Belgium & Germany - April 22 - May 10

Sounds completely do-able. Check out the Eurail pass, they usually group the Benelux countries together, but for ballpark $250 pp it's a solid deal.

 

Entirely too ambitious. Here is what you should do:

Day 1: Fly in to Brussels or whatever.
Day 2: Take the train to Düsseldorf.
Day 3: Find long term lodging in Düsseldorf.
Day 4: Find work in Düsseldorf.
Day 5 - ?: Spend all of your time and money at Uerige.
Day ?: Die contentedly.

Haha, no I'll give you a serious reply when I'm sober. Have fun on your trip.

 

That is very doable. Look into the Eurorail pass, and how many days you think you will be traveling. One other thing is to consider that when in towns like Munich, you can get an affordable day pass that will be less than a day on the Eurorail pass. We used day passes in Munich, and bought a one day Bayern-Bohemia pass to go to Pilsen from Regensburg. So Eurorail for long distance travel is the way we look at it.

Spend a night in Bruges, it can be wonderful at night when the tourist busses have gone, and you can wander the town.

I would make it 3 nights in Bamberg and one in Nuremberg, but that is just me.

Munich is a city that you can spend weeks exploring. If you can find a day that they have an English tour at Ayinger, take the S-Bahn down to Aying, take the tour, then go to the Ayinger Bräustübrl for food and more drink. Get the "Beer Drinker's Guide to Munich", or spend time on the web site to plan your beer excursions. There are also many museums, churches, palaces, and historic sites to see.

Wiesbaden is wine country, and there are many weinguts down the Rhein that have good views and food. The beer scene in Wiesbaden is from the bigger breweries.

Places to stay? We like staying at breweries if they have rooms (Fässala and Special in Bamberg for example), or Airbnbs.

Send me a message if you have more questions.

 

Just on a side note - 17 days in just Belgium and Germany is not a "lightning tour", and I am personally glad that you dedicate so much time to just these 2 regions. Too many times people spend 10 days in Europe and see London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Rome, the goofy Disney castle, some wacky relatives in Black Forest and the back through Amsterdam to catch the flight home. You plan is solid and you will get a great feel for both counties after your long stay.

Please post your pics as the working slugs of the world must enjoy vicariously through you.

 

In all seriousness, if I had to make any changes to your itinerary, it would be to add a day in Düsseldorf, although I'd be hard pressed to tell you what you should cut out. It's one of my favorite cities in Deutschland to go out and have a beer. I think many people here might say the same about Cologne, but since I was never really able to spend quality beer time in Cologne, I'll leave that for others to say. Each should be easily reachable by high speed train from Brussels.

In Heidelberg, the two main brewpubs are Vetters and Kulturbrauerei, both are in the tourist district. I enjoyed both. Vetters (IMO) has a very nice Helles Lagerbier, and with Kulturbrauerei I usually ordered whatever was on the "der Brauer empfehlt" sign ("the Brewer recommends"). There's also Palmbräu, which I think has its own beer, but not brewed on site (if memory serves). Heidelberger is a local brand, but not particularly highly thought of even by the locals. Ditto Eichbaum. Welde is local, and I thought their No. 1 Pils was pretty tasty frisch vom Faß although die Frau disagrees. When in doubt, drink Rothaus. Rothaus Pils (aka Rothaus Tannenzäpfle when in a 330 cl bottle) is delicious. There's also a nice Weinstube down a side street off the Hauptstraße called Der Schnitzelbank. Despite what the name might suggest (it's a reference to a woodworker's bench, not the pork cutlet), their food is really good and they feature good wines from the region.

At least, all of this was true three or four years ago when I lived there, things may have changed since.

 

The trains run often. Go here for schedules. If you miss a train, wait an hour for the next one is our saying.
http://www.deutschebahn.com/de/start/

Susan says special deals are only on the German language site. Do you read German?

What I have used to Refresh - Duolingo just type that into your search engine and download the app.

 

If you are talking about the "Sparpreis" tickets (translated as "Savings Tickets") where you pick a specific train on a specific day, those are available on the English site as well.

I lead a group every year that includes Bamberg, Düsseldorf, somewhere in Belgium (usually Antwerp) and some other random beer city. Often times we are able to buy 1st Class cheap tickets for cheaper than a Germany-BeNeLux railpass. But you do give up some flexibility (as in "I was out too late the night before and don't want to get up for my 9am train..." ) Last December we did Berlin-Bamberg-Düsseldorf-Antwerp for €150 or so per person -- in 1st class except Düsseldorf-Antwerp which was on a DB ICE Bus. This also included seat reservations.

One time we bought Germany only rail passes from DB and bought a separate ticket from the border to Antwerp. Just depends on how many travel days you have.

 

Susan said she found the Bayern-Bohemia pass on the German site. Used that for a day trip from Regensburg to Pilsen and back. Think it was €35 for 2 people. Yes it depends on the days, the level of train, regional specials, and so on. One nice thing about the Eurorail is that you can take the ICE trains. Going to Pilsen we were on a milk run with old rolling stock, but it worked. We have also had a Bayern pass on previous trips, anywhere you want to go for 24 hours, and it was pretty cheap. Went from Bamberg to Munich, said dang it is early afternoon, hopped on the BOB and went to Tegernsee to have some beers looking at the lake and the Bavarian Alps. Fun day.

I have to admit, she does the planning, I do the driving! If there is driving, which you need for some parts.

Edit - it is like flying there a so many fare schedules. You can pay a little, or a lot. When we lived there, we got a DB pass and used it a lot, as we got half off fares. I had a company car and a tank of gas to burn on the weekends, but sometimes driving is too much stress and parking is expensive too.

 

Your tour does sound like a great time.

 

It is not so much a tour as a bunch of beer geeks traveling together, drinking beer. And open to anybody -- we set a schedule and people are free to join us for any or all. We've been doing it since 1998 and is centered around Sticke day at Uerige. Roughly it is a week before that and a week after. This year we're taking on Salzburg after Bamberg (Odd numbered years we go west to east and even numbers the reverse)

 

Thanks, I might have to contact you later in the year. Am I correct that you were one of the Sticke Warriorsfrom years ago?

 

Yep, that's us...

 

I second this, Dusseldorf is definitely worth it!

 

I have only been to Nuremberg once, that was a long time ago, never have been back. Bamberg, Regensburg, and Munich have been revisited often. We lived in Wiesbaden and see friends there. So that is what I would do.

 

The ones we stayed at are a little farther out, but never used a cab. You can get about anywhere in Munich with public transportation. You can take the S-Bahn (commuter trains), U-Bahn (Subways), Trams (Streetcars), or buses on your daily ticket.
http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/network-stations/network-maps/index.html

If you find a hotel, ask which tram, bus, subway ot S-Bahn to take to their location from the train station.