Trip observations
 

My wife & I left from Phoenix to Frankfurt on American via O'Hare on Thursday, 9/21.

I have distant relatives in the Stuttgart area who were nice enough to let us stay with them. After that, we spent a few days in Paris and flew back on Thursday, 10/5. Rather than run down a day-by-day detail of our journey, I'll just hit some high points/ observations.

We rented a car through Sixt. They only asked to see my AZ Drivers License - never once did I need my Int'l Drivers License that I paid $10 or $15 for (and photos on top of that) from AAA. I would not get an Int'l Drivers License if you're staying in Germany like we were.

Gas was somewhere near $5 per gallon, so people drive smaller cars. And when the weather's nice on a weekend, you'll see a lot of motorcycles too. It's wonderful not trying to see around huge SUV's.

Gasing up in smaller towns is a little difficult. Sometimes you needed a special EC credit card. At places that did take my credit card, the instructions were in German (thankfully my relatives were with me). Prices are better in the smaller towns than on the Autobahn.

We booked a rental car with a GPS Navigation system. In retrospect, I probably wouldn't get it again if you have a good quality map, and if you don't plan on driving in the bigger cities.

There are some massive traffic jams on the Autobahn - all were caused by lanes merging with other lanes (going from 3 lanes down to 2). It sounded like it was common for traffic to creep along for 5 miles near these merge areas.

We went to see VfB Stuttgart play Frankfurt on Saturday 9/23. If there's a major league-level game going while you're there, you should experience it. The atmopshere is electric. The crowd is hard to rival. And they do this great thing when the home team scores a goal. Mario Gomez scored a goal. The stadium announcer says "Goal scored by Mario, who?"... and the crowd screams back, in unison, "Gomez".... Then the announcer goes "Mario, who?"... and the crowd goes "Gomez".
We need to work this into our sports:
Announcer: "Touchdown by Donovan, who?"
Crowd: "McNabb!"

My relatives had some Pabst-bier, which is some sort of special Pope-approved bier made by one brewery. It's weird seeing the Papa (Pope) on a bier label. It was tasty!

Portions of food in Germany are out of control! I hard a hard time clearing my plate, while my German relatives easily cleaned theirs. They said, "If you don't want to eat so much, you'll like France." There's not a lot of fruit and vegetables being served there.

With us living in AZ, my relatives were curious about the AZ/Mexico border. Apparently the US gets bad publicity in Germany because the US wants to build a physical wall to keep Mexicans out. This goes against the European Union's open border rules. So I thought that was really interesting to see the fundamental differences there.

And speaking of open borders, Switzerland is being difficult and hasn't joined the European Union. So if you want to drive into Switzerland, you might get stopped at the border. Be sure to have your passport on you.

People smoke there. A lot (or maybe just my family). So if you have a problem with smokers, you've been warned.

Public bathrooms are not bad at all in Germany! If you're at a gasthof/restaurant, you'll feel very comfortable using the facilities. It's definitely cleaner than the US - heck, they're cleaner than a lot of people's houses here.

Lots of little towns have speed cameras as you're coming into the town. So pay attention to the posted speed limits.

Bring your own shampoo and soap if you're planning on going to a pension/ zimmer/ bed & breakfast. Bring an alarm clock, or a watch with an alarm clock in it. Also, get used to the towels that don't have fabric softener.

Coke is easy to find. Pepsi is a little harder. I never saw Mt Dew & Dr Pepper. I had a hard time getting used to the bottled water with gas (bubbles) in it. It's hard to drink a lot of it at one time.

Try the German food! Thankfully my relatives explained what a lot of the food was, so we were able to try lots of things. Everything we had in Germany was very, very good. And the pizza at real Italian restaurants is amazing.

Most of the programs on MTV are in English with German subtitles. I guess it's a good way for teens to learn/practice their English. I thought it was funny that "Pimp My Ride" was on in Germany.

The Titisee is not a dirty word. It's a small lake in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).

We went to a local winefestival outside of Stuttgart. Granted, Stuttgart & Munich were having their Oktoberfests but we opted for the smaller, more local feel of this tiny village. The prices were great, the bands were awesome. Everyone was standing on the benches, dancing on the tables, and singing along. A ton of fun!

The castle Neuschweinstein is beautiful, and the scenery is amazing, but it is unbelievable how many tourists are there. It was almost disgusting.

The waterfall in Triberg is amazing. Beautiful and serene. And apparently not that well-known.

Buy good walking shoes. We had a rental car, but we still wound up walking a lot. Break the shoes in before you go too. I brought two pairs (one brown, one black) of Born shoes, and really only used one (the black) the whole time I was there. Save some packing room by just choosing one.

The Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart is pretty cool. It just opened in May 2006 and the building itself is very futuristic looking.

It's so green there. Or maybe it just seemed so incredibly beautiful because of the huge contrast coming from Arizona. Weather was unpredictable. It could be warm one day and then cool and drizzly the next. Pack a down filled vest - they're great!

Recaro racing seats - it's German, not Italian. Who knew?

We flew from Stuttgart to Paris on HLX since it was really cheap (2 tickets, one way, for $80 total). They don't use assigned seats and they boarded the plane from both the front & back. We were on the plane and ready for takeoff in under 10 minutes. Amazing.

We flew to Paris and spent two full days there. We bought a two-day pass on Les Cars Rogues red double-decker buses. The buses take you to all the main stops. You can hop on/ hop off as you like. I liked it because you could see everything as you drove, as compared to the subway where you'd be underground. If you have a limited time, this works well.

We went to the Louvre on Wednesday afternoon. There were hardly any lines to get in. The place is huge. You could spend days in it. We had about four hours, which was enough to see the main big stuff. Admission was only 8.50 Euros per adult, which I thought was really affordable.

I only used the public bathrooms in the Paris airports (both airports actually) and let me tell you, there's a huge difference between Germany & France. Use your imagination :)

I have a hard time sleeping on planes. If you can, get some sleeping pills from your doctor. Get a seat where you won't have someone climbing over you to get out, and you'll be good to go. I wish I'd had some.

I wore a passport holder that is sort of like a necklace. It got annoying fast. I'd go for the belt-like one next time.

There was an outlet store for Birkenstocks on the way to Fussen (Neuschweinstein). They cost about 45 Euros for a pair that would cost over $100 in the US.

As for looking like an American, who cares. Just don't be loud / obnoxious. If you're nice to people and smile, generally people will be nice back to you.

Behind soccer (football), Formula 1 racing is quite popular. Michael Schumacher is one of the world's richest athletes but most Americans have never heard of him.

People in Paris are pretty, beautiful, very fashionable. The pace of Paris is more of a US big city, like Chicago or NY. Walk fast.

Say that you want you & your wife's picture taken in front of the Arc d'Triumph. Offer to take some other couple's pic, and generally, they'll reciprocate. And trust me, you don't need to speak the same language for this to happen. It's actually more fun if you don't - we took some Italian couples pic and they took ours! Good times!

Overall, it was a great trip. I was lucky enough to have family to visit there. I felt like I got to experience some things that most tourists wouldn't normally see or do. And I apologize for any spelling/grammatical errors - I'm still not completely feeling back to normal. Tschuss!

Hi, thanks for that nice trip report. You were fortunate to combine a trip with a family visit in Germany. Glad you had a great time. And I do agree about the noticeable differences between the German and French public toilets.

Hi! Thanks for that great report.. so much information! I know what you mean about every place looking so green compared to our desert! Glad you had such a good trip!

Thanks for the report. We will be staying with dear friends in Austria - they will take us into Germany, can't wait.

Continued...

Candy is not as sweet and sugary as in the US. Tell your kids to take note. I was able to bring on some gel-like candy onto the plane - apparently gel-like candy is still allowed under the TSA.

I also brought some granola bars in my carry-on. They make a good snack if you get stuck somewhere, or for Sundays when it's hard to find places open.

Bring an umbrella of your own. One souvenir store on the Champs Elysees was charging 20 Euros per. Of course this was when it was actually raining outside. I would consider that price gouging.

While in Germany, if it's really late at night, and you're kind of drunk, and need to soak up some of that alcohol, most McDonalds are open late (if not all night). We found the food to be much better than in the US - it seemed less greasy. And instead of throwing your trash away, you just walk away and leave it. They have a guy who just cleans up the dining area, which I found weird.

We paid 2.50 Euros each to take a ride up to the top of Neuschweinstein in some sort of Army-truck SUV. It's a steep walk up and we were tired, so I thought it was well worth it. The walk down was quite easy.

Save your 1 Euro and 2 Euro coins for parking. Parking really adds up in the Parkplatz parking garages there, so plan on carrying small monies.

My relatives told me that you need to go to special classes and get a special permit if you want to have a dangerous dog as a pet (ie, a pit bull or something "tough"). Apparently they do background checks and home inspections before letting you get one. A pretty novel idea. That said, I didn't see a lot of dogs as pets in general in Germany.

The Casino in Baden-Baden is only open for tours in the morning (I think from 9am-1130am). After that, if you want to get in, you need to be wearing a jacket and tie. Pretty hoity-toity classy place. We didn't pack anything near dressy enough, because I would've liked to see it from inside.

If you're riding the S-Bahn, you're supposed to buy tickets for it. But some people don't. So they have plain-clothes officers on the trains who do random ticket checks.

Dinkelsbuhl looks a lot like Rothenberg in terms of being on the Romantic Road, having a wall around the city, except Dinkelsbuhl doesn't have anywhere near the number of tourists.

I am told the tap water in Germany is ok to drink. I had it several times without any incidents.

My German relatives go on vacation to places that I would consider exotic. Sardinia. The Phillipines. Namibia (a German colony). Dubai. They're jetsetting to these far-off lands, while I'm excited to go to Chicago.

Buy a good high-quality memory card. Do not skimp on the quality. Buy SanDisk or Kingston or other premium cards. You do NOT want lose ANY pictures. Ever.

And my last piece of advice: When you're taking pictures of places you've been and things that you've seen, put some people in the pics. People will get bored of just looking at "things". People would rather see me or my wife standing in front of the "thing".

Nice report pfatalbert. Just one thing -- &quot;<i>We rented a car through Sixt. They only asked to see my AZ Drivers License - never once did I need my Int'l Drivers License that I paid $10 for (and photos on top of that) from AAA. I would not get an Int'l Drivers License . . . . . </i>&quot;

An International Driver's <b>Permit</b> has nothing to do w/ the car rental agency. It is for you to show to to the police/authorities when you are stopped for an infraction or after an accident. Sixt doesn't care one way or the other. The police do. 95% of the time you rdon't need one. But that other 5% - you'll be in deep doo doo . . . . .

&gt;&gt;&gt;My German relatives go on vacation to places that I would consider exotic. Sardinia. The Phillipines. Namibia (a German colony). Dubai. They're jetsetting to these far-off lands.&lt;&lt;&lt;

I don´t know if it is different in the US, but in European countries there are charter travel agencies who offer these trips quite affordably. Of course people also arrange and book all by themselves, but those flight/hotel combinations of agencies are often way cheaper. Dubai is an ordinary &quot;wintertime sun place&quot; for families. Only Namibia (former colony) is on the exotics list, but even that can be found in charter agencies. catalogues, although is costs over 3000 &euro;, so it is at the more expensive end.

Thanks for the informative report. It's always fun/interesting to stay with a European family &amp; go to their local stores, etc. to see the differences between ours/theirs.

janisj is right about the idea that the rental car didn't ask you for your IDP has NOTHING to do with its use or value -- if you are stopped by the police.

But in addition, one is NOT required to drive in Germany, so I would agree that it isn't necessarily worth doing there. I just wouldn't want your logic to apply to places like Italy where one IS REQUIRED by law. Again -- even there -- they may not ask you for it when you rent a car, but that has nothing to do with the law or your NEED for one. What you're really saying is like &quot;we didn't have an accident and didn't need any insurance so I wish we hadn't spent the money to have it&quot;. Duh?

Thanks for this report.

I was able to visit my daughter and SIL in Schweinfurt when he was in the US army. The thing that really impressed me about Germany was, it's so clean! I swear they wash the streets down every night! And the contrast between Germany and France is remarkable, although I absolutely adored France!

Germany is beautiful. My kids really miss the ease with which they were able to travel all over Europe and even to the Canary Islands.

Thanks again for sharing - Your enjoyment came through and was contagious!

Yes, lots of europeans don't understand or act like they don't understand us not wanting low wage and povery stricken illegals pouring into our country at free will.

You can be you'll never see any european country allowing a pouring of millions into their countries to live there and get free medical care, etc.

They allow visitors for open borders but that's only in recent years.

Pfat, you don't have to drink water with bubbles. We found lots of places that sell &quot;Wasser ohne Gas&quot;.

We didn't have any problem going from Germany into Switzerland. No passport check at all.

And, just the opposite of you, we saw LOTS of pet dogs in Germany. We have a Golden Retriever and saw many people walking with one and sometimes two dogs in many of the places we visited.

We love Germany and have visited many of the smaller, out of the way towns in the last few years.

Hi PF,

Thanks for sharing.

&gt;&quot;If you don't want to eat so much, you'll like France.&quot; There's not a lot of fruit and vegetables being served there.&lt;

That answers the question, &quot;How do the French differ from the Germans?&quot;.

((I))