Buying pillows in Germany

When we travel with my cousin, she always brings her pillow. A tempur-pedic. She used to carry a full sized one but since had purchased a smaller size. She stuffs it in her medium sized suitcase. So, yes, people do bring their pillows.

With a carry-on, there's no room for a pillow. I just go with the flow when I travel and don't try to replicate "home" (I can't bring my soft pillow-top mattress so, relatively speaking, a pillow has marginal value to me).

I like a full, firm, pillow and I find pillows when I travel in Europe generally to be too thin and flat for me. No way I am going to stuff a pillow in my backpack I travel with though! I never wished I brought one. I usually just fold the pillow in half and deal with it. There is often an extra pillow in the closet, or you can ask the hotel staff for an extra pillow or pillows. Two folded in half might be enough.

Ask your hotel if they have extra pillows for you.
Failing that, you can buy different kinds of pillows in the style you want, in a store there and then either leave them or bring them back in a checked bag.

I’ve already warned my kids that they won’t have beds like our memory foam mattresses! The last time we were in Germany (19 years ago). the beds were about as hard as my dining room table. We’re staying in apartments this time, and hopefully they will be a little more comfortable. One trip to Paris, after sleeping on an especially hard bed for a week, my back was killing me. We stumbled upon someone giving chair massages in a park so I jumped at it. Just as the message started, a bunch of orchestra students from a music school next door brought out their instruments and began to play. It was almost an out of body experience at that point! Gotta make lemonaid out of lemons sometimes! This time we are checking at least one bag, so I might bring a pillow or two in hopes of being a little more comfortable. Or budget for a massage mid-trip!

Perhaps bring some type of inflatable pillow to put under whatever is there. Makes for more support and easy transport.

Next best suggestion is a compression bag for the pillow you pack with you from home to minimize the mass for packing.

We found the pillows sort of flat also. Definitely not like the Cadillac of pillows that we have at home. We ended up rolling the hand towels into a little log shape and placing them underneath. That helped somewhat, but we did miss our pillows. Lol.

Is there anywhere we can buy American style pillows?

In short, no. Check out these posts/rants about pillows in Germany on this Ausländer forum (some are kinda funny): https://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/topic/152129-pillows-in-munich/

The standard pillows in Germany are larger and you can fold the soft ones over if needed to make it thicker. Your best bet is to ask for more pillows and stack/fold them. If it is the difference between sleeping and not sleeping you can always vacuum pack one in your checked luggage.

I actually have the opposite problem of finding German pillows/pillow cases in the US!

DJ

I have the same "problem" DJ has but I love German 80x80cm pillows so much I buy them, and their pillow cases, in Germany and bring back to the US.

A lot of hotel pillows give me neck pain, so I travel with a Therm-a-rest memory foam compression pillow. The small ones also work well when trying to sleep on a plane.

https://www.thermarest.com/pillows/compressible-pillow

(The Amazon and many outdoor/camping supply sites and stores also sell them)

There is no way I would try to travel with a pillow. The fluffy ones that can be folded/crunched are great but what I usually find are the awful ones that are foam---like a sponge. Feather pillows are preferred but I can understand hotels offering poly fill types in case someone has allergies. Sounds like you will be in Germany and I found bedding( mattresses, pillows, duvets) there to be superior to most places.

Wonder if OP means duvets? Some people have trouble with them falling off the bed:)
Even less practical to take your own.
Higher grade establishments will have non-allergy pillows, either as standard or on request.

Pretty sure she means pillows. She wasn't talking about blankets of any kind.