and the same area of Austria as well. Only the 2 guys are newcomers, thus the stop at the castle and most of the day trips.

We are more than willing to not drive from point A to point B, if anyone can suggest a good detour. Somewhere with historic value, or just a must see that is enroute between the 2 places. Going elswhere might make the drive more rewarding.

Thanks again.

cailin

Flying all the way to Dublin for 1 day seems a bit ridiculous, even 2 days is pushing it when you could be spending the time elsewhere. If you insist on Ireland I would suggest just concentrating on Dublin - you can rule out Connemara for a start as that's the other side of the country. You could do a day trip to Newgrange/Meath but I think you would have enough to do in Dublin city to fill your time.

mjslacker

Ok, I can't say I'm surprised but it looks like the Foderites are right. Dublin is probably going to have to wait till out next trip. We got online and tried to buy tickets at ryanair.com. The sight would not allow us to buy the tickets, kept saying error, and something about a Solo card. So we took that as a sign and unless something changes that is out of the plans.

One more question. Can anyone tell me approx price of fuel in Germany? With the exchange rate what it is we want to be sure and budget enough for fuel.

Thanks again

Cowboy1968

Gas is appr. € 1.34 per liter currently (it may vary by a 2-3 cents both up and down, depending on city or region).
When you use routing websites like viamichelin.de they automatically calculate the costs for gas.

By the way, and with regard to that formally planned trip to Ireland: Ryanair would have departed from Frankfurt-Hahn, which is some 100km west of Frankfurt Rhein-Main International airport (the one you will go to when coming from the States). An even longer drive from Marburg...

Cowboy1968

sorry.. viamichelin is, of course, also available in English: www.viamichelin.com