Monday, July 31, 2006

Calendar

Calendar
We could leave Monday October 6th 2008, Since that is right after Mom's Birthday. You could come up for her Birthday and we could leave the next day. I would be ok with staying til October 16 Thursday or 18 Saturday that would be 10-12 days.

I like the 'open jaw' idea. I tried it with Travelocity. Frankfurt is a great way to fly in or out of. I tried London as a fly into or out of after landing in Frankfurt and it was a pretty good deal at 774 (for this October, of course) Just for an idea of how much it would be.

I would love to see Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and France. They are fairly close to each other. But Would driving pay? I was on railpass.com and they had a very good price. If you ask it to help you find a pass. I don't know if I did it right but it asked for locations and days expected to be there. I wonder how much it will hold you to that peticular plan. It was neat to check out.

I don't have any points of interest to see. I would just love to experience each one of those. When I get a chance to research each one more I would be able to pick out better.
Ok, Holland would probably be neat to see.

Any thoughts?

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Alternative Routes

Okay...Berlin. A lot of planes go into Frankfurt, and that is in the lower southeast part of Germany, near to Switzerland. I think we can get cheap airfare into Frankfurt. Is there something else you've always wanted to see?

October. 2007? 2008? How many days?

Want to do a loop? There is something on the page you have referenced in the last post about an "open jaws" ticket, where you fly into one place and out of another. That sounded good to me.

I picked up a Holland tour book, but didn't have a lot of time to look at it. Eileen spent a year abroad in Holland, and she is enthusiastic about it. I love France, but I only know Paris, and very little else and my french is pretty mediocre but is probably enough to keep our butts out of trouble.

London might be nice; they speak English.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

some neat sites!

I found a blog that researches the book we have .
check it out!

It even has a website!

This was a really cool site with lots of tips for budget travel!

Thinking more about where to go

I've paged through Amsterdam, and there is a lot about 1) the red light district, 2) Amsterdam's liberal drug policies.

Now, I realize that this book is aimed at student travelers, who might have more of an interest in those sorts of things, and I'm sure that there are a lot of other great things in Amsterdam that have nothing to do with drugs, so I'm a little concerned. Maybe I'll hang out at Barnes and Noble some day to see if I can find more to do in Amsterdam that isn't drug related.

Because, if there isn't much else to do, maybe we don't want to go there...

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Car Tower

This is a Car Tower that was recently in a 'daily photo' blog that I like to ck out.
I thought this was kind of cool.
Check it out!

Friday, July 21, 2006

What We Hope to See: Berlin

Here is a starting thing that you should also post about. What we hope to see in a particular place. Basically, pick a place that we are likely to see. Go through the book and see if there is someplace described that you might want to see.

I paged through the Berlin section.

Bahnhof Zoo: A zoo and aquarium.
Reichstag: German Parliment building, famously burned down in 1933 as an excuse for Hitler to carry out his revenge on the Jews.
Museumsinsel and Alexanderplatz: A plaza with a lot of museums and a famous church damaged in bombings in 1944, but now restored.
Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachniskirche: A bombed out church from WWII, left in natural state.
Schloss Charlottenburg: A palace.
Checkpoint Charlie: The checkpoint that once served as an entrance between East and West Berlin.
The Berlin Wall (the part that still stands) aka East Side Gallery
Shopping: The book doesn't have much about places to shop....
Food: The book has a lot of asian/veggie options. I like these to a point, but sometimes I crave real food. Page 419: Orchidee, sounds good, as does Bella Italia. German food? Die Feinback.
Page 430: Daytrips from Berlin: KZ Sachsenhausen. concentration camp.
Potsdam.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

A fall in Germany?

Hidy Ho Blogger!
I can't seem to remember if we decided a length of time.
I just realized the comment about the time of year, I would LOVE to do October. Not to mention some fall colors maybe!
Oktoberfest ends on October 1st, so anytime after that would be alot less busy. (and less expensive)

According to the book Oct 3rd is the Day of Unity, which is the national holiday the commemorates the day the Berlin wall fell down. ** which was not the exact day it fell, that was November 9th, but that was also the day that was the day the german republic was founded and the defeat of Hitlers first attempt to get control of Munich, but was considered an 'inappropriate day' for this celebration so they chose Oct. 3rd.

Oct 31 is Reformation Day. Is that anything like Halloween?
No. Interesting but no. Kind of Ironic.
That is only celebrated in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

October Temps Average 42 low-55 high
June temps average 52 low-71 high
Only hoildays in June are Fathers Day, Flag Day and First day of Summer. Just like American.

Did you know in the US October 6 th is German American day?
So October '08 sounds Great to me!

Friday, July 07, 2006

This is a page describing a lake very close to Ziemendorf. Lake Arendsee.

Hotels in Stendal

Hotels in Arendsee.

Deutscheshaus-Arendsee

Hotels in Ludwigslust

Rail passes are expensive!

How much would it cost to do this whole thing by rail, non-rail pass, just paying as we need to?

Hamburg > Berlin (book says 45-55 euros). What about Hamburg > Stendal

Berlin > Amsterdam (book says 126). Cheaper to fly that.

Berlin > Paris (bus is 59 euros) Just checking.

Hamburg > Stendal (round trip, not going onto Berlin) 72 euros - 91 euros.

Hamburg > Amsterdam (round trip 77 - 93 Euros).

Stendal > Berlin (round trip 17 - 27 Euros)

Fly into Where?

According to the travel guide, Hamburg has trains that leave for Amsterdam 3 times a day for 75 euros.

There is a 4 day Eurorail ticket for German travel for 180 euros, but that's just within Germany. Might work with this schedule.

Page 50 of the book has information on cheap flights from major cities in Europe to other major cities. Especially nice? "KLM, cheap round trip tickets from London/Amsterdam to cities across Europe."

Fly into London. Get a cheap round trip ticket to Hamburg. (I just checked...63 euros.) Hamburg > Ziemendorf > Berlin (1 day in Hamburg, then train from Hamburg to maybe Stendal. Overnight in Stendal, leave next afternoon for Berlin, into berlin late. 2 days in Berlin. Depart on 3rd Day.

Berlin fly to Amsterdam (99 euros, for a round trip KLM), (84 euros one way SAS)

2 days in Amsterdam. (with a little padding, that's 9 days). Stop here. Back to Hamburg, back to London.

London 2 more days. (with a little padding, that's 12 days.)

Fly back to the USA.

I know there is no Paris there, but that is a pretty packed itiniary.

The Plan So Far...



Yes, here's the inspiration for the trip. Ziemendorf, Germany.

Ziemendorf itself is very small. Surrounding towns go by the names of

Lüchow, Salzwedel, Wittenberge, Dannenberg, Stendal, Dömitz, Ludwigslust

So a good place to concentrate on is what is in the surrounding towns, hotels, restaurants, etc.

Also, the village itself is halfway between Berlin and Hamburg.

According to that map that I bought, there is a train stop in Stendal and Ludwigslust.



And here is a really big version of the same map.

Welcome to Sara and Rachel's Big Adventure!

This is a blog that Sara and Rachel can use to post ideas about their big European trip!