Portland, Oregon, to Ravensburg with one interesting stop

Do you have an idea of where you will fly from Portland? If you want a non-stop flight, options are somewhat limited, generally Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. That's where I'd start my research: where am I going to land? If you stop in Chicago or on the East Coast, your arrival city options increase but your chances of problems and delays also increase.

Your best bet is to fly Portland to Zurich, and then drive over to Ravensburg. that gives you a layover in Amsterdam, but it isn't long enough to do anything there. Another option would be to fly to Seattle and then take the non-stop from there to Frankfurt. But it's 4+ hours from Frankfurt to Bodensee in good weather.

But Zurich is great; very good art, good Christmas Markets, serious chocolate, and history. You probably want to spend a night or two there. It's not cheap, but it's worth it.

I love the area around Bodensee. Konstanz is a great old city. Mainau has a Christmas set up for the gardens. Meersburg castle is very good and historic. There's a fantastic paleontology museum in Bodman.

Europeans consider American coffee weak, be prepared. If you add cream, that's very different from German milch-coffee, which is more like a Cappuccino. One thing you'll find a lot of in that part of the world is Apple Cider, warm, mulled, and alcoholic. Also hot chocolate unlike anything you'll find Stateside.

If you can, try to go to Strasbourg. the cathedral, the art, the markets; all will be something special for you. Again, it's worth spending a night to do the markets after dark.

Europeans consider American coffee weak

Perhaps they do, but in general I get better, and stronger, coffee in the US than in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Espresso is equally strong on both sides of the Atlantic.

The "Americano" served in northern Europe is weaker than a standard coffee from Starbucks or Caribou, or from a typical US mom-pop bagel shop.

Have you been to Europe before? If so where?

How long do you have to spend at the 'interesting stop' ?

To add to Laurel's comment, there is now a British Airways direct flight PDX-London that could potentially add options. The direct Frankfurt flight on Condor is seasonal and doesn't go in December. Depending on your dates "inexpensive" might not be possible owing to the holiday travel season.

Wow! Thanks for all of the good tips, everyone! Very generous of you all! I am so excited! I speak German quite well and a tiny bit of French, so this will all be such fun for me! Half of my culture growing up was European culture. I am going to fly from Portland to Zurich, and I will have two days before I need to be in Ravensburg with friends. Now I know I should explore the idea of staying in Zurich the first two nights or maybe going to Strasbourg on the way. I love culture, art, history, and great chocolate, so Europe is always a huge pleasure for me! I still need to figure out where to go to book the trains though. Driving a car is not an option for me traveling on my own, -- I can manage better with trains and my own two feet! It will be interesting to compare the coffee to that in Portland and Paris, lol. I'm not too worried about that, as I regularly require myself to have coffee-free days.

Strasbourg is a major detour from Zurich to Ravensburg.

There's a fairly quick direct train from Zurich Airport to Lindau, on the way to Ravensburg. Lindau is a pretty town and should be decked out nicely for Christmas.

Some accommodations hand out a guest card for local transportation, which can be used to visit Meersburg (another pretty little town). If that's too far, other villages/towns closer to Lindau have decent waterfronts and museums (Langenargen and Friedrichshafen). Weather permitting.

I still need to figure out where to go to book the trains though.

www.SBB/ch/en is the site. Note the fares shown will assume you have a Half Fare Card, which may benefit you depending on if you stay in Switzerland. It will also display Save Day Passes which can be a great option, again depending on your specifi plans. SO once you know where you want to go and how long you'll stay, we can help with these details.

The fastest connection from Zurich to Ravensburg is via Romanshorn and the ferry across Lake Constance to Friedrichshafen. From the dock in Friedrichshafen there is a train transfer (3 minutes) to the Friedrichshafen Stadt station, from there continue by train to Ravensburg; total travel time 2:40. The connection can be booked on sbb.ch with a single ticket.
(btw, for international connections, sbb.ch does not assume that you have a Half-Fare Card)