ragdoll

We are beginning to plan a trip to Germany in June 2006 for the World Cup. Of the twelve host cities (Hamburg, Hannover, Berlin, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund, Leipzig, Koln, Frankfurt, Kaiserslautern, Nurnberg, Stuttgart, Munchen) which would you rate as "must see" and which would you pass on. This will help us narrow down the venues, determine which matches to pursue and do some great sightseeing. We have never traveled overseas before so we need all the advice we can get. Thanks!

hsv

ragdoll,

this would be my choice: I will list places in their order of preference or least preference. I.e. the "Must sees" and "Worthwhiles" are in the order I would visit them if I were a foreign tourist, the "I would skip it" in the order of which I would skip first.

Must sees:

1. Berlin
2. Hamburg and Munich

Worthwile:
1. Nuremberg
2. Leipzig, Stuttgart and Cologne
(5.) Frankfurt (some reservation, because the city isn't much to write home about, but its surroundings are pretty nice - Rheingau region in particular)

I would skip it:
1. Dortmund
2. Gelsenkirchen (although their football stadium is great)
3. Hannover (a couple of good bars and clubs, but architecturally ugly to the largest extent)
4. Kaiserslautern (some surroundings nice enough, though)

Hope this helps!
hsv

ragdoll

Excellent! Thank you very much!

SAnParis

We plan to attend as well, but our locations may well depend on where we end up flying into (Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels & Amsterdam are all possibilities). We would like to do Hamburg & one of the smaller venues & catch two matches. + I've already been to many of the Southern Germany locales and am hoping to find something new. We were actually eyeing Gelsenkirchen.

hsv

SAnParis,

if you would like to do Hamburg as you say, do look into Continental Airlines who are going to establish a nonstop service to Newark by sometime late spring this year. Thus they might offer good connections along with competitive rates.

SAnParis

All options are open. Coming from Charlotte, it is difficult to tell who may even be in business at that point since USAir, United & Delta are all in various phases of Bankruptcy. I have flown Continental to Brussels but it was on a somewhat aged plane & I will be traveling w/a then 4yr. old & 1 yr.old. A little extra space goes a long way. Thanks though.

SAnParis

Any other Hamburg tips, advice, etc. are welcome.

hsv

SAnParis,

for a first intro, may I refer you to a pretty recent thread here that I posted various recommendations on?

You can find it through the following link:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...chText=Hamburg

Scroll thorugh it. Extensive info comes towards the end of the thread.

Apart from that, I will try to cater to your specific need of info when you indicate what your particular interests would be!

Regards
hsv

SAnParis

Thanks very much hsv. That seems like a long way off, but it will be here before you know it. I'll take a look.

hsv

You're welcome - any time!