Visiting - Need Help!

Yes, to your first question about rest and transition on the first day arriving from an overnight flight--a person usually needs a day or two to transition. We usually try to fly into a destination that is "easy to navigate" aka public transit is clear and easy. A good day for walking and rehydrating-try to drink a glass of water with each beer. The other important first day "issues" are delayed flights and missing luggage. Spending the first night or two in proximity to arrival city relieves that anxiety.

Your itinerary appears very ambitious. The devil is in the details.

I assembled this sheet in MS Word for our trips to Europe--you'd only need to modify it for your situation. You would be surprised what goes into food or drink.

 

You must be super excited for your first trip to Europe! I'm in the process of obsessively planning a Munich trip, so I wanted to share a couple of things I've learned.

Planning flexibility into your first day isn't a bad idea, especially if you don't have much experience with jet lag.

I wouldn't rent a car for a solo trip focused on cities.

Seat61.com is a helpful site to learn about taking trains around Europe, both in general and specific destinations. Bahn.com/en is the Deutsche Bahn site (German railroad), useful for looking up how long it takes to get from A to B, even outside Germany. (Good news! There is a direct train from Berlin to Bielefeld!)

Zurich honestly wouldn't make my top three list of European cities. It's not bad or boring (except on Sunday) but it's relatively far from Berlin and Paris, and you don't have time to get out to the mountains. Would you consider subbing (looks at name of website) Munich? Or Amsterdam?

Everything I've seen indicates that German train stations etc have a lot of English, and that a lot of German people speak some English.

Edit: If you're buying your own flights, consider flying in and out of different cities. It might or might not be more expensive, but schlepping back from Zurich to Berlin (or wherever) also has its cost.

 

Just a note on Paris in August: that is "vacation month" in France and much of Paris shuts down (gone to the beach or mountains or...). Nonetheless, many of the main attractions are still mobbed such as the Louvre.

A note on flights: you might also consider an "open jaw" itinerary where the city you fly to is different than the city you return from. Fly into Paris and return from Munich. The real question is what drives your interests in visiting the cities you cited.

Language Barriers: Some simple attempts in greetings and basic questions in the local language goes a long way. Phrase guides in most travel books are helpful. The most question is, "Where is the WC?" aka the bathroom.

Recommend checking out TripAdvisor for info on Bielefeld. There is likely a Forum on Bielefeld, or the region, where people can better answer those local questions.

Bielefeld would also be a member of a regional transport association which would provide maps, timetables, etc. for getting around the town.

At a state-level you can purchase a Lander ticket good for travel on all regular transit all day (buses, trams, trains) excluding certain intercity transit. All that information is on the DB webpage.

FWIW, we find Munich to be an excellent city to fly into. The airport is a charm compared to many other European airports. It is easy to recommend flying there and departing from one of the other cities.

You might also want to consider how you will use a cell phone in Europe, for making phone calls and for using data. The prices on typical Verizon/AT&T plans can quickly accumulate. Google Fi is a good option (it uses the backbone network of the main German cell network). Google Fi is very good in many countries.

 

A couple of quick comments (maybe with extreme emphasis):
- France is more French-centric than Germany is with German
- Paris and Zurich are a lot more expensive than Bavarian cities and towns; the Nordic countries are twice as expensive as Paris and Zurich
- We have had a generally very good time "communicating" at many biergarten/beer pub tables in Germany, in Munich and the likely beer target towns of Regensburg, Kelheim, Freising, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Aying...
- A lot of WW2 history in Munich and Nuremberg
- Munich facilitates lots of walking about the city, especially combined with the city transit system. You can make a full morning of it, return to your hotel for a nap, them go back out again. One can also make a series of day trips to destinations like Freising, Regensburg, Aying. Even Nuremberg or Bamberg can be done on a day trip although you might want the more expensive high speed ICE train for that.
- Budapest, Hungary and nearby cities have more English menus than in Munich and Bavaria which are more common than in Paris and France (unless you go to tourist-oriented fooderies). When confronted with a foreign language menu I usually order a beer and observe what people around us are eating, and then ask the table to show me where on the menu the item of interest is. This has worked out very well not to mention that somebody at the table will usually know a little English. Not meaning to give a wrong impression as we had a very good visit to France about 20 years and 5 years ago. My understanding now is that one can take a photo using Google Translate and the menu page will be translated (lol, but that might be a challenge with some of the many Bavarian dialects!).

 

Immersing yourself in the atmosphere of a place is great. I love your plan for Recon Notes! When I go to Munich/Bavaria I am also going to be doing "kid recon" but my kid is 16 so it's a bit different!

 

Personally, I would keep it simple. Bielefeld is in Germany, Nordrhein-Westfalen. Keep it simple by staying in Germany. Frankfurt to me is an easy choice to fly into. From there, you can go to the attached train station and work your itinerary to get somewhere to visit and then to Bielefeld. Arriving early, you could do things like take a tour boat up the Rhein river from Mainz to Koblenz to see the castles; go to Heidelberg, another University town with a castle and lovely walking area (and two student pubs from the old days - zum Roten Ochsen (the Red Ox Saloon, my dad called it) and zum Seppl, pretty much closed; another nice visit is Rothenburg, a famous walled city. All are accessible from Frankfurt via train relatively easily. Cities easily visited on the way to or from Bielefeld include Aachen and Köln, both with nice catherals, Köln also has Kölsch bier bars and Dusseldorf has altbier amongst the sights. Departing, you could ride the rails to Berlin, look at the sights in the formerly divided city and fly home from there.

 

We do this all the time. Last year we flew into Prague and home from Frankfurt. You don't want to book it as two one way trips, but as a multi-city ticket. Both Google Flights and Kayak have this option. Others probably do too.

As far as language goes, we've had very little trouble with it. Most people in the hospitality business do speak English. Make a little effort to learn how to greet people and say please and thank you in the language and that will go a long way.

 

The train network is generally very good. I rarely fly within continental Europe. So you could easily fly to Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam or even London and do the rest of the journey by train. In your shoes I would find the best flights and work the rest of the trip around that.

You will not have language problems. All Germans learn English at school for several years (obviously some pay more attention than others). Hospitality staff often speak three or four languages reasonably well and there is often an English version of the menu in touristy places.

Unless you are desperate to see Zurich I wouldn't bother with it on this trip. You’d be travelling almost all the way across Germany to get to Bielefeld. If you flew into Paris you could spend time there, how about a day in Brussels or Cologne on the way from Paris to Bielefeld?

From Bielefeld you could easily visit Münster (home of Pinkus Müller) (~1 hour 20 mins), Düsseldorf (2 hours) or even Bremen (~2 hours 15), just to give a few examples.

 

Simplicity is Munich (assuming you can obtain an affordable flight from Ohio). United/Lufthansa should easily get you to Munich and you could fly back from Dusseldorf. The key is adjusting to jet lag and Munich makes that easier than Frankfurt and many other airports. Try to avoid connections through London and Paris to avoid delays, harried processing, luggage transfer issues. Easy access to downtown Munich from the airport. Rest up in one place, plenty of walking around and using local Munich transit for a few days. Easy to take day trips beginning on day #3 or #4. Cathedrals, plazas, bierhalls, biergartens, parks, history. Nearby automobile museum. Great prep experience into international travel. I'd think of spending 5 days in Munich to acclimate. Then venture further along a route to your university destination, refreshed and ready for the conference. Return home from Dusseldorf or Berlin.

 

Spontaneous feedback: the itinerary is super aggressive, I'm sure you want to see as much as possible but you will spend 2 days in trains and train stations. For simplicity's sake I'd fly into Frankfurt or Berlin. If you have the option to fly direct to Koeln or Duesseldorf, that could be an option too. Train system is easy to traverse and is clean and affordable.

It's been mentioned above but in a nutshell, Zurich is not a great idea for a lot of reasons. Paris in the middle of summer will be a zoo and very expensive.

Obviously most here are Teutonophiles, but with such a short time frame, it simply makes sense to stay within Germany and see things that are German beer and non-beer things that might interest you in your 7 day trip.

 

OP: 1. I usually stay away from Kayak, Expedia, etc. historically, I have had bad luck when needing to cancel, change flights, refunds, etc. but, if everyone seems to have lots of good experiences, maybe I will have to reconsider.

Decades ago using Kayak, Expedia, etc., made a lot of sense. For the most part I might use them for research purposes but book directly (plane, train, hotel...). But Google Flights, Google Map hotels, TripAdvisor, Train61 and DB are my main research and discovery tools.

OP: 2. <snip> The Airbus’s only fly from Detroit and go through Amsterdam; the Boeing 767s will go through JFK... <snip> Charles DG in Paris <snip>

Airbus 330 and 340 are my go-to aircraft if I have a choice, especially the A340-600 series, especially if flying with my wife because of the 2-seaters along the windows and aisles. Flying solo isn't as big a deal although I increasingly book an aisle seat. Some window seats I simply stay away from because of the curvature along the windows crowds me too much.

CDG can be a bear of an airport. It and both the London airports I try to avoid because of the distance between terminals, excessive check points, delays, luggage issues and crowds.

OP: 4. I have to have a fully refundable option.

Upscaling seat options is usually the only way to obtain a fully refundable option. That also locks one in to an airline likely to be flown again within a year.

OP: 5. I weight ticket cost with luggage ... 2 70lb bags checked for free

See above comment.

OP: 6. I’m a huge history buff with a lot of WWI/II coursework under my belt (at one point I thought I might get an PhD in history) and I love Bavarian beer. <snip> I should probably just cut Zurich out.

The Nuremberg Documentation Center & Parade Grounds is iimpressive. We've also been to the Nuremberg Trials building on the west side of town (and not far from the Schanzenbräu Schankwirtschaft brewpub and keller).

re: Zurich, Paris, etc... you are following a good path: think expansive and shrink to size and practical. Plenty of years to get it all done!

 

Food for thought...if you can easily into Amsterdam, do that. Less than 3 hours by train to Koeln from there.

Regarding prices - what are you expecting to pay for round trip in the middle of European summer?

 

If price sensitive, definitely cut Zurich out. Switzerland is extremely expensive in general.

 

I've been to Berlin, but never flown from there. Friends came back from Berlin in December. They connected in Amsterdam, as there were no direct flights.

Munich is good if you're staying there or leaving from there. The main train station is an hour from the airport, which has a high fare.

I've flown on Delta's Airbus 330s Detroit - Frankfurt. Delta uses Boeing 767s Detroit to Munich. Why, Frankfurt has higher traffic so it gets the larger plane.

Bleifeld is in Northern Germany. I don't know how well connected it is with highspeed rail lines. Regional lines are fine, but slower, and also cheaper.

 

From the Munich airport to the HBF you ride the S1 or S8 metro line or take the Lufthansa Express bus which leaves every 20 minutes. The metro/subway/lite rail costs 13 euros, the bus is 11.50 euros. But, you really want to buy the daily outer ring metro transit ticket which will be good from the airport and anywhere within the 5 metro rings all day unlimited rides. There are kiosk ATM-like machines right at the airport. Seems cheaper to me but that is because we are always buying a group ticket for 4.

The Munich transit system, MVV, has multiday ticket deals and is a very good deal if riding transit from one's hotel to the Hbf to say Aying or Erding for the day. Or staying in the inner ring the transit ticket is a very good deal... riding the U, the S, trams, buses, etc.