Germany 2009, Part 1

June 16, 2009
Elk Grove, California

Where to next? Germany!

Tomorrow morning Scott and I are off to Deutschland – land of castles and cathedrals; a country whose history dates back to the Middle Ages; and home of Einstein, Beethoven, World Wars, and 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Over 12 days we will tour Frankfurt, Köln (Cologne), Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, and Munich.

As with all of our trips, we did not initially settle on Germany. I suggested a SCUBA dive trip to Central America or a Caribbean Island, but Scott wanted to do something different than the usual “tropical” holiday – he wanted to visit Europe. I looked into visiting Ireland (the cheapest airfare from California), but the more research I did the more romantic the Emerald Isle seemed, not exactly what we had in mind. Instead, Scott, fresh off his sophomore World History class, wanted to see the history and World War II sights of Germany.

This will not only be our first visit to Europe; it will be the first multi-city itinerary we have planned, including transportation and accommodations. The latter was an easy decision – trains. We have second class passes for unlimited travel on any eight days within a 30 day period. Many people told me that second class is quite comfortable and trains run every 30-60 minutes between our destinations.

Germany

We decided to stay at hostels through out our trip. Although many of them have inexpensive private rooms, I booked us into six and eight bed dorms when possible. Besides being cheap ($25-$40/night), I hope the experience will give Scott the confidence to stay in hostels on his own in the future. The hostels I’ve reserved seem to be quite clean and modern.

It pays to watch airfares. When I first checked prices in March, the fare to Frankfurt was $1156/ea. I checked www.kayak.com daily and bought tickets when the fare dropped to $711 roundtrip. I should have been more patient, though – the price dropped to under $600 a week later!

We leave from San Francisco tomorrow (June 17) at noon and, after a brief layover in Washington D.C., will arrive in Frankfurt the following morning. Until then…

Siehe in Frankfurt!