Bus tour of Germany

Iceman schrieb:
On Mar 29, 11:34 am, Tom Peel wrote:
Iceman schrieb:
Has anyone taken one of these?
After your last experience, you still want to take another bus tour?
Just get a rail pass and arrange the hotels yourself - much cheaper,
and you will have a lot more opportunity to focus on places that
interest you rather than rushing around, being on the bus a lot of the
time, and only getting to see the major tourist sights.
I just had a look at the program out of curiosity -http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=ZE

I can see a problem in that getting from Neuschwanstein to Lindau will
take you at least 3 hours by train, and that's from Füssen.
In any case, train travel is only really much use for travel
city-to-city.


In Europe, I've never had any trouble getting out of a city to a
nearby sight. If there isn't an easy train connection there's always
a bus. If worst comes to worst you can take a day tour.

Who is going to drag round your luggage for 2 weeks and
take care of it while you're sightseeing.


Is this a serious question? Travel light enough that you can carry it
yourself. How much stuff do you really need while traveling anyway -
you can always find a laundry every couple of days.


While I quite agree with you that it is possible to travel light, we
were addressing the OPs question as to whether to take a bus tour, or
whether individual travel by train is an alternative for touring
Germany. Quite possibly Cathy L does not like to travel light and look
and smell like a backpack tourist 24 hours a day, or spend every 2nd day
looking for a laundry, but would prefer to take 2 weeks of daily change
of clean clothing with her. I travel by train a lot, and I am
constantly amazed by the size of suitcases that people drag round with
them. My impression of travelling over the last 20 years or more is that
passengers on trains and on airplanes find it essential to drag more and
more stuff around with them where ever they go, even for the shortest
journeys.

T.

Tom Peel schrieb:
Iceman schrieb:
On Mar 28, 10:59 am, Cathy L wrote:
We are thinking of taking a Cosmos or Globus tour of Germany.


Somehow I didn't think your next trip would be hitchhiking across
Uganda...

Has anyone taken one of these?


After your last experience, you still want to take another bus tour?
Just get a rail pass and arrange the hotels yourself - much cheaper,
and you will have a lot more opportunity to focus on places that
interest you rather than rushing around, being on the bus a lot of the
time, and only getting to see the major tourist sights.

I just had a look at the program out of curiosity -
http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=ZE

I can see a problem in that getting from Neuschwanstein to Lindau will
take you at least 3 hours by train, and that's from Füssen.
In any case, train travel is only really much use for travel
city-to-city. Who is going to drag round your luggage for 2 weeks and
take care of it while you're sightseeing.
Are you from the UK or US?
If you are used to driving on the right side, why not rent a car?
Personally, I prefer to see a few sights more intensly than take the snapshot
view of lots of sights.

For instance, have you considered taking a /whole day/ for Neuschwanstein?
Sleeping in Fuessen, doing the castle in a totally leisurely way, listening
in to the guides when you feel like it, dawdling around the exhibits and
gardens, laughing at ridiculous tourists with big shoulder mounted
video cameras, taking a relaxed stroll around the Alpsee admiring the
mountains in the different colours during the afternoon, having dinner nearby,
and sleeping in Fuessen again with your head full of castle and /not/ full of
travelling?
Next day, you go to Lindau, stroll around in the afternoon, do Bodensee next
day (from lindau), stay there another night, then go to the next destination.
Or you take two days (i.e. three nights) for Bodensee, there's definitely
enough to see.

Lots of Greetings!
Volker

PS: Personally I hate Neuschwanstein. To me the whole thing is pure kitsch.
In germany there are a few noteworthy palaces and fortresses but
Neuschwanstein is neither here nor there and just toy stuff.
Fortress examples:
- Festung Koenigstein near Dresden. Biggest fortress in germany,
kinda like Dover castle only different. :-) Defenses and
armaments really impressive. http://tinyurl.com/2scw2o and
http://tinyurl.com/yoje73
- Reichsburg Kyffhausen (not the memorial), connected to King
Barbarossa. http://tinyurl.com/2c8482
Palace examples:
- Zwinger in Dresden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwinger,
- Sanssouci near Berlin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanssouci.
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On Mar 29, 6:34 pm, Tom Peel wrote:
I just had a look at the program out of curiosity -
http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=ZE

Once again it strikes me how expensive these tours are. Last year in
May, I travelled, with two other adults, around Germany for 7 days.
For 3 people the bus tour is $2123. If I take out the travel to
Germany (not included in the bus tour), and multiply our daily
expenses per person, I end up with $2113. That's actually less, and
includes more.

In my trip we stayed at 4-star hotels (breakfast included), went to
restaurants twice a day (usually main course + dessert), visited
cafes, went to museums, and drove a Mercedes S350. I'd say we slept,
ate and drove better than the people on the tour.

On top of that, we had 100% control of the dates, the locations and
the schedule.

In article ,
Volker Hetzer wrote:

PS: Personally I hate Neuschwanstein. To me the whole thing is pure kitsch.
I couldn't agree more!
In germany there are a few noteworthy palaces and fortresses but
Neuschwanstein is neither here nor there and just toy stuff.
Fortress examples:
- Festung Koenigstein near Dresden. Biggest fortress in germany,
kinda like Dover castle only different. :-) Defenses and
armaments really impressive. http://tinyurl.com/2scw2o and
http://tinyurl.com/yoje73

Yes, definitely! Königstein is not only a great tour, but from there
you can see some fantastic scenery. I love that area!

- Reichsburg Kyffhausen (not the memorial), connected to King
Barbarossa. http://tinyurl.com/2c8482
Palace examples:
- Zwinger in Dresden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwinger,
- Sanssouci near Berlin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanssouci.
--

These are all good examples of actual castles and palaces, unlike
Neuschwanstein which was, if I remember correctly, only lived in for a
grand total of something like six weeks maximum.

But my favorite remains the Marksburg.

--
Mary, biblioholic

bib-li-o-hol-ism : the habitual longing to purchase, read, store,
admire, and consume books in excess.

http://www.airstreamcomm.net/~erilarlo

Make credence recognised that on Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:05:21 +0200,
Volker Hetzer has scripted:

Tom Peel schrieb:

I just had a look at the program out of curiosity -
http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=ZE

I can see a problem in that getting from Neuschwanstein to Lindau will
take you at least 3 hours by train, and that's from Füssen.
In any case, train travel is only really much use for travel
city-to-city. Who is going to drag round your luggage for 2 weeks and
take care of it while you're sightseeing.
Are you from the UK or US?
If you are used to driving on the right side, why not rent a car?
Personally, I prefer to see a few sights more intensly than take the snapshot
view of lots of sights.

For instance, have you considered taking a /whole day/ for Neuschwanstein?
Sleeping in Fuessen, doing the castle in a totally leisurely way, listening
in to the guides when you feel like it, dawdling around the exhibits and
gardens, laughing at ridiculous tourists with big shoulder mounted
video cameras, taking a relaxed stroll around the Alpsee admiring the
mountains in the different colours during the afternoon, having dinner nearby,
and sleeping in Fuessen again with your head full of castle and /not/ full of
travelling?

That's about the best description of an ugly tourist I've ever heard!
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

PS: Personally I hate Neuschwanstein. To me the whole thing is pure kitsch.
In germany there are a few noteworthy palaces and fortresses but
Neuschwanstein is neither here nor there and just toy stuff.

Exactly. Neuschwanstein is a kind of 19th century version of Neverland.
In fact, Prince Ludwig was like a kind of 19th century version of
Michael Jackson, except he couldn't moonwalk, as far as is known.

T.

Fortress examples:
- Festung Koenigstein near Dresden. Biggest fortress in germany,
kinda like Dover castle only different. :-) Defenses and
armaments really impressive. http://tinyurl.com/2scw2o and
http://tinyurl.com/yoje73
- Reichsburg Kyffhausen (not the memorial), connected to King
Barbarossa. http://tinyurl.com/2c8482
Palace examples:
- Zwinger in Dresden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwinger,
- Sanssouci near Berlin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanssouci.

Deeply Filled Mortician schrieb:
Make credence recognised that on Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:05:21 +0200,
Volker Hetzer has scripted:

Tom Peel schrieb:

I just had a look at the program out of curiosity -
http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=ZE

I can see a problem in that getting from Neuschwanstein to Lindau will
take you at least 3 hours by train, and that's from Füssen.
In any case, train travel is only really much use for travel
city-to-city. Who is going to drag round your luggage for 2 weeks and
take care of it while you're sightseeing.
Are you from the UK or US?
If you are used to driving on the right side, why not rent a car?
Personally, I prefer to see a few sights more intensly than take the snapshot
view of lots of sights.

For instance, have you considered taking a /whole day/ for Neuschwanstein?
Sleeping in Fuessen, doing the castle in a totally leisurely way, listening
in to the guides when you feel like it, dawdling around the exhibits and
gardens, laughing at ridiculous tourists with big shoulder mounted
video cameras, taking a relaxed stroll around the Alpsee admiring the
mountains in the different colours during the afternoon, having dinner nearby,
and sleeping in Fuessen again with your head full of castle and /not/ full of
travelling?

That's about the best description of an ugly tourist I've ever heard!
What's so bad about taking one's time?

Lots of Greetings!
Volker
--
For email replies, please substitute the obvious.

Make credence recognised that on Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:33:58 +0200,
Volker Hetzer has scripted:

Deeply Filled Mortician schrieb:
Make credence recognised that on Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:05:21 +0200,
Volker Hetzer has scripted:

Tom Peel schrieb:

I just had a look at the program out of curiosity -
http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=ZE

I can see a problem in that getting from Neuschwanstein to Lindau will
take you at least 3 hours by train, and that's from Füssen.
In any case, train travel is only really much use for travel
city-to-city. Who is going to drag round your luggage for 2 weeks and
take care of it while you're sightseeing.
Are you from the UK or US?
If you are used to driving on the right side, why not rent a car?
Personally, I prefer to see a few sights more intensly than take the snapshot
view of lots of sights.

For instance, have you considered taking a /whole day/ for Neuschwanstein?
Sleeping in Fuessen, doing the castle in a totally leisurely way, listening
in to the guides when you feel like it, dawdling around the exhibits and
gardens, laughing at ridiculous tourists with big shoulder mounted
video cameras, taking a relaxed stroll around the Alpsee admiring the
mountains in the different colours during the afternoon, having dinner nearby,
and sleeping in Fuessen again with your head full of castle and /not/ full of
travelling?

That's about the best description of an ugly tourist I've ever heard!
What's so bad about taking one's time?

Take all the time you like, but laughing at other tourists, dawdling,
and freeloading off the tours is not a beautiful thing!
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Deeply Filled Mortician schrieb:
Make credence recognised that on Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:33:58 +0200,
Volker Hetzer has scripted:

Deeply Filled Mortician schrieb:
Make credence recognised that on Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:05:21 +0200,
Volker Hetzer has scripted:

Tom Peel schrieb:
I just had a look at the program out of curiosity -
http://www.affordabletours.com/search/it/?t=ZE

I can see a problem in that getting from Neuschwanstein to Lindau will
take you at least 3 hours by train, and that's from Füssen.
In any case, train travel is only really much use for travel
city-to-city. Who is going to drag round your luggage for 2 weeks and
take care of it while you're sightseeing.
Are you from the UK or US?
If you are used to driving on the right side, why not rent a car?
Personally, I prefer to see a few sights more intensly than take the snapshot
view of lots of sights.

For instance, have you considered taking a /whole day/ for Neuschwanstein?
Sleeping in Fuessen, doing the castle in a totally leisurely way, listening
in to the guides when you feel like it, dawdling around the exhibits and
gardens, laughing at ridiculous tourists with big shoulder mounted
video cameras, taking a relaxed stroll around the Alpsee admiring the
mountains in the different colours during the afternoon, having dinner nearby,
and sleeping in Fuessen again with your head full of castle and /not/ full of
travelling?
That's about the best description of an ugly tourist I've ever heard!
What's so bad about taking one's time?

Take all the time you like, but laughing at other tourists, dawdling,
and freeloading off the tours is not a beautiful thing!
What's the difference between taking all the time I like and dawdling?

What is "freeloading off the tours"? Remember, by advising taking more time
for fewer sights I was arguing against taking part in an organized tour.

As for laughing at people missing the holiday for the documentary, I'm
not advocating a pointed finger and a loud laugh making the other people
feel targeted or uncomfortable. Ditto for making fun of people's distress
or other **** like that. Other than that it's a free country and I can feel
what I like.

Slightly confused Greetings...
Volker
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For email replies, please substitute the obvious.