Germany Trip in September.. need input

I'm looking for as many ideas & suggestions as I can get here.. so please feel free to come up with interesting routes to take or things to see all over the country. :thumbup:
 
For a car nut Sinsheim museum was freaking awesome, btw. So many cool classic cars in one place... Might not fit into your schedule though...

Also, if you're going to visit VW, Porsche, etc museums, it's worth checking if you can get a factory tour. I was at Porsche Zuffenhausen tour. Anyone can get in if you reserve it by phone, free of charge (contact info, scroll down to "1."). Was pretty cool.
 
Suedschleife said:
Ok, so my itinerary for you looks something like this, I will try to flesh it out more when I have time:

5th Arrival in Frankfurt (what time?), if you arrive early leave for Wolfsburg and the VW museum , otherwise catch some sleep.

6th, After VW museum drive up to Wilhelmshaven (or Hamburg if you prefer), a wonderful small coastal town right at the biggest intertidal zone in the world, the Wadden Sea. Do some Mudflat hiking, be careful not to drown :p

7th, Drive along the scenic coast through Eastern Frisia, take some pictures at the beach (no vacation is complete without one) or visit one of the many Quaking bogs.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/2470900881_67451057d8.jpg?v=0

8th, Make your way to Cologne or straight to the Ring, either through the Netherlands or the Ruhrgebiet (the latter not being very picturesque imho).

9th, Ring

10th, Drive through Eifel and wine country around Trier in the Mosel valley.

11th, If you liked the Eifel region around the Ring, go to the Black forest region, otherwise proceed to the Alps.

12th, Alps

13th Munich maybe? Or go towards Stuttgart already and visit Burg Hohenzollern

14th, Stuttgart, Porsche and M-B museum.

15th, return flight
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excellent.. btw. It's definitely right in line with the speed at which I think I'll be able to get around the country.

So if I'm going from the Eifel region down toward the Alps and Munich, that kind of takes me past the Stuttgart area. Where should I drive between the ring and the alps?

And do you have any more specific suggestions between the coast and the ring?
 
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rootrider said:
excellent.. btw. It's definitely right in line with the speed at which I think I'll be able to get around the country.

So if I'm going from the Eifel region down toward the Alps and Munich, that kind of takes me past the Stuttgart area. Where should I drive between the ring and the alps?

And do you have any more specific suggestions between the coast and the ring?
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For the Eifel to Alps trip I would take mostly B-roads from Trier:

L149 south onto the B52 towards Hermeskeil (has been part of a WRC Rally segment, no idea if if any of the roads were used in the Hunsr?ck-Rallye during Walter R?hrl times)
L151/149/L330/L135/L315 To the B41, L315 towards Freisen through Naturpark Saar-Hunsr?ck
Short Autobahn segment on A62 and A6 driving past Karlsruhe (K-town)
through the Palatinate Forest (Naturpark Pf?lzer Wald) towards Laundau in der Pfalz on the B48
a quick dash on the A65 (past a M-B plant) and A5 Autobahn (next to the French border) to Baden Baden
The B500 (aka Schwarzwaldhochstra?e) south onto L96 and B33 ending back up on the B500.
another quick dash on the Autobahn, this time the A81 and A98 towards Ludwigshafen
Drive along Lake Constance (Bodensee) to Lindau am Bodensee
Continue into the German/Swiss/Autstrian alps (whatever flavor of Jodeling suits you best).

Google maps link

edit: Coast to ring, that's D-Fence's turf :)
 
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perfect.. love it!

any suggestions for routes to take/places to check out from that area toward Salzburg or Munic (that is, via the Alps)?
 
I can post a few roads that I enjoy driving on in the area between Munich and Salzburg (I live there part-time, whenever I'm not in the city), but I'm about to go out to get drunk, so it'll have to wait til tomorrow.

These won't neccessarily be roads that take you anywhere, but just roads I've had to drive on that didn't annoy me.
 
rootrider said:
yeah, I don't doubt that most rental companies have manual diesels.. but their web sites make it impossible to ensure that I would get one. If there is an option, most sites make you check a box to 'request a manual'.. at least sixt has it the other way around where you have to 'request an automatic' :p
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Welcome to Germany, where every driving school has manuals. Normally almost all "normal" rental cars here are manuals (except for the bigger cars like 5 series and upwards) ;) .

http://germany.europcar.de/fleetguide/ here you can see which cars are auto and which aren't.

Just say definitely that you DO NOT WANT AN AUTOMATIC CAR (and then lie like "as you have never driven one" etc)




If you know some German you can check this:

http://www.mietwagen-talk.de
 
The northern route really depends on whether or not you want to see Berlin. That would take you a good chunk eastwards. Have you made up your mind about that yet?

If you go to Berlin you could stop at the Baltic Sea. If you don't, a short trip to the North Sea would make more sense.
 
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I have thought about taking a train into the Berlin area for at least part of a day.. mostly because I wanted to ride a train while in Germany and it seemed like a decent excuse :p
 
why oh why.
why would you want to ride a train :(
The only train to ride is the ICE 3 ;)
 
^ +1. If you want to go by train, take the ICE, 3rd generation, on a track that allows 300 kph. That means either Cologne - Frankfurt or Munich - Nuremberg.
 
haha.. you have to understand that we essentially have no train system in the US.. other than in some metro areas. I like trains as well.. so it'd be worth experiencing a little bit of one of the better train systems in the world I think..
 
OK, here's klanky's between-munich-and-salzburg-roads:

These are just some random roads, which aren't necessarily on the way to or from anything, but they are nice and empty often, nice and fast, and go through some nice scenery, and some quaint towns

linky 1 .... linky 2

This road is actually an interesting one, because it basically follows the exact same route as the autobahn from Muc to Szg, but is really empty and has really nice scenery.

Oh, and this is the road that me and a million other commuters per day take to and from Munich, you'll always be stuck behind something here, don't bother taking it :D

Now, as for places to see, if you are into hiking, there are plenty of nice mountains in that area, Wendelstein or Kampenwand for example.

People consider Munich to be "the biggest village in Germany", I'm not exactly sure what the stereotype comes from, considering it is the most densely populated city in Germany. I quite like it here, and there are some pretty touristy locations in the city, though I can't really judge what are the best, since I don't tour much around here. Most of the Americans are usually in the pedestrian zone in the city center, by the Rathaus (city hall) and the Viktualienmarkt (which is like a farmers market just to the south of the city hall).

Across the border to Austria, two really nice cities are Salzburg and Kufstein, they both have big castles. Beware of entering Austria via Autobahn, because you need to buy a sticker to travel on their Autobahns. both of those cities can be reached easily by Landstra?e (country road) if you chose to do so, and you can save yourself the cost of a "Vignette". might help to have a map or a navigational gps device with you just to be sure.

A bit farther out of the way, but a really nice city, and a very old city as well, is Regensburg, which is a lot smaller than Munich, and more comparable to Salzburg in terms of size, where you can walk around the city really easily. Unlike Munich where your best bet is to park on the edge of the city where you don't pay an arm and a leg for parking and then just buy a day ticked for public transport. I wouldn't call Regensburg a must-see, but should you be in that area it's probably worth checking out, it has a famous cathedral.

Oh and Augsburg is also a nice very old city, but I haven't been there in a few years now, and I can't really comment on what there is to see there.

All I can think of right now and it was a bit rambly, but if you have any questions just shoot.
 
thanks for the ideas on the cities to check out... it'd be stupid for me to not make my way into Austria while I'm there, so this helps a lot.
 
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