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The Germany Thread


sidis

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We spent 4 days in Munich. Lovely city. Great beer and food. It was our second time to Germany. Saw everything from Residenz to Dachau. I could see myself living in Germany. Everything is so clean and efficient. I appreciate and favor their lack of small talk. Do you job well, enjoy a beer, and shut the fuck up.

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On 2/29/2024 at 11:14 AM, Ghost of LL said:

Sure.  Give me a bit more information, though.  Where are you flying into and out of?  Are you open to flying into someplace like Frankfurt and out Zurich?  Or are you intent on flying out of the same place you flew into?  And what about internal transit?  Are you doing trains or renting a car?  And how ambitious do you want to be on transit?  Like a "if it's Friday, it must be Munich" itinerary?  Or more of a "let's find one or two bases of operations and go from there?"  And what do you mean by "culture?"  Are you looking for art museums?  Cites of historical significance (and if so, what era)?  Or more like street art and the KitKat Club?

Just three ideas:

Rhine:

Fly into Frankfurt and drive up to the Romantic Rhine (i.e., the stretch roughly from Bingen to Koblenz).  Spend a couple days there checking out the various castles.  Drive down to Strasbourg and spend a few days there.  Then drive down to Basel and spend a couple days there exploring the Rhine as it exits the Alps.  Fly out of Zurich.

Berlin & Dresden:

Fly into Berlin (will require a connection) and spend five days there.  Drive down to Dresden, which is an under-visited and -appreciated city by Americans.  About halfway is the Spreewald, which is where the River Spree naturally spreads out into a huge floodplain but has, over the millennia, been carved up by small canals.  It's just a beautiful area that you can now get a gondola, a bike, or just hike around.

Munich & the Bavarian Alps:

Fly into Munich and spend three or four days there.  Then drive down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, see King Ludwig's castles, hike the Partnachklamm and the Alpspitze, take the gondola up to the top of the Zugspitze (the highest mountain in Germany).  Maybe go over to Salzburg and check out Berchtesgaden if there's time.

Those are just some ideas.

Thank you for the recommendations! Much appreciated..

We are leaning towards Munich as the starting point and then heading towards the Wengen, Murren, or Lauterbrunnen area as a base for operations. Anyone have a preference as to which area to pick as our home base to explore the area?

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1 hour ago, Grundy said:

Thank you for the recommendations! Much appreciated..

We are leaning towards Munich as the starting point and then heading towards the Wengen, Murren, or Lauterbrunnen area as a base for operations. Anyone have a preference as to which area to pick as our home base to explore the area?

That whole area south of Interlaken is amazing.  I don't have a preference as between villages, and I've only been there once many years ago.  So I don't have any real good recommendations or commentary on that.  But it's a beautiful area.

I'm happy to give whatever thoughts you want on Munich.  I will observe that Munich is the birthplace of National Socialism.  So if you want some good Nazi sights, Munich is your town (Nuremberg is also great for that).  If you're interested in such sights, you should have a browser page on your phone open to Third Reich Ruins any time you're walking around Munich.

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Posted (edited)

You've made good choices....Wengen has more options  quality restaurant and room wise, but if you're using it as a base, it's remoteness up there translates into more travel time per day, same with Murren.  But if your exploring means hiking, Wengen would be fine.  Lauterbrunnen is a nice place to sit on a patio, drink bier, and watch waterfalls, but being in the canyon pales in comparison to being up above. Either of the to 'upper' towns are unworldly beautiful...you might find yourself content to just soak up the beauty...it's breathtaking up there. Grindelwald is also nice, a bit more sleepy than the others. Hotel Gletschergarten there is one of my favorite places to stay, sitting on the balcony in the morning looking at the Eiger, eating pastry from the  good bakery right across the street. The cemetery across the street, towards town has many gravesites of climbers who have died in the nearby heights...it's worth the look. The train runs to Grindelwald, not so the others. You will love the area.

Edited by otisdog
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3 hours ago, Grundy said:

Thank you for the recommendations! Much appreciated..

We are leaning towards Munich as the starting point and then heading towards the Wengen, Murren, or Lauterbrunnen area as a base for operations. Anyone have a preference as to which area to pick as our home base to explore the area?

You might want to ask on the Switzerland thread too.

I prefer Wengen. Wengen and Murren are both no-car villages, accessible only by gondola/train, but Wengen is prettier and has more shit to do. 

It's all about how much you want to spend. Interlaken would be the cheapest base, then Grindelwald > Lauterbrunnen > Murren > Wengen  

The poster above said Grindelwald is sleepy, which is just crazy. I think he's confusing it with Gimmelwald. Grindlewald has a ton of hotels/shops/touristy shit and is jam fucking packed with hordes of tourists everytime I've been there.

 

Here's the view from the 4th floor of the Hotel Shonegg Wengen.

 

 

PXL_20230609_081359894.jpg

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21 minutes ago, otisdog said:

No confusion, I know where Grindelwald is, I've been staying there for half a century. I tend not to be there during the high season.

Then your definition of "sleepy" is weird. Grindelwald is bigger than Lauterbrunnen/Wengen/Murren combined and is the biggest tour/bus/train destination in the area behind Interlaken.

 

 

wengen.JPG

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10 hours ago, rage-a-holic said:

You might want to ask on the Switzerland thread too.

I prefer Wengen. Wengen and Murren are both no-car villages, accessible only by gondola/train, but Wengen is prettier and has more shit to do. 

It's all about how much you want to spend. Interlaken would be the cheapest base, then Grindelwald > Lauterbrunnen > Murren > Wengen  

The poster above said Grindelwald is sleepy, which is just crazy. I think he's confusing it with Gimmelwald. Grindlewald has a ton of hotels/shops/touristy shit and is jam fucking packed with hordes of tourists everytime I've been there.

 

Here's the view from the 4th floor of the Hotel Shonegg Wengen.

 

 

PXL_20230609_081359894.jpg

That is very helpful and much appreciated! Fantastic scenery 

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7 hours ago, Mango4 said:

Going to Munich for Oktoberfest. Plan on going to Dachau but will take any other recommendations in Munich. Only have a few days there before taking the train to Berlin  

Shit--I have a thread on Oktoberfest from way back.  But I can't find it now.

As to hotels, there is a Sheraton Four Points and a Courtyard Marriott within walking distance.  Marriott may have changed this, but when I went some years ago, they didn't have "surge pricing" for rooms booked on points.  So the Courtyard is something like a Level 3 hotel, and they didn't change that during Oktoberfest.  So you could get that room for really cheap on Marriott points.  But whether you're booking on points or using cash, you need to book a hotel now.

You ought to get a pair of lederhosen, and your lady needs a dirndl.  Yeah--you'll feel dumb as you get dressed in the hotel room.  But then you'll step foot outside and start walking toward the Wiesn, and you'll see that everyone else is ismilarly attired.  And you'll feel suddenly that you're pretty cool.

The general scene is that there are a dozen or so big tents.  Each has its own vibe.  Hippodrome is the smallest and maybe the coolest.  Hofbrauhaus is for the Australians.  Augustiner has the best beer.

You go in and find a seat.  You have to be seated to order a drink (or food).  There is no bar that you can walk up to and order.  It's a way of limiting capacity.  You order, the bier comes, and you pay--nobody is going to run you a tab.  And once you have your bier, you can get up and walk around if you wish (though you'll lose your place at that table). 

All of the tables are like picnic tables that seat 16 (though the tables at the Hippodrome are smaller--they maybe seat 10).  If you see a spot, politely ask the people sitting there if it's available--"ist dieser Platz frei?".   If yes, they'll motion you to sit.  Aside from being socially appropriate, it also has the side benefit of being something of a conversation starter.  And it's kind of expected that you're going to be social.  And why wouldn't you be?  You're surrounded by people from right around the world drinking and having a good time.  I'm still in contact with people I met at Oktoberfest who are from everywhere from Germany to Australia.

Tables can be reserved for large groups.  But if you see an empty table with a "Reserviert" sign on it, you can still sit down and order a bier.  But if the reserving party shows up, they'll kick you out.  Or they'll just ask you to push down.  That happened to us at the Hippodrome.  I think the Swiss guys who had the table reserved were quite happy to have Mrs.LL in her dirndl continue to hang out at their table for a while.

Remember to eat something.  The standard snack at every tent is the half-chicken (halb Hahnchen).  It's way oversalted and rotisserie grilled.  Fucking delicious.  But you're going to want another bier or two after all that salt.

Dammit--now I want to go back.  Maybe we'll take the kids when they're both over 16.

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