Europe 2013, day four: Germany, Munich and Garmsich-Partenkirchen

The photographer was quite grumpy after getting no sleep on the sleeper train (how ironic). We fled Munich after the noon playing of the Marienplatz Glockenspiel, but not before climbing the clock tower of St. Peter’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Church_%28Munich%29) in which Rachel actually climbed and descended all 300+ steps on her own and A was actually convinced to step outside on the thin ledge at the top of tower. This is the day ended with the “Bavarian cultural evening” (Bayerische Heimatabend) at the local beer tent down the block from our hotel in Garmisch-Patenkirchen, picture posted earlier.

Disclaimer: Our current hotel charges 4€ per hour for wifi, so I am uploading this entry hoping it is under my data allowance. I arrive at my cousin’s house Friday night so when I arrive I can hopefully add some pictures to this entry, yesterday’s, and any other entry I might write.

I left off yesterday with us boarding the train. It was a fun experience but I barely got any sleep. I know it was because I was worried about having to get up at 6 to get off the train at 7. The husband barely had any sleep as well. The kids slept well but they were so excited they stayed up later than they should have. I think if the train arrived around 10 AM I would have had a better experience.

We arrived in Munich on time. We found Hertz and were informed that we were upgraded to a Mercedes. You gotta love renting a car in Germany. We found the car and put our suitcases in the car. Then we went back to the train station (the car was a couple of blocks away). My poor kids are having trouble finding drinks here in Germany. All they want is plain water or plain juice. Everything seems to have carbonation. My kids don’t drink soft drinks at home so everything tastes strange to them. Anyway, poor Rhubarb just wanted some apple juice so we were searching for that in the train station. I failed her and got her a carbonated apple juice….
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After the failed drink purchase, we took the public transportation into the old part of Munich. We arrived at the Marionplatz right at nine. I found out we could climb to the top of a nearby church (St. Peters) and we did that. I have a big phobia of heights but I did make it to the top! I am glad we did this first – by the time we left Munich the town center was very crowded. I think the kids enjoyed this climb as well.

After climbing St. Peter’s church we went to the farmers market. I think it is called the Viktualien Market. You could basically find any fruit, vegetable, cheese, meat, or bread that you could possibly need here. It was only around 10 AM at this point. We spent a good time wandering this market and eventually bought food for lunch. We enjoyed eating our food on the benches outside. We noticed that it is never too early to drink beer in Germany. Both myself and my husband passed since we were both tired from the train ride the night before.

After we ate I wanted to check out the Hofbrauhas house. We literally just walked through it. I think my family thinks I am crazy. Had we not had a meal at the Viktualien market I think we would have had one here. But in all honesty I think we chose the better option.

By this point it was almost 12 PM. At 12 PM the figurines in the Marienplatz building come alive for a few minutes. So we went to watch this. After watching this we decided to head out of Munich and towards our lodging in the Alps. The Rhubarb slept for about ten minutes in the car and that was it. She could have used a longer rest.

The drive down to the Alps was beautiful. I have only walked about two blocks in this town (Garmsich) but I have decided I would like to live here 🙂 We checked into our hotel. Here we have a small apartment that has two bedrooms and a sitting area. Each bedroom has a private balcony with a view of the Alps. I could sit on that balcony all day.

Once we checked in I did a load of laundry by hand in the hotel sink. Since our room was facing the sun most clothes dried relatively quickly..:.in Berlin I had a problem because we had no direct sun and we got the one hotel room that had no drafts….anyways, the husband had gone to take a nap at this point. So I told the kids that I was taking them out to explore. We walked two blocks into town where they are having a festival this week. Just our luck there was a puppet show starting. So we watched the puppet show for about forty five minutes and then headed back to the hotel room.

I woke up the husband and we eventually headed back to the festival for dinner. This has probably been the most awesome thing we have done on the trip so far. The festival was under a large tent. There was a show at 8 PM and a parade to start the show. The Bavarians were mostly all dressed in traditional Bavarian clothing. The show was a traditional Bavarian show and there were several numbers put on by kids. You could order food and drinks while you watched. So we ordered dinner (which took a while to order). I attempted to order my first Radler but apparently the waiter thought I said Fanta so that is what I got. I am so happy we stumbled upon this festival. This was a genuine show – much better than anything we could have seen at the Hofbrauhas in Munich.

Procession of the festival

Traditional Bavarian dancing

So, now the kids are asleep. Breakfast is served until ten. I have a feeling I will have to force everyone out of bed at nine tomorrow. We are just planning on exploring tomorrow and I am hoping to do an Alpine roller coaster. The Bubba wants to do some hiking.

Did I mention that I would like to move here? I guess I better start learning German

Europe 2013, day three and a half: Germany, Berlin Lichtenburg train station

We left our hotel early enough to find our night train. We arrived at the train station and it seemed absolutely dead. For a moment we were concerned because we saw no signs of a night train. The husband decided to go check the tracks. Luckily our train was there.

Next I decided to look for dinner. When we arrived at the station there was a German sandwich shop open. I had planned to buy food there but in the time that we found the track and sat down next to our compartment the sandwich place had closed. I whispered to my husband that the kids might be getting dinner from the vending machine.

So right after I tell this to my husband the Rhubarb mentioned that she needed to take care of some business. We go down the set of stairs closest to us and I am thinking we are not going to find a toilet in this small train station. Well going down that other staircase was like crossing over the Berlin Wall. I found a food option that was still open! Back to that later.

So we find the toilet and discover you need a euro to enter. We don’t have that on us. A woman tried to give us her vouchers so we could get in but for some reason it did not work. Just our luck there was a homeless person in the bathroom who let us in. She even got us some toilet paper to use as a paper towel.

Anyway we left the toilet and I discussed the new food option with the husband. I had discovered a McDonalds. Hey – it was better than our other option of a vending machine dinner. I come back with our meal very excited. As we are eating the boy then decides he needs to use the toilet. My husband take him to the bathroom and as they are gone the Rhubarb decides to hold the French fries. She says to me that I promise I know what I am doing. Two minutes later the French fries are on the ground….

It was finally time to board the train. We literally could not all go into the compartment at the same time. Our bags also seemed to take up the entire compartment. I can’t imagine how crowded the room would be if we had huge suitcases. Once we started getting luggage situated I made the kids change into the clothes they are wearing tomorrow. Also – luckily I had packed the suitcase so that I only need to take out what we needed. I can’t imagine going through a packed suitcase trying to find our clothes. Once we check into our Garmisch lodging I am going to have to go through the bags as the contents are all jumbled up now.

So hopefully everyone will sleep. The train gets in at 7 AM. I have a feeling we won’t spend a full day in Munich as everyone will be tired….the plan is to literally wake the kids ten minutes before we arrive. Hopefully the excitement of the train will wake them up without them complaining.  I will leave you with some pictures of us on the night train:

Train tickets all booked!

I purchased our last train ticket today. It feels great to have this all done. We will be on a total of six trains through out our trip. Two will be in the US to get to and from Newark where we connect with our international flight. The other four are in Europe.

Two of our tickets are for second class trains and two are for first class trains. In Europe they sometimes refer to second class as Comfort Two and they sometimes refer to first class as Comfort One.

We are in second class from Berlin to Munich on the City Night Line. Second class still gets you a sleeper with duvets on the bed. The only thing is doesn’t get you is a private toilet and shower but since we will primarily be sleeping we won’t need that much either. I think our sleeper is right next to the WC. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not…

We have first class reservations from Dusseldorf to Rotterdam. I also have a private compartment reserved for this trip. Our friend Angie will be on this train with us. This is an ICE train that has the capability to move 300 kph. You can actually watch the train driver steer the train in first class. To upgrade all five of us to first class cost an additional $88. I think second class would have been fine for all of us, but since we are on vacation and traveling with our friend I figured why not splurge a little bit. How often do you have the chance to see the driver steer the train? One benefit of first class on an ICE train is you can place an order from the cafe car with an attendant and they will bring it to you in your car. So once we board we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the company of each other.

Our third train ride is in second class between Rotterdam and Paris. This is on a Thalys train. These are also high speed trains. For this train we have seats that are in an aisle/window and aisle/window configuration. The seats do not recline, there are supposedly electrical outlets in each seat, but there is no free wifi. This ride is about two hours and forty minutes. If we were driving it would take us four hours and fifty minutes.

Our final train in Europe is in first class. I kept going back-and-forth on this one. I finally decided to go with first class. First, it is a longer train ride – almost four hours. Second, we will be traveling at the end of the day. We board the train around six PM after a full day of sightseeing in Paris. Everyone should be tired. These seats lean forward so you can recline and they have a footrest (I think, not sure though). Additionally first class gets you free wifi on the train – but you need to register beforehand. You also get a meal and drinks served at your seat. The cost of this is included in the ticket. Granted I probably won’t like what is served food wise but I guarantee you I will want a glass or two of wine. And I know my husband will enjoy a nice dinner. For this train our seats are centered around a table. This will be nice for the kids as if they are not tired they can draw on the table. This will also be the last thing we do in Europe – we head home the very next day. Hopefully it will leave fond memories with us.

I am very excited about all of our train travels. I think this is because the love of traveling on a train is in my blood. My grandfather used to love trains and I think his dad used to work with trains. If my grandfather was still alive today he would love to hear about all of these trains that we are taking. I know he will be with us in spirit.

Booking City Night Line tickets – is 6 AM too early for a drink?

This may be a long post, so I apologize in advance. I am going to try to add a lot of detail since I had trouble finding information on the Internet.

When I first looked into the City Night Line trains I learned that to get the best fare you could book your ticket and reservation 92 days in advance.  But what I couldn’t figure out was why it seemed like certain sleeper cars were already sold out 92 days in advance.  Then I finally realized you could book a sleeper reservation around 180 days in advance and then purchase your ticket separately.  Since we are traveling with a 4.5 year old and a 7 year old I did not want to take a chance that we would be stuck in seats and I decided to reserve an economy four person sleeper.  When I made this reservation the UK booking agent told me there would be a cancellation penalty of 15 Euros per person if I needed to cancel it.  That was okay with me.

This morning (at 6 AM Eastern time) I needed to purchase the ticket portion of the night train from Berlin to Munich.  On the City Night Line website (they are a part of Deutsche Bahn) it showed a four person economy sleeper car plus tickets was 261 Euros.  I had previously paid 188 Euros for the sleeper reservation.  Actually…I had paid that equivalent in pounds since I made the reservation with the UK Booking Center.  But to make things easier to follow I’m converting everything to Euro’s using today’s exchange rate.  Anyway,  that is a difference of 73 Euros that I should have needed to pay for the tickets since the Saver Fare was available.

So early this morning I call the UK booking number and I ask to purchase the tickets with my reservation.  The operator seemed kind of confused.  My theory is that the only people who actually reserve the sleeper cars are those with Eurail passes or German Rail passes, etc.  For them they already have the tickets and don’t need to get those at a later date.  Anyway he proceeds to tell me that it will be an additional 343 euros to purchase the tickets and would I like to do that right now.  I tell him that does not make sense because I can purchase a reservation plus tickets for 261 euros online.  He tells me that the reservation I have is for a fully-flexible ticket and as a result I must pay the extra amount. I then asked him if I have a fully flexible ticket, then can’t I cancel that ticket?  He said, “one moment please”.  When he returned he told me that I could cancel the tickets but it would cost 15 euro per ticket to cancel.  I told him to cancel the reservation and I would rebook it, online.  It was much cheaper for me to cancel this reservation, lose the equivalent of 60 euros and book the saver fare on the internet.

Why would I bother making a reservation for a four person sleeper car you ask?  Well, today marks 91 days until our night train.  When I looked to see what was available there are no longer any four person sleeper cars available.  They don’t have as many of these as they have doubles or singles.  So those go pretty fast.  I was lucky that I got one on a saver fare.  We could have probably done two doubles if necessary, but this is our first overnight train and I want to share the experience as a family.  I also wasn’t sure what would be available 92 days out.  We are traveling to Europe in the summer when lots of other people travel.  I felt much more comfortable knowing I had a four person sleeper reserved than taking a risk that one would not be available when it was time to book.   Additionally, if I had not been able to purchase the saver fare then at this point it might have made sense to purchase a German Rail pass since we’ll be on multiple train trips throughout our trip.  But as long as I can buy all of those tickets on a saver fare the rail passes are not worth it.

I am thankful to have this reservation done with..though I am still waiting for the credit to show back on my credit card!  Worse case I can dispute it with my credit card company if it never appears.  All of our future reservations can be done on the Internet.  Hopefully no complications will occur with those.  To add to the complication of these reservations I had to constantly convert euro’s to pounds to dollars.  Not fun.  The man is quoting me prices in pounds but on the Deutsche Bahn website train prices are in euros and I am used to dealing with dollars.

Finally – as a side note – when I went to book our new reservations and tickets the first credit card I used did not go through due to a fraud alert.  I called that credit card company after making my purchase with another card and told them as a result I used another credit card provider. My credit card company provided me with a $25 credit without me even asking!  So it makes that 60 cancellation fee I paid feel like a smaller cancellation fee.

Look at the fine print

We bought our tickets for our trip in September. Since then I have made all the reservations for lodging that I could. I figured out what trains we will be taking as well but those cannot be booked until around 90 days before your trip. I thought this was also true for the sleeper cars on the German rail line City Night Line. That was the one train I was worried about. The plan is for us to take a night train from Berlin to Munich. I don’t want to be sleeping in seats or couchettes with young kids, so I wanted to make that reservation as soon as I possibly could. So I have had an alarm set up on my phone to alert me when it is 90 days before we can catch that train. I wanted to make sure we reserved a sleeper car.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was looking at the brochure for the night train and I noticed one sentence stating,

Supplements (reservation of the comfort category) can be booked a maximum of 179 days in advance.

I immediately panicked. I could have booked our sleeper car a couple of months ago! Would there be anything left? How do I reserve this?

If you reserve 90 days before your trip you can book the sleeper and tickets at once over the Internet and you don’t need to talk to a human. However to reserve just the sleeper you have to speak to a person. I first tried calling the Deutsche Bahn number for Germany and then pressing the numbers to get to one of their English speakers. Everytime I did that I received a message that all operators were busy and to please try calling later. Then I found a UK Deutsche Bahn number and tried calling from my cell. The call would not go through. Finally I tried calling from my land line and was connected. I was able to make a reservation for a four person sleeper car. The representative was giving me quotes in pounds but I had been looking at prices in euros, so I had to quickly convert the prices in pounds to prices in dollars to see what the actual cost was. It was a really stressful reservation to make as I prefer being able to look over the prices on line before booking something and being able to take my time to commit. Thankfully though that reservation has now been made and I can start to relax.