Germany/Switzerland

Forgot at least one thing: If landing or leaving from Frankfurt Airport, be prepared to walk ... a lot. Everything seems to be arranged in such a way that you need to walk great distances. It seemed we did a lot more walking, from arrival gate, to baggage claim, to passport/customs, to the taxi rank outside, than we did hiking in the Alps! Be prepared.

But, there's a very good restaurant in the airport: Käfers! We had a great lunch there before boarding our 11 hour flight home. Glad we did, because the food on board was, uh, AWFUL to put it mildly.

True about flying United SFO to FRA or vice versa. It's not only the squished in feeling for 11 hrs but they're late, ie one hour in taking off.. This year I flew United again, in spite of the one hour delay in 2014, but to Paris, still squished but for 11 hours direct with not too bad of a price, I'll take it. Much better, however, on British Airways going over.

Flights--United Airlines has a new CEO, and he's promising big changes to customer service. That won't help the tight seating, however. Hopefully happier employees will make happier customers.
Car Rental--The comp and collision insurance on my personal car at home carries forward to Germany as primary. My Gold Card provides comp and collision insurance, however it's secondary. Therefore, I refuse CDW as I really don't require it--except in Italy. I shop directly with AutoEurope specifying the pickup addresses that I know is a Hertz location. I'll also shop Hertz with my company's frequent renter card--and choose which every price is less.
Credit Cards--I do use Capital One credit cards as they don't discount the currency exchange rate--100% credit as of the market price that day. I use an ATM card from my credit union (free) as my Wells Fargo ATM $5.00 rate also comes with a 3% discount--excessive charges.
Vignette Charges--It's nice not to have tolls to deal with, but the scenery of the Alps is absolutely incredible--and worth every penny of the vignette charges.

Switzerland's road system includes numerous tunnels - which are are an incredible feat of engineering and VERY expensive to build. If you take that into account, the vignette is actually a pretty good deal (and only 3 of the tunnels charge a toll these days).

And that 40CHF (about €36) Vignette is not for tourists alone, it is for nearby country visitors (like me, I currently have 7 on my car after taking a bunch of really old ones off), but for all the residents in Switzerland who choose to drive on motorways.

And it isn't just valid for 10 days like the Austrian one, for which you paid €9.70.

That Swiss Vignette is valid for 14 months. It is valid for the 12 months represented by the year on the Vignette, and the prior December and the following January.

The Austrian Vignette costs 9.70/10 = €0.97 per day of validity. The Swiss (in Euro equivalent so we don't compare apples with oranges) works out to 36/425 = €0.084 per day of validity.

So which is the ripoff? 97 cents a day? Or 8 and a half cents a day? I personally think neither is. They are both very valuable.

By the way, keep an eye on your mailbox. The instructions about how to affix the Swiss Vignette is clearly printed on the detachable part in English. It is an offence to not affix it permanently and Swiss roads are patrolled by automatic cameras which can tell if they are properly applied. You may well receive a fine in the coming months. You will get the first hint when the car rental company dings your credit card for around €45 for checking its records and providing your details to the police.

The vignette is a ripoff for tourists who are only going to be on the roads for 14 days, as in my case, for which the remaining 60 weeks or so valid on the vignette is unusable. And with a rental car, is Hertz going to charge me for putting a sticker on the windshield? And why should I be paying for the next person to rent that car?

Oh, come on now, rchrd (richard?). 36 euro for the vignette is not exactly a rip off. If you had to pay highway & tunnel tolls, it would likely total much more than 36 euro, an amount that probably doesn't even pay for lunch inSwitzerland.

It's the principal of the thing. Ok. I should have permanently attached the vignette. But it's a rental car. It should have already come with it. All the other tax stickers are there. And, now that I've talked about it in the public forum, I guess I should expect a knock on the door any day now from InterPol. But Hertz didn't say anything when I told them we would be driving to Switzerland. I still think Hertz should have provided a car with the ticket already there.

All foreign travelers wishing to travel to the United States must pay a ESTA tax of $14. What do they get in return? Nothing. Is that fair?

At least the vignette pays for the maintenance of very expensive roads and tunnels.

Historically the vignette was setup when the Swiss government realized that the Gotthard tunnel enabled travelers to cross Switzerland repeatedly without spending a penny in the country just stopping for a bathroom break.

I have nothing against the vignette tax. But why should I give it to Hertz so that the next person who rents the car doesn't have to pay it? That's the part that bothers me the most. We found that the roads and major highways in France/Germany/Switzerland were far better maintained than our roads. I have no complaints there. But Hertz should have supplied a car with the tax sticker on it rather than have me buy one for them.

Ok. Enough on this subtopic. Our trip was wonderful. The last time we were in Germany was in 1975 and it was grim. Very grim. This time it was amazing. These are the memories I want to keep.

Why did you see Germany in 1975 as grim? In the Cold War days? I was in Germany in 1973, it didn't seem grim to me only that the exchange rate had worsened from two years earlier plus the fact that I was broke in 1973. My plan was to go back in 1975 but couldn't do financially until 1977. Traveling was indeed different then, both harder and easier than now.