Me and the wife are flying into Berlin in late January for 2 weeks. We have no specific reason, just got bored.

The only destination we have in mind is a road trip from Berlin to Normandy, to visit the place her favorite uncle waded ashore in 1944.

Other than that, what are the must-see places? We will have a VW Polo rental car, so we can drive around.

I was thinking of checking out the Maginot Line, Bastogne and the Ardennes Forest as well.

on the way to France you can see Somme or Ypres, two very big WWI battles there....lot of history

quote:

places to see?

Bottom of a stein of hefeweizen or even better dunkelweizen.

Are you only interested in venues pertaining to wars? Or are you wanting to do some general sight-seeing? Regarding the former, I would recommend visiting at least one or two of the American cemeteries over there--they are meticulously maintained and very sobering sights. For general sights, there are so many it would be hard to select just a few. Berlin, itself, has many attractions: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157656511582090/. Travel from Berlin to Normandy could easily go through Frankfurt or Cologne, and Paris, and there is much to see in any of those cities.

flashguy

Im gonna do everything i can fit into 2 weeks. We got 2 round trip tickets from Seattle and a rental car for 1000$. Flying the polar route, up and over.

I have every intention of drinking myself stupid, and eating like a Starvin Somalian.

Maybe spending a little time in Zurich and Bastogne as well.

We enjoyed the Rheingau region near Frankfurt. Wine tasting for an afternoon was fun.

quote:

Originally posted by Ken226:
Im gonna do everything i can fit into 2 weeks. We got 2 round trip tickets from Seattle and a rental car for 1000$. Flying the polar route, up and over.

I have every intention of drinking myself stupid, and eating like a Starvin Somalian.

Maybe spending a little time in Zurich and Bastogne as well.

Just don't drink and drive or you might miss your flight home.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

places to see?

Bottom of a stein of hefeweizen or even better dunkelweizen.

Yeah, some truly good drinking stuff!!

There are any number of great castles to visit. Tons and tons of history.

Dachau (nazi concentration camp) near Munich is interesting, but at the same time depressing.

When we went there, there was an almost overwhelming feeling of "blackness" as we walked through the gates. And it stuck with us until we walked out of the gates.

quote:

Originally posted by GWbiker:

quote:

Originally posted by Ken226:
Im gonna do everything i can fit into 2 weeks. We got 2 round trip tickets from Seattle and a rental car for 1000$. Flying the polar route, up and over.

I have every intention of drinking myself stupid, and eating like a Starvin Somalian.

Maybe spending a little time in Zurich and Bastogne as well.

Just don't drink and drive or you might miss your flight home.

Indeed! The German police are not the least bit "understanding" about drunk drivers. A friend of a friend found out the hard way. He spent a year without a driver's license. Don't remember his BAC, but it would have been legal here.

They have no sense of humor regarding drunk driving.

Good luck on your drive from Berlin to Normandy. I took my dad on the reverse trip a couple of years ago.

My suggestion is don't try and do TOO much as in don't cram your schedule so full that you're always looking at your watch. I would recommend spending at least 3 days at every stop you make.

Someone mentioned Dachau. It's not really along the route you would want to take. Bergen-Belsen north of Hannover or Natzweiler-Struthof in the Vosges Mtns in France would be more along the route you'd want to take. Not a lot of people go out of there way to visit a camp, but I think at least visiting one will give you a sense of what we were fighting against in WW2.

Trier, Germany is an old Roman city on the Germany/Luxembourg border. It's quite touristy, but I really enjoy it and it's a good base for visiting Luxembourg and Belgium. We really enjoyed our stay at Berghotel Kockelsberg. It was affordable and had a great view overlooking Trier from it's dining area.

Having a car will really help in Normandy and you could do the touring around yourself. But, I highly recommend joining one of the tours offered there as it will make everything more enjoyable and educational as you'll be given all the context around what you're seeing. I've been on three tours with Overlord Tours and have enjoyed all three.

Since you'll be in Normandy, you might try and do a day trip down to Mont-Saint-Michel. It's beautiful.

Also, while in Berlin, if you are looking for a place to find gifts for friend and family back home, check out KaDeWe. It's a huge department store filled with awesome stuff. It's worth a visit just to look around. It's located near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

I'd say, "go see the Dom cathedral in Cologne."
It's incredible.

https://www.koelner-dom.de/home.html?&L=1
https://www.koelner-dom.de/ges...logne-cathedral/?L=1

And have a Dom kolsch (or two) while you're in the area.

Berchtesgaden on the Austrian border. Take the tour of Hitler's Eagles Nest. Shoot over to Salzburg. I'd have gone to Vienna if I had two weeks.

Not sure of the route you’re taking. Munich is a beautiful city. If you go there the Deutsches Museum is pretty incredible. Industry and technology based, I count it as one of the top ten of its type in the world.

Up north is Bremerhaven, a sea port, interesting in itself.

Suggest taking time to drive through the country, stop in the small towns and pubs.

When in Munich spend a morning in Marienplatz sipping coffee and eating pastries while people watching. Take in the architecture. Only a couple blocks from the original Hofbrau Haus.

January in Berlin and most of the continent will be cold and bleak. You will be very lucky to see the sun.
Where to go depends on what you like.
Berlin has some fabulous museums, particularly on the Museum Island in East Berlin.
Potsdam, palace of Frederick the Great, is just west of Berlin.
If you like medieval castles, there are plenty in southern Germany and especially along the Rhine.
Probably the most scenic area is there along the Rhine, along with Bavaria.
If you like cathedrals, the one in Cologne is worthy, but France has more and more spectacular ones I think although I haven't really seen them myself.

For military history, there are places in Berlin both east and west that are interesting if bleak reminders of WW II, including the prison slaughterhouse where the conspirators of the July 20 assassination attempt were strangled with piano wire and hung on meat hooks.

So since the weather will be probably terrible, you may have many touristy places to yourselves.

I visited Strutholf in June, very sobering place to visit. As Elk mentoned, I felt a chill all the time we were inside the wire and it was a bright sunny June day. Stuttgart is a good place to visit with the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums.
Mulhouse France has the Schlumpf Auto museum, all this is on the way to Normandy. I also second a visit to the Aisne Marne cemetary at Belleau Wood. Have a good time.

quote:

Originally posted by SHOOTIN BLANKS:
Berchtesgaden on the Austrian border. Take the tour of Hitler's Eagles Nest. Shoot over to Salzburg. I'd have gone to Vienna if I had two weeks.

Very true! Spent about a month, all told, there while on TDY for hunting instructor school, and a couple other nice things the army did for me/us.

Garmisch is also a very nice place, and pretty convenient to a lot of historic places to visit!

We spent our honeymoon there, using it as a base of operations for travels all over the area, misc castles, etc etc. That used to be a US military center for misc schools. Very nice as a center to work out of. Probably no longer a US military recreation center given how much the DOD has given up over the last few years.

Munich is really out of way between Berlin and Normandy. If you want to see a fascinating concentration camp no one else knows about, go see Mittelbau-Dora in Nordhausen, where the slave laborers built the V2 rockets in the caves. Dachau is absolutely compared to the real death camps in Poland. In fact, Buchenwald near Weimar is far better. Best museum in Berlin the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Then go see the Stasi Museum there. Need to plan your route and then ask for suggestions along that route. Driving there SUCKS. Traffic is unreal and, between Berlin and Normandy, there are very few stretches where you can really drive fast, even if there is no traffic or construction. Cologne is ok, great cathedral there. If you go near Paris, Reims is one of the most amazing cathederals you'll ever see, dwarfs most others. Luxembourg and Trier are ok, if you have nothing else on your list and happen to be in that area. I lived in Trier for a year. It's ok, not great. Do you want to see castles, WWI or WWII, Thirty Years War, churches, museums? Beer is great everywhere in Germany. Be sure to not drink anything you've heard of that's exported to the US - Becks, St. Pauli Girl, etc. Drink the local stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Munich is really out of way between Berlin and Normandy. If you want to see a fascinating concentration camp no one else knows about, go see Mittelbau-Dora in Nordhausen, where the slave laborers built the V2 rockets in the caves. Dachau is absolutely compared to the real death camps in Poland. In fact, Buchenwald near Weimar is far better. Best museum in Berlin the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Then go see the Stasi Museum there. Need to plan your route and then ask for suggestions along that route. Driving there SUCKS. Traffic is unreal and, between Berlin and Normandy, there are very few stretches where you can really drive fast, even if there is no traffic or construction. Cologne is ok, great cathedral there. If you go near Paris, Reims is one of the most amazing cathederals you'll ever see, dwarfs most others. Luxembourg and Trier are ok, if you have nothing else on your list and happen to be in that area. I lived in Trier for a year. It's ok, not great. Do you want to see castles, WWI or WWII, Thirty Years War, churches, museums? Beer is great everywhere in Germany. Be sure to not drink anything you've heard of that's exported to the US - Becks, St. Pauli Girl, etc. Drink the local stuff.

Yes, by all means drink the local stuff. The export stuff is not as good. But watch out drinking the local stuff. Higher in alcohol content than what we get here.

January in Germany-France...I know you're from PNW-area but, you're gonna get A LOT of rain . Trying to read signs in different languages while driving and it's pouring can be tiresome and taxing, hope you're up for it, cause you're gonna be doing a pretty good amount of driving.

Are you flying open-jaw (arrival airport is different than departure airport)? Helps to not have to backtrack to the airport of origin.

Returning your rental car in a country that's different than where it originated is pretty expensive. If you've got the means and budget, cool. Normandy-area, especially the D-Day sites are much easier with a vehicle.

Lots of good locations already mentioned. If you've never been or need a base-level of knowledge, pick up Rick Steves tour books for each country. He's based north of Seattle, if you're near there, I think there's discounts available for attending their seminars. Any case, lots of useful knowledge which has served me well, he's best at explaining the history of places, putting those events into perspective and fleshing out a variety of accommodations. Once when I took my parents to Italy, I relied on his book for an English speaker doctor, my mother came down with a fever. Asked where I found him, told him I found his info in this tour book...he gave us a discount.