Trip Report - Munich/Salzburg/Strasbourg/Frankfurt

[midwestmama]

DH, our kids (12 & 14), and I just got back from our week and a half trip to Munich/Salzburg/Strasbourg/Frankfurt.  It was so fun to see new places and experience new things together.  Hopefully when our kids are adults, they will have more appreciation for this trip.

Munich (inc. Salzburg)
We stayed at the Le Meridien Munich, which was across the street from the main/central train station, and about a 10-minute walk from the Marienplatz.  The location wasn't bad, but if we were to do it over again, it would have been nicer to stay closer to the Marienplatz.  Breakfast was available, but it was something like 30 Euro each, which was way too expensive for us (we wouldn't eat that much breakfast to make it worth the price).

We spent 4 days/4 nights in Munich, which included 2 full-day trips with tour groups (one to Neuschwanstein Castle and the other to Salzburg, Austria).  I wish we had one additional day in Munich, as there were other sites that would have been interesting to visit, but we didn't have time.
-Day 1:  Arrival day.  Jet-lag was rough on the kids, so all we did was walk to the Marienplatz for lunch and then head back to the hotel for naps.  We got pizza from a place down the street from our hotel for dinner.  
-Day 2:  Neuschwanstein Castle tour.  We all loved it.  The bus ride was scenic and the castle was amazing.  It would have been nice if the tour was maybe 1 hour longer, to allow for additional "free time" to walk around Schwangau (the town).  We weren't able to make it to the Alpsee lake, and I wish we had had time to do that.
-Day 3:  We went to the Dachau Memorial site in the morning.  We had planned to spend longer there, including going on the guided tour, but ended up not going on the guided tour because the experience of being there was difficult for DD.  (It was difficult for all of us, but the emotion and stress gave DD a stomachache, so we ended up leaving earlier than we had planned.) That afternoon we walked back to the Marienplatz and walked around that area.  We had dinner at Hofbrauhaus.  I was very glad that we got reservations, as it was very busy, and the reservation saved us from having to try to get a table in biergarten.
-Day 4:  Salzburg, Austria day trip.  We went with a tour group to Salzburg.  I was the most excited about this tour because of the Sound of Music, but the whole family ended up enjoying the day.  Salzburg is a beautiful town.  I wish we had maybe planned a full day plus a night there, as I would've liked to have had more time to walk around the town and actually have time to go into some of the museums.  (Besides Sound of Music, I enjoy Mozart's music, so I would've liked to have gone in one of the Mozart museums.)  We did get to try the Salzburg Nockerl dessert, which was tasty.
-Overall, I would have liked an extra day in Munich to go to the English Gardens and Nymphenburg Palace.

Strasbourg
We stayed at Hotel l'Europe, which was about a 10-minute walk from the main train station (or about a 15-minute walk from the main bus station).  It was in a lovely area and it was a nice boutique hotel.  Breakfast was included at this hotel, and it was a delicious buffet of eggs, breakfast meats, breads, pastries, fruits, and cheeses.
-Day 5:  We had train tickets to leave for Strasbourg, France first thing in the morning.  We got to the train station at 6:20 am, only to find that the train had been cancelled.  For some reason, DH wasn't able to book us on a later train via the Trainline app (which he downloaded thanks to a super-helpful hotel employee after we walked back to the hotel to try to figure out Plan B), and we didn't want to wait for the travel center at the train station to open, so we ended up getting tickets to take a bus to Strasbourg instead.  It was a 7-hour bus ride, which included hairpin turns through the mountains and the driver having to pull to the side of the road multiple times to miss hitting another bus or semitruck from oncoming traffic.  While it was a long ride on the bus, it was definitely a great way to see some of the beautiful countryside in Germany.
-Day 6:  This was DS's 14th birthday.  We went to the Alsace Museum in the morning (some of my dad's family is from this region, so that's why we visited Strasbourg; I wanted to go to the museum to learn about the region) and then walked to the Notre Dame Cathedral.  DS wanted a real French crepe for his birthday, and we were able to deliver on that, so he was very happy.  We had a delicious dinner at an Italian place (La Grappa) that was about a 5-minute walk from our hotel.  It was one of the best restaurants we went to on the trip, taking both food and service into account.
-Overall, we really enjoyed Strasbourg.  It was very picturesque.

Frankfurt
We stayed at Adina Apartment Hotel, which was nice - it had a kitchen and washer and dryer.  Breakfast was available for about 20 Euro each, but that was too expensive for us.  We walked to a REWE To Go grocery store about 5 minutes away and got breakfast and snack items to eat in the room.
-Day 7:  We left on the train (from Strasbourg) in the morning to head to Frankfurt.  In the afternoon, we walked to the Romerberg, walked around for a while, and had dinner there.  The kids ate authentic Frankfurters for dinner, and I had sauerkraut that I actually enjoyed.
-Day 8:  We took at train to Bad Kreuznach, the town where DH's maternal grandma grew up, and spent some of the day there.  There really wasn't much touristy things to do there, so we ended up leaving earlier than we had planned and headed back to Franfurt.
-Day 9:  We spent a few hours at the Stadel Museum of Art.  I could have spent longer there, but the kids got bored.  I enjoyed seeing pieces from so many different European artists.  I would highly recommend for art enthusiasts.  We had a delicious dinner at a burger place called JAMY's Burgers, and the server was great, which made the whole experience very enjoyable. 
-Day 10:  There wasn't really anything else we wanted to see, so we ended up going to the Frankfurt Zoo for a few hours.  The kids actually enjoyed it, so we're glad we went.
-Overall, I wouldn't recommend going to Frankfurt at all, unless there is a specific reason you want to visit.  We could have been fine with only 1 day here in addition to the day we spent going to DH's grandma's hometown.  Frankfurt is more industrialized and the area around the main train station is rough.  (It smells like urine outside of the station and the hard-drug use area and red-light district are not far away.)

General takeaways:
-We ended up needing more cash (Euros) than we had brought with us, so next time we travel internationally, we will plan to bring more local currency.  There were some restaurants and shops that didn't take non-German credit cards or didn't take credit cards at all.  
-It was expensive to buy bottled water at every restaurant, but we also needed something to drink with our meals.  Not sure what to do differently, except budget more for dining.  (We had brought with us refillable water bottles, which we used at the hotel and when we were out-and-about.)
-DH and I generally enjoyed the local food offerings, but our kids did not, so that made it challenging when choosing places to eat.  We ended up eating at more American-fare restaurants (e.g., steaks & burgers) and pizza & pasta places than DH and I would have liked.
-Had we known ahead of time what Frankfurt was like, we would have planned to spend an extra day in Munich and/or a day or two elsewhere, such as Vienna or a smaller town in Germany (e.g., Rothenburg ob der Tauber).
-Most people spoke very good English, which made it easy for us to communicate.  We were able to use the Translate app on our iPhones for menus or signage not in English. I tried to use some French in Strasbourg (what I remembered from high school and the year of French I took in college), but most times the person spoke back to me in English. 
-We should have done more research ahead of time to understand the train system (e.g., download the app ahead of time, understand how the reserved seating on the train cars works, etc.) and what to do if a train trip is cancelled.  Also, we should have done more research on public transportation and how to use it.  While I don't mind walking, our kids were not used to as much walking as we did, and in general, as Americans, we generally just don't walk as much as people in other countries because our transportation is so car-based (outside of major metro cities).  It would have been nice to utilize the trains and trams to get to places within the city.
-Based on this experience alone, it seems expensive to travel as a family in Europe as many standard hotel rooms only accommodate 2 people.  Our travel agent booked us in family rooms/junior suites and apartment hotel rooms, as we preferred that over 2 separate rooms.  I was glad that the apartment hotel we stayed at in Frankfurt had a washer and dryer, so I was able to do a few small loads of laundry.  Mostly I was the one who needed laundry done, as I had spent 4 days in Poland for work prior to meeting DH and our kids in Munich.
-We are glad that we used a travel agent and we also referenced Rick Steve's guide to Germany prior to working with the travel agent so that we could send them a rough idea of where we wanted to go, for how long, and what we wanted to do/see.

Thank you for reading.  I'm happy to try to answer any questions.

[acr]

Thanks for this! We're heading to Munich (and Colmar) for Thanksgiving and as I plan out some details, this was helpful. A few questions for you!

* What tour company did you use for the castle tour? What did you do for lunch that day?
* Any Munich & Salzburg food recs?

[midwestmama]

acr , so glad my trip report was helpful!

Our tours were with Radius tours. We were pleased with the tour and tour guides for the castle tour day trip. (I don't think it's standard to have 2 tour guides, but for whatever reason we had 2.) On the bus ride there, the tour guides shared background and historical information about King Ludwig II and the castle, which was interesting. Upon arrival to Schwangau, we had to use part of our 1 hour of free time (before reconvening as a group to go up to the castle) to get something to eat. We just ate at the take-out stand where we were dropped off. We could have walked and ate to try to get to the Alpsee lake, but with kids (even though they're teens), it's more challenging. My DD tends to drop food, so eating at a table is best.

Munich - Our castle tour guides recommended the Augustiner restaurants and biergartens (there are multiple throughout Munich). Unfortunately, we didn't make it to one due to other meal plans. If we had had another day there, I wanted to go to one. We ate at a Block House Steakhouse and Hard Rock Cafe, both of which were good for American fare. DH loved the roasted chicken he got at Hofbrauhaus.

Salzburg - Our original plan was to eat lunch at Sternbrau (based on the menu I saw online, plus they make Salzburg Nockerl), but based on where the walking tour with the tour guide ended, and the location of other places we wanted to walk to (and the limited amount of time we had), we ended up eating lunch at the Stiegl-Keller, which has traditional Austrian/Bavarian-style food. (Sternbrau had a few more options that I think our kids would have liked more.) DH and I thought it was pretty good, but the kids weren't super excited about their meals. We also picked this restaurant because it is one that serves Salzburg Nockerl.

Enjoy your trip!! If you will be there for the Christmas Market, I am so jealous! I would love to go again during that season.

[acr]

Thank you! We are indeed going for Christmas markets. I think we'll miss the one in Munich, but we are planning to visit the ones in Colmar, Salzburg, & Zurich.

We'll be going with our 13 yo & 6 yo, and I'm trying to keep my expectations low for how much they can handle

[osumelissa]

Thank you for your report! We are heading to Munich in September for some pre-Oktoberfest sightseeing and then doing the first few days of Oktoberfest going to some of the tents.

I have been reading on the Rick Steves message boards that we might need more cash on hand than in other countries, so your report confirmed that.

[dutchgirl678]

Thanks for your trip report. It is always fun to read about people's European trips. osumelissa, I would say that if you want more cash, I would get it at an ATM when you are there at the airport or in the city and not bring it from home. The foreign transaction fees are always more when you get Euros at a bank in the US.

[mrsukyankee]

Sounds like a fabulous trip. I would definitely say that most European countries you can drink tap water with dinner and they will serve it if you ask, just to save on bottled water.

[midwestmama]

Aug 9, 2023 9:03:41 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Sounds like a fabulous trip. I would definitely say that most European countries you can drink tap water with dinner and they will serve it if you ask, just to save on bottled water.

Thank you, mrsukyankee!  I will definitely keep that in mind if we take another trip to Europe sometime.  That will help us save at least 100 Euros for sure!

[dancingirl21]

Thanks for this detailed report - I love reading about other itineraries, especially in Europe.

My husband and I are heading to Germany and Austria next month. We land in Frankfurt then go immediately to Wurzburg. We will drive the romantic road over a few days, hitting Wurzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinklesbuhl, Nordlingen, then Fussen for Neushwanstein and Hohenschwangau. After that we are taking a train to Salzburg for a couple of days, Vienna for 2 days, then ending back in Munich. I think I pretty much have our itinerary done.

What tour company did you use for the Sound of Music tour?

[midwestmama]

dancingirl21, sounds like you have a great trip planned! Have fun!

Our Salzburg tour was actually not specific to the Sound of Music, though the tour guide knew her customers and made sure to point out Sound of Music points of interest. Our tour was through Radius Tours. We used a travel agent for our trip, so our travel agent selected Radius Tours.