My huband and I are planning to fly into Paris and spend a few days there before heading to an area of Germany and flying back to the US from either Frankfurt or Munich. Any suggestions as to what area of Germany to concentrate on? We will have a total of about 15 days for this trip (including Paris) in either May or June 2012. Our thoughts right now are after departing Paris to start in Frankfurt and do the romantic road ending up in Munich. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks,
Posted by
Lawrenceville, Georgia
693 posts
Cathy, sounds like a good plan - especially since the Munich airport, in my opinion, is preferable to Frankfurt's. It's a lot less crowded and just as easy to get to. Be aware that next May has several holidays in both countries. May 1, 17 and 28 are holidays just about everywhere and May 8 is a holiday in France (end of World War II/liberation day). May 28 is Pentecost Monday, so it es effectively a really long week-end, with many European tourists also heading to Paris.
Posted by
Honolulu/Seattle, HI/WA, USA
2787 posts
Do you have RS Guide Books for those two places yet? If so, good. If not, you should get them as we found them full of good information when we toured Germany this last summer.
Posted by
Paradise
7072 posts
"Any suggestions as to what area of Germany to concentrate on?" Depends on what you want to see. Old-world Germany is what Romantic Road visitors usually have on their minds. But you'll actually find an abundance of history, castles, cobblestones and half-timbered towns between the French border and Frankfurt. With the 9:05 train from Paris Est, it's only about 3 hours by TGV train to the old Roman city of Trier, Germany's oldest city. And from there, the many wine villages and castles of the Mosel and Rhine River valleys are at your feet. Of the castles, Burg Eltz and Marksburg are stand-outs: http://www.burg-eltz.de/ http://www.marksburg.de/ Towns to visit: Bernkastel - Cochem - Boppard - St. Goar - Bacharach - Oberwesel (outstanding castle-hotel) - Linz am Rhein - Braubach From Oberwesel, it's only one hour by train to Frankfurt. And you might want to make additional outings from Frankfurt too. Mainz has a handsome old town with a fabulous Romanesque cathedral. Würzburg and its fabulous "Residenz" palace are only an hour from Frankfurt. Gelnhausen is about half an hour from Frankfurt by train. Büdingen is an old walled town only an hour away and highly touted by posters on this board. Both of these last two towns are part of the German "Fachwerkstrasse", or "Half-timbered-house Road." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtCzNK12U3U http://frankfurt-on-foot-cityguide.blogspot.com/2011/01/budingen-historic-walled-town.html http://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/uk/index.php?s=6&c=sbesch
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33847 posts
Russ is right about Büdingen. It wasn't on our list but we Jo (from Frankfurt) helped us discover it. It was one of the highlights of our visit.