Next Stop... Christmas in Germany, New Years in Austria!
12 December 2016
After juggling ideas back and forth and the plan to travel to Thailand with my dad fell through, we decided to go back to Germany for the Christmas season. A couple years ago, I was sent by work to Frankfurt –over the US Thanksgiving holiday of course - just as the Christmas markets opened for the season. I spent most of my time in Deutschland looking at spreadsheets and attending training meetings, but we did manage to see a good bit of the city as well. Beth came over with me and she had free roam while I was at work, and then we would explore together in the evening. The weekends however were time just for us, and we made sure to schedule our flight so to allow us time on the Saturday and Sunday both before and after the work week to see some sights. Not ideal for what we like to do of course, but we were there, and my expenses were company paid, so might as well make the best of it.
The Saturday after the work week we decided to take the train down to Nuremburg. It was a nice city, and boasted one of the best Christmas markets in all Germany. We left early in the morning from Frankfurt and spent the day there, taking an evening train back to Frankfurt to prepare for our flight home the next day. Though it was short, we really did enjoy our time in Nuremburg and thought it would be good to go back.
Going back in time even further now, all the way back to 2006, my father was living in Vienna and I was making plans to go visit in the fall. Summer came around, and Beth and I met that July. We knew right away that this was the one that was going to last and so of course we met each other’s family… with the exception of my dad as he was overseas. I managed to add a plane ticket and had Beth join me on the trip to Vienna. We spent time letting Beth and dad get to know each other, we traveled to Prague, Berlin and the Austrian Wachau wine region, and we did see a bit of Vienna too. It was amazing, but as we looked back we realized there was so much more to Vienna that we didn’t get to see. We also know each other's preferences so much more now and are more experienced travelers, so that we figured a return trip to Vienna was due.
Now that Nuremberg and Vienna were set as definite destinations, we just had to flesh out the rest of the trip. We considered going down to Munich, passing through Neuschwanstein and on to Vaduz in Liechtenstein before heading back to Munich. While we love the idea of dropping into tiny countries, we weren’t so comfortable driving that far through the Alps during the last week in December, so we scrapped the idea of Vaduz. We also held Munich for another trip entirely, and plotted out a route that would take us west from Nuremburg into the medieval city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. From Rothenburg, we could then drive south via the Romantic Road through small villages until we got to Fussen. We would return the car in Munich and take the train to Vienna. One last addition was to break up that train ride with a stopover in Salzburg, and the trip was set!
We looked pretty early for a flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, then at the end of the trip from Vienna back to Philadelphia. We found some great deals for that route but didn’t commit early enough which lost us the good prices – as each ticket increased by $350! We researched all other options, from breaking up the trip into a loop, departing or arriving at other airports, or to use the inexpensive round trip to Frankfurt and drop Vienna altogether. What we settled on is something we are both excited about, and it will turn a potentially bad part of the trip into a great experience!
Flying round trip to Frankfurt from Philadelphia via Toronto was far and away the cheapest option available, but what about getting from Vienna back to Frankfurt? We could spend all day that last Saturday on a train and lose a full day from the trip, we could take the train early Sunday where we would still lose a day and risk missing the flight if we hit delays, we could pay for a small flight VIE-FRA, or we could just pay the extra money and fly out of Vienna like the original plan. But we found another option that was the least expensive and most interesting – a Night Train!
If we chose the day train, we would lose about 7 hours from the trip sitting on a train, would have to pay for the train ticket, and also would have to pay for a hotel Saturday into Sunday. With the night train, part of the ticket cost was absorbed by our Saturday hotel budget. Those 7 hours spent traveling were now to be taken overnight, so we wouldn’t miss anything as we would be sleeping anyway. Overall the night train ended up as the least expensive option when comparing other trains, hotels, and flights. We could save a hotel room, keep the cheaper round trip tickets PHL-FRA, and we wouldn’t lose any days from our trip by traveling in our sleep – and we get a cool bunk cabin for the night. Win!
Our brief itinerary so far looks like this:
Thursday 12/21 – Fly Philadelphia to Toronto, after brief layover on to Frankfurt
Friday 12/22 – Monday 12/26 – Nuremburg, with Christmas Day in the city
Tuesday 12/27 – Drive out to Rothenburg, down Romantic Road to Fussen
Wednesday 12/28 – Neuschwanstein Castle, drive to Munich, afternoon train to Salzburg
Thursday 12/29 – Salzburg during the day, evening train to Vienna
Friday 12/30 – Sunday 1/1 – Vienna, with New Years in the city. Catch night train evening on the 1st
Monday 1/2 – Frankfurt during the day, fly out of Frankfurt, hopefully home in time as it's back to work Tuesday!
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