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Last Minute Change Of Plans…Help!

We leave tomorrow morning and fly to Munich. Our plans (and reservations) were to go straight to Salzburg for 4 nights, then 3 nights in Vienna before going to Budapest. I had already purchased train tickets from Salzburg-Vienna and Vienna-Budapest. Non refundable of course. Why would we change our minds? Rain, lots of rain, and flooding. I quickly came up with a Plan B, and now I have questions. I booked a hotel room for 7 nights in Dachau. We can do day trips from there with our Deutschland Tickets and I just got tickets to get us to Budapest. The hard part is done. We take the S2 to München Hbf (tief) and have to walk from there to München Hbf. How long of a walk is that? It shows we have 14 minutes between trains. From there we go to Budapest-Keleti.

We have been to Munich before so we have a lot of things we can do there. Outside of Munich, are there any suggestions for other places to see? Thanks for any information and advice you can provide.

Posted by
10612 posts

Thanks Russ, I was actually looking for a place to base ourselves in Augsburg, but I couldn’t find anything suitable so last minute. I would like to check it out though. As for Herrenchiemsee, another good suggestion. We went there in 2010 when we spent a week in Schliersee, but we had a car. How difficult would it be by public transportation? When we were there they were filming The Three Musketeers movie starring Orlando Bloom. I wouldn’t mind seeing it without movie set alterations.

Posted by
4103 posts

Munich HbH is a bit of a construction mess but follow the people and signs. Tief just means deep and tracks 1 and 2 are below ground for the sbahn. You’ll just follow everyone up when you get there then on the main level note your gleis (track) number. The international trains are usually on 11- 20 something. They all dead end in the station so make your way along the front of the tracks to your train. Fourteen minutes should be good. We were in Munich in August and I may have some ideas for you. We have been there several times and can always find new adventures in the city and nearby. Are you still going to Bodensee later in your trip? We liked going to Andechs by S8 and bus but I can’t remember if you’ve already done that too. Glad to see that you found a nice hub where you can come and go with your D Ticket this month.

Posted by
3020 posts

Did you check Ingolstadt? It is well positioned in Bavaria for day trips to vaious places and has also own places worth seeing. The main station is well connected by buses. It is less than 1 hr by regional train to Munich.

Posted by
9224 posts

Head over to Regensburg. Lots to see there, especially the Dom. Roman stuff and Jewish history too.

Posted by
7078 posts

How difficult would it be by public transportation?

You already know about the ferry crossing... From Dachau: 10-min train ride to Munich Hbf + 55-min train ride to Prien. Walk (about 20 minutes?) through the town to the dock area (Stock) - or taxi or take a bus. DW and I walked several years ago... an easy walk.

Nuremberg and Regensburg are both great places too. The rail journey from Dachau Bahnhof will be 2+ hours one way, however.

Posted by
10612 posts

Thanks again everyone. Great suggestions.

Mona, we were supposed to go to Bodensee earlier, but we cancelled Switzerland and Bodensee because we needed to shorten the trip. We will go to the places we cancelled on our trip next year, but will add back Annecy. I would love to hear your ideas for Munich and the surrounding area, and we have not been to Andechs. D Tickets to the rescue!

Posted by
2144 posts

Sorry you had to make last minute changes. It’s nice in Gdansk and not sure how the flooding in Warsaw and Krakow is going to affect our tour. My cab driver showed me videos of the mess.

Posted by
33881 posts

Andechs is a bit out of town at the bottom of its lake, but we think it is well worth the effort. We like it there quite a lot. It is up though, so you can build hunger on the way up and reward yourselves at the top.

Posted by
10612 posts

Diane, I hope you can enjoy the rent of your trip in Poland.

Nigel, you have convinced me we have to go to Andechs!

Posted by
8056 posts

I second Ms. Jo's rec for Regensburg. It is a delightful town with beautiful and historic sights, and very walkable. It is about 2 hours by train from Dachau, but worth it, I think. The tourist info center has a very nice tour of the Rathaus and old prisons that was really fascinating. And as Ms. Jo mentioned, there are some Roman ruins that are interesting.

If it's not too late, Mark K's suggestion of Ingolstadt as a base is a good idea. I have not been there, but someone I met in Germany on my last trip was telling me about it, and recommended it. It would be a bit more central than Dachau, I believe.

Posted by
10612 posts

Hi all, just reporting back. We have been super busy since arriving on the 18th. Yesterday we went to Regensburg and today to Ingolstadt. We really enjoyed them both. We have also spent time in Munich and will go to Oktoberfest tomorrow. On Monday we will probably go to Augsburg unless we can decide on something else. We will stay in Munich Tuesday because we have a very early train to Budapest Wednesday morning. It was a good decision to stay in Germany instead of going to Salzburg and Vienna. I have already gotten notices about the train we had tickets for having a lot of issues. Dachau has turned out to be mostly a good location to stay in. We are a 7 minute walk from the Dachau Stadt train station.

Thanks again for all the help.

Posted by
33881 posts

thanks so much for the update.

We canned our trip.

Posted by
7970 posts

Looking at the OBB website you should be able to get a refund on your original tickets (and, under the extraordinary circumstances you could have used your original tickets next Wednesday, but no-one could have guessed that)-

The train binding for all national and international ÖBB tickets in the period from September 13th until September 19th (with purchase date until September 12th) is cancelled. These tickets are valid until further notice. Alternatively, ÖBB tickets for those trains affected by the travel warning can also be refunded.
The train binding for ÖBB tickets on the western route between Vienna and Salzburg has been cancelled until further notice. You can also use your ÖBB tickets on the trains of the WESTbahn, which run every hour. Tickets are recognised by both railways.
Only 1 of the 4 lines is currently open on the Salzburg to Vienna line, so your train may be rescheduled to change trains in Salzburg (Pl 4 to 5) and Vienna (same platform in theory). Tomorrow arrival in Vienna is scheduled as a 52 minute delay due to the change and a diversion, leading to a 60 minute delay into Budapest.

So hopefully all goes well for you.

Posted by
10612 posts

Sorry for the delayed response. WiFi has been limited. I appreciate the suggestion to cancel the original tickets, but everything regarding trains was such a mess and I was focusing on our trip from Munich-Budapest on the 25th. Our trains were cancelled 3 times, but we finally made it to Budapest 4 hours later than we should have. We had to run for trains after they were changed and we made the connection in Vienna with literally seconds to spare because the train from Salzburg was running late. We learned that we had no choice but to go with the changes as they occurred and appreciated that we pack light so are more mobile. Now we are in Budapest for a week.

We had purchased the Deutschland Ticket, prorated from our arrival on 9/18, when we thought we would just use it to go from MUC to Salzburg, then back to Munich for Oktoberfest one day. With our change in plans we used the heck out of the tickets for local transportation to get to and from Munich, in Munich and to go to other cities. We stayed in Dachau and had to take the train to go anywhere.

Posted by
33881 posts

thanks for the update. Trains have been a real challenge for you - they used to be so simple and relaxing. Enjoy Budapest.

Posted by
10612 posts

Thanks Nigel. The trains were definitely challenging, and it was understandable when it was due to track damage from flooding. We leave Budapest on Wednesday and will be taking the train to Poland and then trains throughout Poland, before we go back to Germany to spend time with the family. Fingers crossed that the rest of the train journeys will go smoothly.