I am a 60 year old female who will be traveling on a shoestring budget. And I do not speak German.
I am going to fly into Frankfurt am Main on June 26. I will have June 27 through July 1 to see a little of Germany before I fly out of Frankfurt am Main at 10:45 AM on July 2.
I would also appreciate any advice on how to find inexpensive places to stay overnight in Frankfurt am Main and the other German communities I will be spending the night in?
Many thanks for any advice you have to share with me.
I can assist a little with this, with some initial observations. These communities are quite scattered. I don’t know them all by any means, but some names do strike a bell. The key thing here is perhaps to identify which particular spots from the entire list carry particular family significance for you – and then focus on those.
The first five place names (ie. from Bubenheim down to Carlsberg) that you mention are all in a cluster, lying very close to (and on either side of) the main autobahn that links Mannheim with Kaiserslautern. This area is very accessible from Frankfurt-am-Main airport – perhaps just a ninety minute drive, though I would observe that driving on the freeways (autobahns) in this very crowded part of western Germany is not for the faint-hearted. For visiting those five spots alone, consider staying in Neuleiningen (one of the five places you mention) where reasonable rooms may be found at the Alte Pfarrey guest house.
Some of the other places you cite could be reached in an easy day trip from that cluster of five. For example Neunkirchen is away to the southwest near Saarbrücken – perhaps an hour’s drive on the motorway from the Bubenheim – Carlsberg cluster. Speyer is also reachable away to the southeast, and might be a lovely place to stay, even though it is less central for that first cluster of five towns. Speyer is beautiful in a way that Neuleiningen sadly is not!
But some spots you mention are further distant. Bühl would be about ninety minutes south of Speyer by road. (To help you place it, it is 20 miles northeast of the French city of Strasbourg).
Hope this helps you get started with your planning. Nicky editor / hidden europe magazine www.hiddeneurope.co.uk
These are all communities my family members were from. My father grew up with his grandmother, who told him she was from Speyer. But Speyer has no records of her family. I think she must have lived in a small town near Speyer. So I would like to get the feel of the Speyer area.
Reichshoffen and Otterstadt are also musts.
I have been using the internet to map, but would like to get a good map I can use in the car. Do you have any suggestions?
And, are there ways to reach these communities where you can avoid the autobahns?
I also really appreciate your advice about where to stay.
I will also have to stay in Frankfurt am Main for 2 days, one night before I set off driving and one night after I return. I will be arriving by air, then will rent a car the next day and set out. And I will be leaving by air, returning the car on that morning. If you have any recommendations for where to stay in Frankfurt and where to pick up the car, I would appreciate them.
A few quick comments. Otterstadt is really just a suburb of Speyer - about 4 miles NE of the city, just on a bend of the Rhein river.
Reichshoffen is actually now in France (it hasn't moved, but the borders have!). Lovely spot. And a great place to stay. You might try the guest house 'Au Mittelbuehl' - see this link. Very reasonably priced at less than €40 for a single. Probably cheaper than anything you'll find across the border in Germany.
All that suggests a night in Speyer then on to Reichshoffen. Yes, there are plenty of leisurely country roads. Best perhaps to buy some good maps at 1:200,000 scale or larger. The ADAC Freizeit Karte series at 1:100,000 is excellent, and shows every hamlet. You'd need sheets 18, 19, 22 & 23 to cover the places you've mentioned.
I'm not sure I can assist with Frankfurt Airport area lodging ideas. Perhaps others here can help there. Nicky www.hiddeneurope.co.uk
I would like to follow your suggestion and purchase the ADAC Freizeit Karte series maps at 1:100,000. Can you please tell me where I could purchase them and about how much they may coast. You told me I'd need sheets 18, 19, 22 & 23.
Insf... thanks for comment. Actually literally any good bookshop will be able to source these maps for you. If they are not in stock, a good bookshop will always order for you (and without any charge beyond the basic map price). Whether you be in Manchester, Moscow or Madrid, you should be able to get them easily.
If you are unfortunate enough to live in a country without good bookshops, you can purchase the maps online, either on the ADAC website or via the German Amazon site. Go to www.amazon.de. Once there, enter the map name as follows in the Search (ie. Suche) box: ADAC Freizeitkarte Bl.18 (Bl. is an abbreviation for Blatt, which means sheet). Do this for each of the four sheets in turn to order. They cost €6.50 each, so €26 in total.
Driving in Germany is definitely not for the faint-of-heart. They drive REALLY fast. Stay in the right hand lane and out of their way! The first time I drove in Germany I found it confusing because I didn't have a good understanding of where the cities on the road signs were. So I suggest studying your map carefully before hand, especially since you don't speak German. Another tip is when you are in a small city and lost -- ask a taxi driver for directions -- they usually speak a little English and have always been really helpful. Another time in Saarbrücken we were completely lost and went to the local police station with map in hand. They kindly had us follow them to where we were going.
Many thanks for your advice. I am hoping I can avoid the autobahn. I really am going into tiny little communities that you can't even find in the Michelin Europe atlas. Someone has given me some great advice on detailed maps, which I have ordered. And have printed out the German road signs so I can familiarize myself. I think I am probably the vivid example of "fools rush in where angels fear to tread" but I am hoping I can bring along my sense of humor and be laid back about it all.
It is quite a satisfying experience to walk in the streets and fields of your ancestors. I and others in these forums have done this and I wish you the best. When you get back file a trip report. Buon viaggio!
Posts: 657 | Location: Palmyra, NJ, USA | Registered: 29 July 2003
Driving in Germany is extremely easy, (fast on the autobahn, I agree, but otherwise simpler than any other country). Germany has the best signed roads of all the European countries. You will always know where you just left, and what towns you are coming to. The roads are very well cared for. I lived in the country for 9 years and saw maybe two potholes in that whole time. I love driving in Germany more than any other country. The other drivers know and respect the rules of the road.
Please remember that more than street numbers, German signage is about the next town or city you are coming to. You don't head on the Autobahn 1 east, you head on the A1 in the direction of Lübeck, for example.
I just can't tell you how much your encouragement means to me. I have never been to Europe and I am a little concerned that I may have bitten off more than I can chew, planning this drive around Baden and Rheinpfalz. Your support and the info you have shared with me is so helpful!
insf: if, once you have those four map sheets, you find it hard to pinpoint any of the places, then please don't hesitate to say so here, and I'd happily offer a few pointers. There are some I couldn't help on, but certainly for those which I specifically mentioned above (in earlier postings in this thread), I can tell you more precisely where they are.
If I don't respond immediately, please take no offence. It is merely that I am away so very much, and sometimes a week or two may elapse without any chance that I might check for messages.
All best wishes in your planning. Nicky --------- editor / hidden europe magazine www.hiddeneurope.co.uk
You will be just fine!! Germany is really "user friendly". The autobahns are toll free, and there are wonderful rest stops (spotless bathrooms, good restaurants). Maps are available at every one of those rest stops. If the speeds on the autobahn are a little intimidating, just hang all the way to the right. And stay in that lane. You can cruise along as you wish.
And don't stress. Just take it as it comes. You will find your special little places, you will be amazed at it all and very proud of yourself for accomplishing it. Germany is BEAUTIFUL.
Thank you, Nicky. Unfortunately, I won't have computer access when I'm in Germany. And I won't see the maps until I get there. They are being sent to the hotel I'm staying at the night before I begin my drive.
But if you have some advice you want to share, I can take it with me and use it when the need arrives.
insf: The one other point I would mention at this stage is that when you pick the car up at Frankfurt airport, it is important you mention to the car rental company that you will also be driving in France. That's normally just noted on the rental contract so that you're covered for insurance once you cross the German border. One of your "must visit" villages, I recall from above, is in France. Those adjoining areas of France are well covered on the ADAC maps that you have ordered. Nicky
You all have been so helpful and I do appreciate it. I have selected the places I am hoping to spend the night in Germany. If you can recommend somewhere to stay in either of these two communities, your advice would be appreciated:
My trip to Germany was so wonderful! It had a rather dramatic ending. I was visiting the communities my family has roots in and trying to visit the Jewish cemeteries in those communities. I could not resist one last Jewish cemetery about 40 km from Frankfurt, where we were spending our last night.
We couldn't find a gate to the cemetery, so my 25 year old niece suggested we hop the waist high brick wall. Since in my head I am 20 years old, I agreed. Going in worked just fine, but coming out I fell and tore a ligament in my left knee.
So my last night in Germany involved a visit to the Klinique in Frankfurt.
BUT I am doing fine. My leg is on the mend and I have the greatest memories. This was my first trip to Europe and I just loved it. And all the advice I got here was so helpful.
I wondered if I was a little nuts renting a car to drive around Germany. But we had absolutely no problem doing that. I would do it again in a heartbeat. The car had GPS, which was helpful. And it ran on diesel. Germany is full of gas stations selling biodiesel, so we not only could find gas easily, we could find environmental friendly gas.
I loved Germany. The people could not have been nicer or kinder. I was so impressed with how clean the country is. There are window boxes and flowers everywhere. And in every community, where there are public trash receptacles, they have 3 openings, each with pictures of what goes where, so they can recycle. The country is dotted with houses with solar panels. They are truly ahead of the US in energy efficiency and recycling.
Everywhere we stopped, people tried to help us. I was looking for Jewish cemeteries and wondered how welcome that question would be. We had nothing but the most friendly reactions to it. And people bent over backwards to help us find the cemeteries.
One man got out of his car, walked with us to the cemetery. It was locked, so he took my niece to the rathaus (city hall) to get the key, came back and opened it for us.
Another cemetery was way out in the fields. A one lane farm road led to it. I took the road and could not find the cemetery. I ended up at a back yard with sheep attached to a farm house. I turned the car around, praying I would not get stuck in the mud and headed back the way I came. Three quarters of the way down the road, a man who had given me directions about which road to take was standing, waiting for me. He must have waited 20 minutes for me to make my way down that road and back again. He pointed into the fields to his left, my right. There was a small stand of trees. Jewish cemetery?, I said in German. Jewish cemetery, he said.
I walked through the fields to the trees. There was a cherry tree with cherries all over the ground. Next to the tree was a gate, not visible from the road. There was no fence attached to the gate. Beyond the gate, under the dappled shade of this stand of trees, you could see insects buzzing around. And after your eyes adjusted to the dark, you could see the headstones.
I would NEVER have found that cemetery if it were not for that man's help.
To know that I have walked where my ancestors walked; that I have seen the places they saw every day. I cannot tell you what this means to me.
And to have such wonderful memories of all those who helped make this possible! Including all of you on this list.
Originally posted by lnsf: ***To know that I have walked where my ancestors walked; that I have seen the places they saw every day. I cannot tell you what this means to me.***
I just knew you'd have these great feelings being connected to your past. Thanks for your wonderful post travel comments. It sound like you experienced people and places that can not be reproduced in tour travel. I am sure the memories will linger like mine do from similar journeys.
Posts: 657 | Location: Palmyra, NJ, USA | Registered: 29 July 2003
Slow Travel Talk 
