Other resources for areas in Germany not covered in 2009 guidebook

Often, you will find that a town has a website with lots of information at www. townname.de. Second, www.meinestadt.de often has info, but it is in German.

I'd also recommend to look up the websites of the towns. They all have one. The larger ones might have the tourism page in English as well even if the rest is all in German. If not try to email them and request some information. Even smaller towns often have some print material in English (sometimes covering the region) and are quite willing to mail it to you.

Some of the places in Westphalia are in the Muensterland region. Check out this tourism site, parts of the website are available in English:

www.muensterland-tourism.de

When you're in Gronau also try to head across to border to Enschede NL. I LOVE the farmers market there on Saturdays. Best matjes ever! I worked at the Euregio office in Gronau one summer and spent most of my lunch breaks across the border ;-)

Not really anything specific to add to this question, except that I almost always travel with another guide book in addition to a Rick Steves book when I go anywhere in Europe.

I would look over on Trip Advisor and also visit Toytown. This is a website for English speaking people that live in Germany. If you do a search on there, you may come up with all kinds of info on those smaller towns from people that actually live there.

http://www.toytowngermany.com/

Thank God, finally somebody who realizes Germany has got so much more to offer than just Octoberfest, Lederhosen, Oompah music and the Rhine river valley!Have you been to www.deutschland-tourismus.de (Select English on the top right hand side of the website or select the website of the area in Germany you're looking for up there as well). For Northrhine-Westfalia also check with: www.nrw-tourism.com. As to Worms: Do you have to stay in worms for a certain reason? Speyer is the more attractive of the two cities and isn't far at all. For budget accommodation in that area also check in nearby Mannheim. When in Worms you also might want to visit the oldest non-Roman building in Germany (built before 740 AD), The convent of Lorsch (http://www.schloesser-hessen.de/schloesser/lorsch/klosterlorsch.htm). For the North (Lower Saxony) check with www.niedersachsen-tourism.de ...

The Let's Go books usually have a lot of information on the out-of-way towns. It's also good for practical information, like where to find an ATM or laundromat. I always travel with another book in addition to Rick's, too, and it's usually a Let's Go one. Rick's books are great in that they pare all the information down and give you the highlights, but if you want to dig deeper, get another book.

Hello, LeeAnn - I'd like to suggest my favorite guidebook - it's the Baedeker Reisefuehrer - Deutschland. It covers well-known cities and towns and also areas with the worthwhile towns and hamlets highlighted. Since you know German, you might get a lot out of it. Maybe you could look it up in amazon.de and find a used one to have sent to you once you're in Munich. That would save on postage and things don't change all that much, so even an older one would still be a great resource. I hope you have the names of some relatives. In the smaller towns, the local churches often have baptismal, wedding and death records going back several hundred years. In the larger cities, too, of course (unless they were destroyed during the war - WW II) but in smaller areas there's often just the one church. South and West it could be catholic but in the North most often protestant. Best regards, Anna

If you do feel comfortable reading German guide books you can order new ones at Gerbers, an independent German bookstore which ships world-wide at no extra cost!!! Their catalogue is not as easy to navigate as amazon's so I often do my research on amazon and then order the title with Gerbers.

edit to repair link

Beatrix, what's the full website for Gerbers, please? I tried googling it but got loads of Gerbers other than the book store. Thanks, Anna

weird... don't know why the link doesn't work. Check out www.gerbers.de

Beatrix,

you didn't start the link with "http://". Without that the browser just assumes that www.gerbers.de is part of the current Rick Steves webpage. If you have a PC, right mouse click on the link, then on "Properties" to see what you actually asked for.

Whenever I insert a link, I try to always test it after clicking edit. There are so many little syntax errors that you can make that cause the link not to work.

Danke Lee! Ich hatte es nicht gemerkt, ist aber nun korrigiert.

Oups, I guess I was already in Germany in my head. So thanks to Lee! I did check the syntax earlier but it is corrected now.

Lonely Planet has a guide book on Munich, the Black Forest and Bavaria. I used this and it has information on alot of smaller towns. I also really liked toytown like Jo mentioned.

In addition to the Rick Steves guide on Germany, I am finding the DK Eyewitness Travel book Munich & the Baviarian Alps helpful as a guide for choosing destinations for a trip next spring to that region. I also am getting good use out of an older copy of Fodor's Exploring Germany, which covers many places not in these other two books.

Thank you for all of the wonderful ideas. I am going to try each and every one of them!