Hi there, im travelling to europe in april 08 for 3 months, my last stop is germany, i fly out of frankfurt.
not inc the day i depart frankfurt i will have approx 8 nights there,
my ques are i will be coming from croatia then slovenia to germany,by train, do i need to buy as well as a german
rail pass an austrian one? i assume all trains from slovenia to germany will go via austria. i dont think at this stage i will visit austria
due to time constraints,sigh
as well as croatia /slovenia and germany i will be visiting prague and cseky krumlov.
which is a logical route order.i was thinking:
i will be on dalmatian islands for a week sailing then
Plitvice
Zagreb'
Ljubjana-Bled
Cesky Krumlov
Prague
Munich
Is this a logical route?
im just looking at an atlas, it seems logical, i hope
the other ques i have is as i only have approx 8 days for germany i cant decide what to do there
i was thinking
Munich -3 days inc king ludwig castle day trip
berlin -3 days (night train from munich)
and a few days on the romantic rd/rhine or rothenburg
im starting to think skip berlin and just head from munich up the romantic rd/rothernburg/rhine to frankfurt
is it a tragedy if i skip berlin? should i just do munich and berlin and skip romantic rd/rothernburg/rhine
i know it is a personal choice but if u had to pick which would u choose?
thanks so so much
I would skip Munich before Berlin. Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Marburg, Freiburg, Tübingen, Bamberg are good options. The best parts of Germany are the small towns.
Up to Prague, everything is OK. There are direct trains from Zagreb to Bled and connections with 3 changes (Salzburg, Linz and Budejovice/Budweis, famous for it's beer) from Bled to Krumlow. From Prague, I would go either to
Dresden (full day cruise on river Elbe from the Czech border up to Dresden) and then to Berlin. From there I would go to Frankfurt with stopovers in the Harz as well as in Weimar and Mühlhausen;
or to Munich and Southern Bavaria (Garmisch/Zugspitze, Wieskirche, Schloss Linderhof, Schloss Neuschwanstein) and then to Nürnberg and Rothenburg and finally Frankfurt.
From Frankkfurt you can in both cases go by train to Mainz (visit the town) and from there by boat on the scenic Rhine river up to Koblenz or even Cologne and back to Frankfurt airport by train.
From Cesky Krumlov it is possible to go directly to Munich, without returning to Prague first. (Look at the map, C. Kumlov is closer to Munich than Prague is.)
You need to take the train from Cesky Krumlov to Nove Udoli. Change at Cerny Kris. From Nove Udoli walk across the border into the Bavarian village Haidmuehle.
From Haidmühle catch the bus to Passau and from Passau you can travel onwards to Munich.
Use www.bahn.de to plan the trip. Enter Cesky Krumlov to Nove Udoli, write down the schedule and then look at the times the buses and trains run from Haidmuehle to Munich. There should be one or two options per day that make travelling Cesky Krumlov-Munich possible.
Note that Cerny Kris and Nove Udoli are in the Sumava national park. The views from the train are very nice, even if the train from Cerny Kris to Nove Udoli is a real "piglet taxi".
Oh yeah, definitely consider visiting Dresden from Prague.
As concerning rail travel, read what is written on Laendertickets here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Germany
Do not buy a pass, there are cheaper options than this.
The cheapest option by train from Slovakia to Germany is to go via Czech Republic. Avoid travelling through Austria.
There is also something called the CityStar Ticket. It is a great deal for people coming from Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Romania and travelling to Germany. All you need to do is buy the CityStar ticket in Croatia or Slovenia before you start out. Since I don't know Croatian or Slovenian, I cannot tell you the details. Best ask specifically for help with this. I personally would love to get my hands on this information in English, I've been looking all over the net and could not find it.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/b883d/<BR><a href="http://www.oebb.at/pv/de/Europareisen/City-Star-Ticket/index.jsp">OEBB City Star</a>
CD City Star
thanks for all the informative responses guys
i have seen that cesky krumlov is closer to munich than prague , but i didnt know how to go about getting to
prague, if i DONT go to berlin, looking at my original post of places ive listed where in your opinion would pargue fit in?
also t maia im not actually going to slovakia, im going to slovenia.looking at the map as im coming from slovenia
to germany it seemed to me the train would pass austria and that i would need a seperate ticket to cover austria.
can you offer any more suggestions?
thanks all again- much appreciated :)
My first suggestion would be to buy a rail&fly ticket from your airline. Here you can find out more if your airline participates in the program (click on "Here you can find a list of our Partner Airlines" and download the pdf list). It saved me lots of money when departing/arriving at Frankurt airport.
Secondly, I`d suggest to google "City-Star-Ticket".
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