Germany Trip Report 2016 - Completed

At first glance of the pics (before I read your text), I thought you were in Rothenburg! The similarities are striking!
 
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glad you enjoyed Provins. For anyone visiting DLP, Provins is an easy day trip using very good, reliable public transit for 2 euros each way right from the bus stop at DLP. It is a great way to see the French countryside and see a 12th century medieval town/castle. It makes an execelllent 1/2 day trip. Elaine
 
glad you enjoyed Provins. For anyone visiting DLP, Provins is an easy day trip using very good, reliable public transit for 2 euros each way right from the bus stop at DLP. It is a great way to see the French countryside and see a 12th century medieval town/castle. It makes an execelllent 1/2 day trip. Elaine

That's great information! Thanks for sharing. I'm definitely going to add this during my Paris/DLP trip. It looks like a fantastic option! Thanks Cousin Orville for the pics and, of course, for another great trip report!
 
I love taking public transportation in Europe. It is so efficient and truly is "public"....everyone is on board. We have explored so much more off the beaten track just for venturing off just because we had the courage to take the public transportation. Even in Germany when we were a little confused a nice elderly lady , who couldn't speak English and us not speaking German really helped us out and got us to our destination.

P.S. Thanks so much Cousin Orville for "taking us along" with you on your trip. Loved our ABD German trip. I'm sure you will love it too.
 


So Carpenta & others

Next step is to get you all to Drive in Europe .

I started 40 years ago in my own car , Driving on " the wrong side " of the road & towing a fold down tent.

Drove to the Opening day of Disneyland Paris & camped in Davy Crocket Campsite.

Now Fly and hire cars ...... Amsterdam , Munich, Toulouse , doing my own hotel bookings ( There are European Chain Hotels as well as Best Western & others ) & going places waiting to be explored.

Fly to Barcelona & drive to Andorra Drive the Tour de France cycle route etc.

Off the " Beaten Track " & seeing great sights that are there to be explored.
 
Following along! Great pics! I especially loved seeing your pics at Walt's. We ate there on our London/Paris post ABD trip and I really enjoyed the place. Can't wait to read the rest. Germany is also on our list of ABD trips to take.
 
Pre-Night 5 DLP



This will be a short report as we stayed at Disneyland Paris for the day. It was nice to have one last full day to catch our favorite rides more or less relax before heading off to Germany.







Final thoughts on DL Paris: It’s a good park. It’s worth visiting for the Disney Parks fan if you’re in the general area. It’s the most beautiful of the Magic Kingdom style parks. Walt Disney Studios on the other hand is an enigma. It’s really a disappointing park. It’s very small, and you can tell there was severe budget restrictions placed on those who built it. However, it has 2 of Disney’s best rides anywhere: Ratatouille and Crush’s Coaster. Ratatouille is frankly amazing. My top ride of any of the Disney Parks (except Disney Sea and Shanghai which I haven’t visited) is Hong Kong’s Mystic Manor. Ratatouille is a close 2nd.



Here’s a couple of details we found around Ratatouille. Some of the street posts had chef’s hats on them. And the wrought iron had little profiles of Remy towards the top.











Disneyland Hotel is beautiful resort with the best location of any Disney Parks resort. It has that Grand Floridian vibe, but isn’t quite as grand. If you placed the resort around Seven Seas lagoon, WDW there’s no way it would command it’s normal prices. We got tickets and a couple of nights free with our booking, but I overheard the front desk quote someone there to check availability that the normal rate is ~1000 Euros/night. Maybe in downtown Paris I could see that rate but out here at DLP, it seems a stretch. It is nice to walk down to the end of main street, go up stairs and be able to take a mid afternoon nap. Hmmm… Maybe the price is worth it…



We had breakfast most mornings in Disneyland Hotel’s Inventions. Breakfast was included and pretty good. Not excellent, but it was a good spread with pancakes, bacon, pastries, etc. Some of the tables we had overlooked Main Street and the Castle so that was cool.



We ate at the Blue Lagoon for dinner. It’s essentially the Blue Bayou with much better food and generally better atmosphere. Gavin wanted to eat here last night, but there was no availability so we made ressies for tonight. I’m not a fan of the Blue Bayou, but I thought this was good. Maybe my expectations were set pretty low, but I was surprised. I had prawns which were cooked well. I remember having shrimp at DL’s Blue Bayou and it was the texture of rubber. This was good. Service was quite good. And the lighting and general atmosphere was a step up from Blue Bayou.













One more bit of trivia: So when Disneyland (1955) was originally built they had a gazebo in town square for band concerts, etc. For whatever reason (maybe it blocked the view of the castle, I can’t remember) they moved it elsewhere in the park before eventually taking it out of Disneyland completely. Tony Baxter (the imagineer who oversaw DL Paris) mentioned in one of his talks that when they built DLP they wanted to include a gazebo in town square as an homage to the original Disneyland. It’s seen in the background of Gavin waving us, “Bye, from Disneyland Paris!”



 


Cousin Orville-How far in advance did you book the DLP trip? It sounds like you got a great deal and I'm looking at my trip for next summer that I'm planning. It's a solo trip to Paris and I wanted to add a couple days at DLP.
 
Cousin Orville-How far in advance did you book the DLP trip? It sounds like you got a great deal and I'm looking at my trip for next summer that I'm planning. It's a solo trip to Paris and I wanted to add a couple days at DLP.


I booked Jan 20th. I checked and the promotion was up to 2 nights free (which is what we got). Not sure what the minimum number of nights required was.
 
I booked Jan 20th. I checked and the promotion was up to 2 nights free (which is what we got). Not sure what the minimum number of nights required was.

Thanks for the info! I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for some promotions now!
 
Pre-Night 6 Paris to Heidelberg



We started the day with breakfast in Inventions at the DL Hotel. We arrived as they first opened (7:30a), and the hostess seated us at a great table with a direct view of the Castle.



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We took the TGV to CDG airport to catch a flight from Paris to Frankfurt. Taking the bus to Disneyland took about an hour. Taking the TGV back took about 10 minutes. Much easier as long as you don’t have a overwhelming amount of luggage to manage. Gavin even found a piano in the station to pass the time while we waited for the train to CDG.



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Our flight wasn’t leaving out of the main CDG terminal. Rather it left out of a distant more regional terminal that we had to take a bus to, but we had plenty of time.



When we arrived, unfortunately there was no driver to meet us. Sooo…. I pulled out the emergency ABD number and called. Thankfully they were open and answered. The guy on the phone was nice, but had indicated that I was listed to come in tomorrow, the day the ABD started. I’m confident the correct flight information was given to ABD. I booked the pre night myself as it was significantly cheaper to do so. I booked the flight from Paris to Frankfurt myself because it was cheap and simple to do. Maybe they should start taking Airline confirmation numbers down to create a protocol of double checking when they arrange the drivers. I dunno.



Anyway, within minutes, Lexie, one of our ABD guides in Germany called my cell and was very nice and quickly had a greeter there at Frankfurt airport come meet me and get us into a taxi to take us to Heidelberg which of course they took care of. I was very thankful they arranged the taxi. I was a little worried we’d have to wait a while for an available car to take us. When we arrived at the hotel, Lexi and Zuza (both our guides) were outside to meet us. So, it did suck that there was no driver, but it was a mistake quickly remedied.



We checked in; no issue there. And we decided to head out for an early dinner. The #1 restaurant in TripAdvisor was the Schnitzelbank. It was off the main pedestrian shopping street, the Hauptstrabe. It was very small. They had maybe 5-6 tables inside and a couple out the back. I thought it was cool they had Riesling “on tap”. I guess this is Riesling country here. We got 2 schnitzels - the adult size (2 schnitzels) and childs size (1). It was crazy good. Better than I had in Vienna. I felt bad for the people that would randomly stick their head in to check out the place only to continue on their way. They don’t know what they’re missing. If I’m ever back in Heidelberg, I will find this place again. The Riesling was good too, although I didn’t try it on tap… had the Baden produced nearby.



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We walked up and down the street some more before heading back early to hit the hay. Our ABD starts tomorrow!

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Day 1 Heidelberg and Neckarsulm



We met our guides in the morning again at their welcome table. Dinner was at 5:00. Otherwise we had the morning and afternoon free. I was considering 2 main options. We could either take a boat trip down the river or take the train to the Audi Forum and factory. Gavin chose Audi. It was about an hour away via train. I used my Rome-to-Rio app to help get us there. Very cool app. It tells you the time of the train, the train number, and even the platform to catch it at. We walked to the train station with was about 15 min away. Getting tickets at the machine was easy enough. Type in the destination, Neckarsulm, single journey, 1 Adult/1 Child, no special discounts, leave immediately and pay. Finding the train took a few minutes, but if I had read my Rome-to-Rio app closer I would have seen the platform and train number so my fault. If you do any of this, I suggest getting to the train station at least 30 min ahead of time. Maybe even more if you prefer to get your tickets at the service counter which had a line. We got there 15 min ahead and found it, but with very little time to spare. Rome to Rio also gives a link to see all the intermediary stops between here and Neckarsulm so it was reassuring to reach each stop on time.



Once in Neckarsulm it's a short, straight 5-10 min walk to the Audi Forum using Google Maps, Unfortunately they weren’t doing any factory tours of the actual car building this time of year. Either the English tour guides were on vacation or all the tour guides were on vacay, I wasn’t sure. But the forum itself is pretty cool if you’re into cars. It’s 3 levels. On the first level is their upscale restaurant, a 3D movie theater showing the manufacturing of their new sports car, the R8. On the 2nd level are more examples of their current cars, along with a huge store. On the 3rd level is a museum and interactive area. We spent about 2 hrs there. Didn’t eat lunch there. If you ate there or went on the tour I’m sure you could spend 3 or 4 hrs. We had a good time and it was a nice break from our normal routine.



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I’ve decided I need this foosball table :)



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I had never seen one of these before - its a complimentary phone charger. You can lock your phone in one of the slots and charge it while you’re walking around. That’s mine charging in the red bay up top. Very cool!



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I’ll spare you tons of pictures of old Audi’s, but here’s one for example:



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They had a virtual driving center. I’ll just say we weren’t ace drivers:



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And lots and lots of new cars, mostly in customize, unique colors:



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With a massive shop and cafe upstairs:



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We rode the train back and then figured out how to take the street car/tram from the train station to the hotel to save us the 15 min walk. We had a couple of hours before dinner so it was rest time (nap time for me).



We met up for dinner at 5 down in the lobby. There are 10 adventurers in total. As was reported on this forums before, sadly the previous adventure was cancelled. So, it sounds like given current events, the Germany ABD is not doing very well. There are many tour dates for Germany, and I would bet ABD will cut down on those dates. At any rate, It will be interesting to experience the dynamics of a small group.



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The dinner was of course in the hotel which I'm still not a huge fan of. However, the food was quite good. They had german sausages which were very good, and other options. Of all the welcome dinners, this was probably the best food I've had. I got seconds... maybe even thirds.



After dinner we opted to walk off those sausages we just ate and went down the main pedestrian street. Lexie had recommended the “Philosophers walk” which was a walk across the bridge over the Neckar river and a hike about half way up the hill on the other side. It was a solid hike, but the views were beautiful and there were lots of other people on the same hike. So, it was nice to see everyone out enjoying themselves.



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It was a great day, and tomorrow we meet up for our first organized activity to tour Heidelberg Castle.
 
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Love the Audi photos! The R8 is my dream car :-)

Wow, only 10? It will be an interesting dynamic. The pictures from the hike are beautiful.
 
Wow...only 10 adventurers! That makes me a little sad, just because if you want to go to Europe/Germany, this trip is probably about the safest way you could do it. One of the reasons is because all of the travel is by private coach.

I'm curious as to your impression of the crowds in general at the various stops on the trip. I felt Germany was VERY crowded last year...lots of large tour groups everywhere. A significant portion of them were Asian (as opposed to our trip to Italy this summer, where we encountered a lot of Brits, Australians, and South Africans, due to a more favorable exchange rate). Anyhow, I wonder if tourism is down all over Germany or if this is only a trend among American tourists.
 
Love the Audi photos! The R8 is my dream car :-)

Wow, only 10? It will be an interesting dynamic. The pictures from the hike are beautiful.

The R8 is one of my favorites too. They actually have a special tour that focuses just on the R8 manufacturing, but it too was not available. Not sure when you can book that or how far in advance. But they did have several R8's there.

Only 10. The smallest group I've been on. I would guess ABD will cut back on it's Germany dates in the future. Maybe it's a combination of current events in Germany and Europe and possibly guests choosing the River cruise over land based Germany. Just my guess. Photo stops are faster, and you're always near the same guests on tours and at dinner. It's an interesting change. There's only 2 other kids aside from my DS. One 10yo and one 15yo. Overall it's nice though. Small but still feels like ABD.
 
The R8 is one of my favorites too. They actually have a special tour that focuses just on the R8 manufacturing, but it too was not available. Not sure when you can book that or how far in advance. But they did have several R8's there.

Only 10. The smallest group I've been on. I would guess ABD will cut back on it's Germany dates in the future. Maybe it's a combination of current events in Germany and Europe and possibly guests choosing the River cruise over land based Germany. Just my guess. Photo stops are faster, and you're always near the same guests on tours and at dinner. It's an interesting change. There's only 2 other kids aside from my DS. One 10yo and one 15yo. Overall it's nice though. Small but still feels like ABD.

When I was dealing with ABD last year, trying to find out if our trip would go or not, I wondered if this trip just doesn't hold the interest that it used to. If I'm not mistaken, this was one of the original ABDs, and the itinerary hasn't changed much at all. Given that much of ABD's business is repeat customers, maybe they've already done this trip? With all of the new itineraries and the adjustments to the old ones, Germany may just be getting lost in the crowd, so to speak.

I also tend to think the theme of this trip skews young. That's why I did it with my son last year when he was 10...I wasn't sure for how much longer he'd be willing to tolerate castles and fairytales.
 
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I have to repeat the surprise at only 10 Adventurers! I'm really surprised they still ran the trip. That may be the smallest I've heard of, but good to know they don't always cancel for low numbers. Did you have last minute cancellations in your tour group because of the recent terrorist attacks? I personally love the smaller groups, and having 2 Adventure guides for 10 people is a pretty awesome ratio. Will be anxious to hear what your thoughts are on a group that small--and your son's, too.
 
Oh I hope they don't cancel this trip. It's on my list of ABDs. One of our fellow passengers on the river cruise mentioned that this was her favorite ABD and she'd been on 5 others. Loving your trip report and looking forward to your thoughts. Thank for sharing and taking us with you!
 
When I was dealing with ABD last year, trying to find out if our trip would go or not, I wondered if this trip just doesn't hold the interest that it used to. If I'm not mistaken, this was one of the original ABDs, and the itinerary hasn't changed much at all. Given that much of ABD's business is eepeat customers, maybe they've already done this trip? With all of the new itineraries and the adjustments to the old ones, Germany may just be getting lost in the crowd, so to speak.

I was also thinking the same thing. Many who have wanted to do this trip may have already done it. It's also possible the River cruises maybe overshadowing it. They still have several dates that are running this year and have several scheduled next year, so it's tough to say.

I have to repeat the surprise at only 10 Adventurers! I'm really surprised they still ran the trip. That may be the smallest I've heard of, but good to know they don't always cancel for low numbers. Did you have last minute cancellations in your tour group because of the recent terrorist attacks? I personally love the smaller groups, and having 2 Adventure guides for 10 people is a pretty awesome ratio. Will be anxious to hear what your thoughts are on a group that small--and your son's, too.

In the Spring I asked my agent how many guests were scheduled - 12. So at some point in the last several months 2 cancelled.

As far as the size, so far it's nice. Photo stops, getting situated at restaurants, and things like that don't take so long. That's nice. But it still feels very much like an ABD. I guess it's kind of the best of both worlds for me. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on it as the ABD progresses.

Oh I hope they don't cancel this trip. It's on my list of ABDs. One of our fellow passengers on the river cruise mentioned that this was her favorite ABD and she'd been on 5 others. Loving your trip report and looking forward to your thoughts. Thank for sharing and taking us with you!

As I type this we're only the 3rd day in, but it's a great ABD. I've never been to Germany before with the exception of a stop in Berlin on a DCL Baltic Cruise. So it's really a big black hole in the middle of Europe on my travel map that I've never experienced. So, I'm very glad to be on this trip. And it seems to do what ABD does best and go to some of these lesser known out of the way places. For example we went to Alsfeld today for lunch, and it was beautiful. A perfect ferry tale village with gorgeous German architecture, but yet apparently very few Americans go here.
 
Day 2 Heidelberg



At 9:30 we met up for our tour of Heidelberg Castle. We were met by a hand maiden character who took us around and relayed stories of the castle and life in the medieval age. She was funny and gave everyone a good teasing. Much of Heidelberg Castle is in ruin from years of wars, fires, and neglect particularly the exterior walls. You can see large chunks of the tower broken away when gun powder being stored accidentally exploded. Our guide took us into some of the restricted areas such as below the castle walls. A lot of the interior has been restored. It was an interesting castle and our guide helped bring it to life with her stories.



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We also saw the world’s largest wine barrel. Filled only 3 times. We climbed to the top and our guide taught us a little dance… on the wine barrel!



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We finished the tour around noon and took the funicular down the hill back to the pedestrian street. We stopped into the Gummy Bear shop with all sorts of different flavors. Most were difficult to figure out as everything was in German, but we picked up some exotic flavored gummies (mango, kiwi, etc). I also found some Prosecco flavored dummies I purchased as a gift.



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At 1 and 3pm there is a solar powered ferry that takes hour long trips on the Neckar river. It leaves from the docks sort of near the main church. We took the 3:00 tour. It was actually very popular and the ship sailed full. If you choose to do it, get there at least 15 min before to get a good seat. It was very relaxing and there’s a hostess who came around to take drink or ice cream orders. It was a nice relaxing ride, and I’m glad we had a chance to ride the boat since we opted to go to Audi yesterday rather than take the longer boat ride.



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We met up at 5:30 for dinner. Dinner was at the Golden Sheep on the Hauptstrasse. I ordered the local flat sausage and local pilsner and it was very good. One of the proprietors of the restaurant came by and brought his large organ grinder/music box. I was asked to help turn the handle and play the music while he sang German folk songs. As this of course a college town (with Heidelberg University), I was being examined on my musical ability. Thankfully, my fellow ABDers were merciful and passed me giving me an honorary doctorate of organ grinding. Now I just need a monkey and I’ll be in business.



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