At my wife's urging, I offered to take my 24 year old son on a father/son trip of his choice(anywhere we could get to using airline miles).Somewhat to my surprise, instead of selecting an adventure trip, he decided he wanted to go to Europe for what would be primarily a sightseeing trip . He had not been to Europe. I decided to go primarily to places I had not previously been and then let him stay an extra week on his own after I returned so he could see some of the places I had already been or do whatever else he wanted. After considering various alternatives, and modifying my plan several times, I decided on the following itinery: Prague(3 days),Cesky Krumlov(1 day), Salzburg(1 day),Munich (2 days), Schwangau(2 days),Rottenburg(1day), Rhine River Valley (St. Goar)(2 days), Paris(3 days), Normandy (1 day), and back to Paris(1 day). I did considerable research using guidebooks (primarily Rick Steves books, but also Fodors, Frommers and others) and the internet. I received a great deal of very helpful information and advice on this site, and feel an obligation to share my experiences here in case some of them may be helpful to others in planning their trips. If you are reading this you are probably the kind of person who likes to plan your own trips, but if you haven't done it before you should realize that it takes a lot of time to plan well and make all the arrangements yourself.I will describe below our principal experiences, and I will be happy to try to answer any questions. Overall, we had a wonderful trip and things worked about as well as they could. While it would have been nice to go slower and spend more time in some places, I would only rearrange a day or two if I had it to do over again. In hindsight, I might take a day away from the Rhine River Valley and add it to Normandy, and my son would probably take a day from Paris and add it to Bavaria(Schwangau).

Thursday 5/29

We left Dallas at 9:45 am on a Delta flight to Atlanta, then Delta to NY.(JFK)Our Czech Air flight departed at 5:45 pm. We arrived in Prague at 7:45
am on Friday 5/30. Delta Business Elite from Atlanta to NY was very nice. CSA Business Class was OK, but not as nice as Delta or other airline's business class that I have flown.

Friday 5/30 Prague

A driver met us at the airport and took us to our hotel, the Metamorphis in Stare Mesto, 2 blocks from the Old Town Square. The hotel was very nice, but our room(#34) opened onto the interior courtyard and people passed by our windows. The weather was warm enough that we needed to leave our windows open, but to do so we took the chance that someone could come in our windows while we slept. We compromised by closing the bottom windows before going to sleep, but leaving the upper windows open. Later in the summer it would probably be too hot to do that. Also there was considerable noise with the windows open. I was happy my wife had bought me some good ear plugs.

We only got a couple of hours sleep on the planes, but wanted to use our time and try to get adjusted as soon as possible. We took a tour of the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) (l 1/2 hours for $12 each) It was informative and enjoyable. We had earlier watched the Astronomical Clock on the hour. After the tour we ate lunch at a local restaurant , decent food for about $6 per person. We returned to our hotel and took a one hour nap. Dinner was at the Flambee Cafe(it shares a kitchen with the much more expensive Flambee Restaurant downstairs.)
I had a crawfish entre with a salad and dessert. My son had beef tenderloin, a glass of wine, and dessert. We also had a bottle of water. Our total bill, with 10% tip was $61. After walking around a while in Old Town area and to the Charles Bridge, we returned to our hotel to try and get a good nights sleep.

Saturday, 5/31 Prague

We had arranged for a guide recommended on this site to give us four hour tours for two days. After a quick breakfast at the hotel(included in the room price and reasonably good) our guide, Nina Gelinkova ([email protected]),met us at 9am.We toured the Old Town and New Town (Nove Mesto) the first day. Nina was very knowledgable, and we saw a great deal in our time with her(including two or three spectacular churches). We had a late lunch(pizza at the outdoor restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel) and then took a nap. I had reserved tickets for the opera Carmen at the National Theater two months in advance directly with the National Theater through its web site. We were permitted to pick up and pay for the tickets earlier that day. Although we were still somewhat jetlagged and fought to stay awake during parts of it(it was a little too warm in the theater), we enjoyed the opera a great deal. The staging was wonderful and performances were very good. Both Carmen and the other female lead were outstanding. After the opera we walked back towards the Charles Bridge along the Vltava River and ate a late dinner at Don Giovanni,an Italian restaurant across the street from the river.
Pasta with beer and bottled water(about $40 for 2). I went to bed but my son went back out to to popular five story music club on the river. He said there were about 2,000 young people there, with different kinds of music on each floor, and free internet access.

Sunday, June 1st Prague

Our guide, Nina, met us again at 9am. We took the tram to the Monestary above the
Prague Castle,toured it and then walked down a short distance to the castle, and toured it,including the St.Vitus Cathedal(very enjoyable) and toured parts of Mala Strana below the castle. We finished our tour on Kampa Island and had a wonderful, lengthy lunch at Kampa Park restaurant on its terrace direcly overlooking the Charles River. I had the lunch special( a salad, risotto with salmon and dessert) and my son had pepper steak. With water and a beer for my son, the bill was $60. After lunch we strolled back across the Charles Bridge and took a nap at our hotel. That evening we went to a Black Light Theater performance after buying tickets that afternoon at the Tourist Information Center in Old Town Square. I didn't realize until later that we paid a $4 per ticket premium to buy them there. We could just as easily have bought them at the theater (only 1 block from the square). We enjoyed the performance. Is is different,and,I understand, is unique to Prague. Once again we had a late dinner, this time pizza at our hotel restaurant.

Monday, June 2 (Prague to Cesky Krumlov)

I had arranged for a driver (Mike's Chauffeur) to drive us from Prague to Cesky Krumlov, about a 2 1/2 hour drive, and then on to Salzburg the next day for 9,000 Czech Crowns (about$360 at the current exchange rate, 20 percent higher in $ than when I booked it becuse of changes in the exchange rate.) Mike's dad, Frank, was our driver. He was very nice and did a good job, but his English was very limited, and I felt we missed out not having Mike himself drive us. Cesky Krumlov was interesting and we enjoyed our afternoon and evening there. It gives you a very good idea of what a medieval town was like. The castle was closed that day for some reason, so we couldn't tour the inside of it. We made dinner reservations at a restaurant, Krema v Satlavske Ulici, recommended by a poster on Rick Steve's website. We didn't realize we needed to request one of the much more desirable back rooms where they had live music. We were in the front room with the open grill where it was too warm and somewhat smokey. In spite of that, we had and good time and good meal (mixed grill for two, with sald and vegetables, dessert and a liter of wine-$25 for two. We walked back up to the castle for a night view of the town, and had a beer at the U Joseph bar and then returned to our hotel. Once again my son went back out to explore the local night life further. There wasn't much, but he had a beer or two and played pool with some other tourists-all for $4.

We stayed at the Pension St. Hubertus in Cesky Krumlov, a 5 minute walk from the square. It was new and nice. The room (called a suite, but very modest with breakfast included, was 1,800 Czech Crowns ($70)

Tuesday, June 3 (Cesky Krumlov to Salzburg)

Our driver took us from the Cesky Krumlov to Salzburg, a three hour trip. We checked into our hotel, Zur Goldenen Ente, centrally located on a pedestrian lane in the heart of the Old City (our room was small, but adequate, and cost 83 Euros), grabbed a quick sandwich and took the Sound of Music tour with Bob's Special Tours. There were only 4 of us plus the guide and a guide trainee in a van. In addition to visiting the main sights in the city associated with the movie (which gave us a pretty good tour of Salzburg), we went to the lake district during the four hour tour. It was a good way to see a lot in a short amount of time. After dinner at our hotel(good three course meal with a glass of wine for about 31 Euros for two, we went to a classical music concert in the Salzburg Fortress (castle) for 29 Euros each. The funicular ride to the fortess was an additional cost(about 3 Euros each with concert ticket.) The concert was enjoyable and the view of Salzburg from the Fortess was worth seeing.


Wednesday, June 4 Salzburg to Munich

We took a taxi to the train station to catch 9:30 train to Munich, where we arrived about two hours later. At the Munich Haupbanhof (Central train station), we went to the Euraide office (a travelers aid station that sells tickets and offers help in good English.) There, we bought train tickets for our trip from Koblenz to Paris and for our Paris /Bayeux round trip. We also bought tickets for the 1 pm tour to Dachau (with an English speaking guide) that left from the train station. We stored our bags in a locker, grabbed a quck sandwich and met the Dachau tour. It lasted 5 hours (1 hour travel each way and three hours at Dachau) and was excellent. Our guide, who was Irish, was very knowledgable about Dachau and conveyed his sincere interest and empathy for these who were interred and died there. After the tour, we checked into our hotel, the Uhland. It is in a residential area, about a 15 minute walk from the train station and has a metro station less than a five minute walk away. We took the metro to Karlplatz, walked down the pedestrian way(full of people at 8 pm) to Marienplatz and on to the Hofbrauhaus for a beer. It was a lot of fun, very lively, and my son loved it. After dinner at a small restaruant the name of which I've forgotten(something like Yodelheimer) (reasonably good food at reasonable prices and an accordian player/singer/yodeler) we returned to the Hofbrauhaus for a nightcap and again enjoyed the music, dancing (by customers) and lively atmosphere.

Thursday, June 5th Munich

We had booked Mike's Bike Tour for 11 AM. Before that, we had time to tour the Residenc. The bike tour was great-one of the high lights of our entire trip for both my son and me. Our guide (from London) was funny and irreverant (also knowledgable) and we saw a great deal during the 4 hour tour(easy biking) that included a stop of about 1 hour at the Chinese Beer Garden in the Englisher Garden, a swim(for those who wanted to)in a creek, a chance to watch surfers who mange to surf on waves in the same creek and a ride by the nudist meadow. For 22 Euros per person, plus optional tip,it was a steal. Lunch was not included in the price and it was relatively very expensive(almost 30 Euros for two, including two large beers.

After the bike tour we picked up the rent car we had arranged through Auto Europe (a booking agency in the US that arranges rentals from major car rental companies and often has better prices). We got our car from Avis and were able to save 20% by picking it up at a location in town other than an airport or train station. We had been promised a free upgrade to a Volkswagen Passat (6 days for 305 Euros), but got an
Opal instead. They told us it was bigger and nicer, and I believe it. It was brand new, and had a navigation system that my son was able to reset so that it spoke to us in English and displayed in English. It was fun and often helpful, but gave incorrect information("turn left now", for example), when our map made it obvious that doing so would be wrong. I chose to lower the collision damage liability from 550 Euros to 50 Euros at a cost of 14 Euros per day. As it turned out it was wasted money, but if one person had opened a door into our car in some of the tight parking spaces we were in, for example, it would have been money well spent.

That evening, we went to the Augustiner Keller Beer Hall for dinner. It was packed (with what appeared to be mostly a local crowd) and was therefore lively, but had no music. We sat next to 2 men from England who have business operations all over Europe as well as in the US. They helped us decipher the menu and we had a lot of fun talking to them. One of them officed in Amsterdam, and when we told him my son would be visiting there after I returned to the US,he gave my son his card and insisted that my son call him if he had any problems in Amsterdam.

Sorry about the various typos in the above message. I will try to correct any significant ones and add the rest of the report later, perhaps in segments.

What a great dad

I'm enjoying reading the report. Can't wait to hear more about Bavaria and Rhine.

Best, Marge

Trip Report ( Continued)

First of all, a couple of corrections to the first portion of this report. Our Prague guide's name was Nina Jelinkova. The name of the restaurant at which we had dinner in Cesky Krumlov was Krcma v Satlavske Ulici. Our lunch at Kampa Park on our last day in Prague overlooked the Vltava River at the Charles Bridge, not the Charles River.

The following completes my trip report:



Friday, June 6 -- Munich to Schwangau

We toured the Deutche Museum (science and industry) which we both enjoyed, and then drove (about 2 hours) to Schwangau (near Fussen), where we stayed for thwo nights at Hotel Rubezahl(120 Euros a night, a nice hotel with an excelent restaurant). Our room had a good view of Neuschwanstein Castle which we toured that afternoon. After a quck dinner at our hotel, we attended "Ludwig II" the musical about "Mad King Ludwig" who built Neuschwanstein and other castles. We had seats in the center of the 4th row. Seats a little further back might have been better because the English translation above the stage required that we look way up to read it(taking our eyes off the stage) and, by the end of the first act, both of our necks were hurting. The musical was pretty good, not great, but the staging was creative and very good. Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening. The tickets were very expensive.(105 Euros each). Less expensive tickets are available.

Saturday, June 7 -- Schwangau

We drove about 30 minutes to the small airstrip outside Reutte, Austria and hired a pilot to take us on a one hour flight around the area and through that
portion of the Alps in a small (4 seater) Cessna. We flew as far as
Garmish and over castles, lakes, and mountains and really enjoyed it.
After lunch in Reutte, we went to the longest luge (alpine slide ) we had ever seen at Biberwier (about a 20 minute drive from Reutte) and rode it. Then on through Garmish to Linderhof
(another of Ludwigs castles) and the Wierkirsche before returning to our hotel for another excellent dinner.

Sunday, June 8 -- Schwangau to Rothenburg


We drove to Rothenburg using the autobahn (about three hours)and checked into our hotel- the Gerberhaus. It is a small, new hotel in an old building. At 75 euros(after 10% iscount for paying cash)it was a bargain. Rothenburg was having its big annual Mayor's Day
Festival and seemingly hundreds of people were dressed in medieval costumes. There were parades,dances, and numerous other special events. On the minus side, the normal 2 pm English tour was not conducted that day-so we did a self-guided tour of some of the major sites and just broused around and enjoyed the Festival. On our way to dinner we walked the town wall. After
dinner, we took the Nightwatchman's Tour. It was very enjoyable. We learned a lot about life in a medieval town as well as being entertained. Overall, we both felt that Rothenburg was a clearly superior experience to Cesky Krumlov
(which I have seen referred to as what Rothenburg was like 40 years ago).

Monday, June 9th -- Rhine River Valley

We drove to the Rhine River Valley (about three hours) to St. Goar where we stayed at the Rheinfels
Castle Hotel, a very nice hotel adjoining the Rheinfels Castle high on the hill overlooking the Rhine and the town of St. Goar. Our room was 137 Euros per night. After getting a quick lunch in St. Goar, we caught the KD line sightseeing boat from St. Goar to Bacharach, and enjoyed the beautiful Rhine River scenery. In Bacharach, we browsed around for awhile, then went to Fritz ----'s Restaurant (I can't remember the last name, but its mentioned in Rick Steves' GAS guidebook) and did their wine tasting. We had adequate tasting samples of 15 different wines for 13.5 Euros for the two of us. Then it was time for our return cruise to St. Goar. Dinner on the terrace of our hotel overlooking the Rhine River as the sun set was wonderful. The dinner was excellent, with a nice bottle of Reisling our bill for two was 77 Euros.

Tuesday, June 10 -- St. Goar

We drove to Koblenz where we found the place where we had to turn in our rental car the next morning.(I wanted to make the dry run so we wouldn't have problems the next morning when we were trying to catch our train). Based on advice from a helfpul Fodorite, I had arranged to drop our car at an Avis location that isn't generally advertised
as being available.The Avis drop off site is a desk inside a Mercedes dealership within easy walking distance of the Koblenz train station.

We then drove on to Burg Eltz and toured it. It is an authentic medieval castle that is intact and contains original furnishings. From there we drove to Bingen and took the "people ferry" (they have a separate one for cars ) to Rudesheim, a leading tourist town across the Rhine. We had lunch (30 Euros for two simple lunches and 1 drink apiece. I bought the mandatory
Christmas tree ornament to take to my wife. We then returned by ferry and our car to St. Goar.

Wednesday, June 11 -- St. Goar to Paris

We dropped off our car at the Avis location in the Mercedes dealership. The Avis representative even volunteered to drive us to the train station. We caught the train to Cologne, then had six minutes to
get from the track we arrived on to the track our train to Paris was leaving on. We made it with two minutes to spare. We had opted for second class train tickets which saved us over 200 Euros (for all the train travel on our trip). Second class was generally perfectly fine. On the Cologne-Paris leg, however, our car (we had reserved
assigned seats on a non-smoking car) was packed full of young German teenagers who were loud and moving around the entire time. It wasnt't too bad, however, and we enjoyed talking part of the way with 2 American girls who were traveling after a semester in France and later with a charming 16 year old German girl who spoke perfect English and wants to atend college in the US. Her family was just returning to live in Germany after 3 years in Ethiopia where she attended the American school.

We arrived at the Paris Nord train station , and after declining the offer of a cab ride to our hotel for 65 Euros, waited in the cab line for 15 minutes and paid 18 Euros (including tip) to get to our hotel.

We stayed in Paris at the Hotel Grand Ecoles, which many Fodorites rave about. It is reasonably well located on the Left Bank, about a 15 minute walk to Notre Dame and only two minutes from
the nearest Metro stop. It is located around its own courtyard off the street and was generally very nice. At only 115 euros per night (breakfast extra)
it seems to be a real bargain in Paris. We walked around the Latin Quarter a while, then toured Notre Dame and returned to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at L'Astrance, the nicest of the restaurants I had reserved in Paris. We arrived about 8:15 and were the first customers. By 9:30 it was full. I wanted my son to experience a really good restaurant in Paris, and this one qualified. We opted for the
Chef's Surprise Menu with wines selected by the wine steward to accompany the food. We had no idea
what we would get (and were not
always sure after we received each course and the broken English explanation of what it was), but everything was outstanding. We had 11 courses (relatively small protions, so it was not too much to eat over the three hours it took. The courses included squids, prawns, dover sole, mackeral, lamb, vegetables, appetizers, and three dessert courses, each with wonderful sauces. The wines (2 white and 1 red, were excellent, but I had no luck trying to find out what they were.
The bill was 245 Euros for two, including the wine and bottled water, and I left an additonal tip. After dinner, we returned to our hotel, then wandered around the Contescarpe neighborhood and had a beer at an outdoor cafe on a small square about two blocks from our hotel. It was crowded with people (mostly all locals) eating,drinking and just hanging out at midnight.

If you call for a taxi to pick you up in Paris (the same is true in Bayeux as
I later learned, so perhaps throughout France), they start the meter whenever they get the call and you do not know how far they will have to go to get to you. It makes cabs much more expensive than you would expect. When the cab picked us up for dinner, the meter was already on 8.50 Euros.

Thursday, June 12 -- Paris

Breakfast each morning in Paris was
pasteries from a local bakery, at about 1/4 the cost of breakfast at our hotel, which I had heard was not that good anyway. That day we toured Saint Chapelle, then the Louvre, did a walking tour of the Marais
district (including the Picasso Museum and the Pompadieu Center) and spent
awhile people watching at Les Halles. That evening, we had dinner at Le Regalade, which is highly regarded by
Fodorites taking into account its price range (three course menu for 35 Euros.)The food was very good,although notin the same class as L'Astrance. With an apertif, a bottle of wine, water and tip the total bill was about 100 Euros. After dinner we went to the Eiffel Tower, getting there about 10:30.
The line to the 2nd level was fairly short (about a 10 minute wait.) The latest you can go up is 11 pm. We enjoyed the view and felt it was worth the cost.

Friday, June 13 -- Paris

Another day of heavy sightseeing. We had bought museum passes the day before, and definitely saved a considerable amount even though we only used the three day passes for two days. We started our day at the Orsay Museum taking the English guided our. The Museum is a work of art itself in my opinion and I really enjoyed seeing it. Although I had been to Paris twice previously, the last time was 1985 and if it was open then, we didn't see it. I really enjoyed some of the pre-
Impressionist art there, as well as the the Impressionist works. After a quick lunch at the Museum , we went to see
Napoleon's Tomb, the World War II
Museum at Invalides, the Rodin Museum and the Arc de Triumpe (which my son climbed, but my sore feet voted against).

Dinner that night was at C'Amelot, also recommended by Fodorites. It is a small ,plain neighborhood restaurant (in the Marais district) that was not as good as I expected. Perhaps it has gone downhill some, becuase it was never more than half full while we were there. A three course dinner, a bottle of wine, apertifs and tip totaled about `120 Euros. After dinner we rushed to Pont Neuf to take the last
Seine River cruise of the evening on the Vendettes du Pont Neuf. We saw most of the central Paris sights (that are viewable from the river) during the 1 hour cruise and enjoyed the English (following the French) naration describing major sights as we passed them. The views of Paris at night with all the lights and the people hanging out along the river, were really enjoyable.

Saturday June 14 -- Normandy Beaches/Bayeux


Our train for Normandy left at 9:00 am and arrived in Bayeux in a little over two hours. We took a cab to our hotel, the Chateau Bellefontaine, and then walked to town for lunch and a quick look at the cathedral, before meeting our Battlebus Tour for the D-Day beaches and related sights. Both of us really enjoyed the tour. Paul,our guide, was very knowledgeable and did an excellent job of covering as much as possible in a half day (five hour tour). We visited Point du Hoc, Omaha Beach, the American cemetary and the Museum in Arromances,among other stops. I found it to be a moving xperience and my son also considered it to be a highlight of our trip. I recommended Battlebus, and wish we had been able to take a full day tour. That evening, we ate at La Rapiere. Although the food was reasonably good, I thought it wasn't worth the price (almost 100 Euros for two.)

Sunday, June 15 -- Versailles/ Paris

Our plan was to return to Paris on the 9:04 am train, store our bags at the St. Lazarre train station, and take the RER (commuter train) to Versailles, then return to Paris for our last night. Everything went according to plan until we were told they had no storage lockers at the St. Lazarre station. We wound up going by Metro to Gare d'Est (from which my son was leaving that night to go to Switzerland) using the lockers there, then going by Metro to another
RER station where we could take a train to Versailles. All of that took an extra 1 1/2 to two hours. We finally got to Versailles, had lunch and then took the English guided tour of the King's apartments and the Opera House for 1 1/2 hours and toured the State Apartments and the Hall of Mirrors on our own. After just missing an RER return train to Paris, we had to wait 55 minutes for the next one that left at 6:50. We went across the street for a drink to wait. When we returned, the 6:50 train was so packed we could hardly squeeze on it. All the seats were taken, people were sitting on the stairs (it was a double decker) and the standing room areas were full. It made for an unpleasant 40 minute ride. We had dinner at the Med, a creperie on Ille St. Louis and enjoyed the Sunday eveing street action there. After dinner, we returned to Gare d'Est where my son left for Switzerland, then on to Amsterdam and London before returning home 8 days later. I went to my hotel at Charles de Gaulle Airport (the Novotel, on the airport property). I do not recommend the Novotel. It was overpriced (150 Euros, and the air conditioner took forever to cool the room from oppresively hot to barely acceptable. The only thing it had going for it was location. They provide a free shuttle to the airport (a 5 to 10 minute ride).

Monday, June 16 -- Paris to Dallas

I arrived at the airport at 8 am for my 10:15 flight. It took me only about 40 minutes to go through security, check-in, etc. After getting breakfast in the Air France Business Class lounge, I went to the gate where it took another 20 minutes to wait in line, go through additional security procedures(maybe only because I was carrying my bag on) and be shuttled to the plane. Air France Business Class was very nice and the food was excellent. After changing planes in Atlanta, I flew Delta to Dallas arriving about 5 pm Dallas time. The trip was wonderful, but I was very glad to be home.

All I can say is one smart wife and one great dad! Your son will remember this trip his entire life and perhaps be inspired to take a child of his own some day.
I'm impressed with all that the two of you managed to do and see! I certainly seems like you had a great time.
I was in Bayeux last year and I agree with your comments about the restaurant La Rapiere, good food but not quite worth the price.
I really enjoyed reading your report.
Diane

Wow - what an amazing trip. And what a terrific Dad you are! I know this took lots of planning ahead, although that contributes to the excitement. Congratulations on giving your son a wonderful experience. You two will remember it forever.