"No turn is a wrong turn"
Train or Car…or both?
and other Travel Tips
This year we wanted to do something a little different… like “train it” rather than our usual rent a car and drive.
Fly into Wein (Vienna). Take the local transportation (http://english.viennaairport.com/bbpp.html)
to a nice little hotel in the Old Town area. Spend a week seeing Vienna and the surrounding areas… take the train
over to Melk, then a cruise boat down the Donau (Danube River) to Dürnstein, and train or bus or u-bahn or
s-bahn it back to Vienna. (Karen Brown’s Austria, www.karenbrown.com) Then hop the rails again and run up to Praha (Prague) for a few days. When
through there, we’d hop the rails again back into Deutschland to Dettelbach (http://www.dettelbach.de/index.htm)
to visit friends, then over to nearby Frankfurt and home. Can’t take a car into Czech Republic, so we’ll just have
fun riding the rails this year. Sounds so simple doesn’t it?
Now let’s just look at this simple plan. First, we had never limited ourselves to travel by rail only. Next, Suzie’s
early ’04 foot surgery would limit our strenuous walking for long distances, especially carrying our bags etc.
from the rail stations to our hotels or zimmers. This meant planning ahead. Much planning ahead and advanced reservations.
Let’s face it… Planning Ahead is another travel mode we are not known for….
So after all these years of Independent Travel experience… by rented car… I again find myself a travel newbie as
I begin to chart these unknown waters. First, for 2 weeks travel time, and considering we’ll go into three countries,
I price compare the various rail passes (US purchase only) with locally purchased rail tickets “as needed, where
needed, when needed” as well as other travel costs, considering various discounts from rail passes, to full price
with “walk up purchases.” (www.ricksteves.com , www.raileurope.com and others) Pay-as-you-go-tickets we find much more cost effective to our
needs. Well, it took a while, but that planning and research wasn’t too bad…
Hotels, etc. Budgets. We don’t travel multi-star hotels because we don’t like being isolated from the places and
peoples we came to experience. In Vienna, we’re finding prices a little higher than we want, but we are finding
acceptable accommodations in the Altstadt, and near the tram and bus lines, so we’re doing OK so far. This is easy...
But in Prague? Online advertised per nite rates of 33 € all of a sudden becomes “198” € with the notation “Not
Available” when you plug in May and June dates. Now I’m starting to choke. Here comes the Brain Damage, Excedrin
headache number 412. Why are prices in May and June considered “High Season” and through the roof and why so high
compared to my nephews' experiences 5 years ago when they lived in Germany and visited Prague on a regular basis.?
More research teaches me two things about Prague. May is the Prague Music Festival, the largest tourist month of
their year, i.e. High Demand, High Prices. That's understandable. Also, when the Czech Republic joined the EU,
many hotel owners joined the EU Price Raising of 2002, and really raised their prices high for all seasons. This,
we learned, was to the great chagrin of U.S. tour operators and other group booking agents. Sure, our friends and
family tell us “don’t worry… the minute you get off the train there will be many people trying to rent you very
cheap rooms in their homes… and they’ll drive you there. It’s easy. But beware the pick pockets… and beware the
taxi drivers who’ll try to over charge you and dump you Lord-knows-where if you don’t pay their huge rates.” Well,
we may be 'calculated risk takers' but that’s like being told, “Here, have a drink of this cheap moonshine whiskey.
Don’t worry. Your speech will only be slurred for a few hours, but your blindness may last a few weeks.”
We will enjoy Prague some Fall, and not fight the May Music Festival crowds and prices.
My Brain Damage and Excedrin Headache are still bothering me, and when I finally realize the problem. Rail travel
has its limits to travel planning. Where one can go. Where one can stay. Conveniences. Rail travel is great for
some people, and very budget friendly for some travel habits. Our travel habits don’t seem to fit into either single
category. Then I realize a very important factor to us. We use the freedom of a rented car to find thos budget
priced back roads zimmers and pensions, and this whacks more off our expenditures than the car rental additional
costs. Therefore, the way we travel, car rentals save us money! And we use rail into and within cities to avoid
congestive traffic so we can see the sights with ease. The secret light in my brain is finally turned on. Headache
gone...
Suzie and I are two very independent self-sufficient souls and travel very independently, with our rent cars and
back roads and no specific travel plans other that to See, Experience and Enjoy. We find zimmers as we travel,
where we travel, and if we don’t like the price, the location or whatever, we politely decline and go on down the
road to the next one. With our risk taking mentality, we’ve always been prepared to sleep in the car, but have
never had to do so. As we drive, we may want to stop at a roadside flea market. Or stop and go into a beautiful
little church. Or we may want to go to a small back roads food market for cheese, cold cuts, wine, bread, and things
to stop the car by a scenic lake or valley overview for a picnic. I guess we could even stop to go skinny-dipping
in a cold Alpen stream. (I just threw that in there to see if you’re paying attention.) But one thing’s for sure,
we’re drivers and back roads travelers, and that’s a fact that’ll never change.
Finally back to our travel reality, I call Bob Bestor’s Gemütlichkeit Travel (www.gemut.com) and began pricing car
rentals, this time for pick up in München (Munich). I did some price checking before calling, but when Andrew
Bestor shared his personal “been there done that” knowledge of München Avis pick up locations to save us almost
$100 in “German airport pick-up taxes” I quit price-shopping and finalized this (and future) car rental with Bob,
Andrew and their Gemüt Travel website. Oh yes… we’re picking up the car in Freising, Germany….just out the
“front door of MUC – Flughafen München, what we all consider Munich’s main Airport – which happens to be located
NOT in Munich, but in the little town of Freising just north of Munich! It’s location is S-1 on the München
S-Bahn system. In fact, for those interested, here’s the link to the entire München S-Bahn / U-Bahn system
and its route map.
(http://www.urbantransport-technology.com/projects/munich/munich1.html)
Through Gemüt, our “same rate choices” were Avis and EuropCar. We’re renting an Avis car at a significant
discount, with promotional upgrade to next level at a price untouched by others we called. We’re really happy because
all of a sudden we’re once again our old “independent traveler” selves. We’ll still park outside of cities and
take their municipal transportation into town to sight see… but we’re back to our comfort zone again.
This year, for a change, I’m making one or two advanced 3 or 4 day zimmer reservations from which we’ll “day trip.”
Just for fun, I decided to reserve in advance our favorite zimmer outside of Munich, and totally surprise our hosts
with our never-before-in-history prior reservation. They quickly e-mailed me back saying that they were FULL on
those dates due to the many people reading Bens Bauernhof website and reserving their Zimmer after reading my comments
on their place. However they did give me three days a few days away later which I grabbed immediately! (People
DO read this stuff)
From there, we’ll travel back roads by car to Wien, where we’ll train it and boat it as planned above. Then by
car and back roads back up into Germany and to Rothenburg o.d.T. (almost always our final stop and gift shopping.)
Then to our friends in Dettelbach and out via Frankfurt.
Finally, some family fun and seldom-in-print travel hints when you’re in foreign countries:
Tightly planned trips can be a quick burnout if travelers are not careful. We always try to have a “chill-out”
day every four days or so, especially when traveling with kids. Also, did your last minute packing not include
that stored away travel item you bought months ago, and “now” need?
A fun trip sideline is to visit a local German/Dutch/Swiss department store just to see how different they are
from yours at home. This includes Walmart (surprise!) where you’ll find LOCAL merchandise and some great prices
on things you might need. When Suzie blew out her “U.S. dual voltage” hair dryer – and the zimmer’s fuse – a few
years ago, we went to the Walmart outside of Trier. There she found a great deal on her now favorite German (European)
hair dryer and curling iron. Last year, it was so unbearably hot during our travels in Germany, I needed short
sleeved “golf” shirts. Tourist shops priced them starting at 36 € each, thank you. Walmart in Germany had them
(with collars) priced 3 for 9 €. Guess where I bought them?
Also, have you ever had problems finding a restroom…? and I’m not talking about the sidewalk units in Paris or
Amsterdam… but American style with doors, etc? A little hard to find? Well, you can really enjoy going into McDonalds
and other U.S. fast food franchises (and hotel lobbies) for those needs… and thank them for keeping that home-style
tradition when expanding to foreign markets. If it’s HOT for your travels too, remember these same places have
ICE to put in their drinks… another great travel treat. Go ahead - get a hamburger too. We won’t tell - and the
locals LOVE them!
In Haarlem (Netherlands) last fall, it turned very windy, wet and cold. We needed gloves and a warm cap for Suzie
and mufflers for us both. Tourist shops knit hats began at 18 € and upwards. Among back street shops, we found
a hat store and bought the same hat for 9 €. Later we found a local dept store named HEMES, where the hat was only
about 3 €. In HEMES we also bought knit gloves for 2.50 € per pair and great mufflers for about 2 € each. Great
savings… and to top it off, they had a Deli in the store where I bought the Haarlem equivalent of our PoBoy for
1.80 € (the same was 6 € in the tourist eateries just across the street).
In Interlaken, Switzerland we stopped in a local feed, plant, and farmer’s equipment store where I bought a great
lined, and quilted flannel shirt jacket for about 14 CHF. The same thing 5 blocks away in “tourist town” was a
mere 86 CHF in almost every clothing shop.
It’s always fun going to food stores to pick up picnic items and bottled water, etc, as well as “drug stores” for
tooth paste, and other items. I do this every trip so I can remember Germany - or Switzerland – or Austria each
time I brush my teeth (twice a week… hello???).
Wrapping up, don’t forget the Apotheke (pharmacy equivalent) for your ailments when in Europe. I’m sure by now
you know that their Pharmacists can assist you in determining the correct medication for your ailment and can,
in essence, prescribe your Rx needs.
Travel is your own personal choice - fun, fresh and different if you’ll allow it to be.
I’d enjoy reading your favorite travel hints, too. E-mail me a few.
Happy Travels
