Visiting - Need Help!

@Beer_Economicus While living in Germany (and having a lot of vacation) I totally forgot about the flight from ORD-FRA. It left at like 4pm and arrived in FRA at about 8am CET. Brutal indeed. I usually took an immediate shower and got breakfast and then tried to nap for 2-3 hours. I'd try to do some sort of physical activity to make it through the afternoon.

Definitely an entire "throw away" day. Glad you planned accordingly.

 

Google translate works well. The app (at least on android) has a camera icon in the lower right corner that when pressed and then focused on text translates it. You can also snap a pic of the text and zoom in, etc. Great for menus.

I generally arrive in Germany from the US in the a.m. No naps! I head out and start my day. Then by later in the afternoon into the evening, I enjoy plenty of beer. I stay up until at least 10:00pm, then crash hard. Wake up at a normal time the next day, no jet lag. Normal sleep pattern moving forward.

The tough part for me is when I return home. Tired as hell at night, then waking up around 4:00am with no hope of getting back to sleep. Slowly gets back to normal within about 5 days.

 

I'm the same way. Power through the first day there. Go to bed at the normal time. Sleep 9-11 hours. Good to go. Going home takes a week or more to adjust.

 

Clearing customs is done at your arrival airport in the US. There are a few airports in Europe where it is done prior to departure, but I'm pretty sure none are in Germany. You will receive a form on the plane prior to landing (unless it is now done electronically at the immigration kiosks, I haven't flown internationally in a couple years). The form asks if you have anything to declare. Based on what you stated, you probably will be bringing in items totaling less than a couple hundred dollars. The fact is, US Customs isn't going to care. My approach has always been to list types of items generically ("candy", "souvenirs", etc) with a very rough estimate of value. No one is going to ask you for receipts.

Customs duties aren't meant to hit typical tourists. They apply more to commercial items for resale, fine art, and other high value items. I've been through customs probably 30 times, and never once been quizzed about what I declared on the customs forms or underwent any kind of search.

Follow up: The threshold for having to pay customs duties is $800. I'm guessing you will be safely under that. So my advice is just to be totally honest on the customs forms, with no need to be exact, or to provide documentation. Long story short, don't sweat it, and enjoy your last few days in Germany!

 

Under $800 total value it's exempt, it sounds like you're way under this.

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP Form 6059B English (Sample Watermark).pdf

Obviously beer goes in checked baggage, make sure to wrap well, put it in a ziploc, or even bottles into shoes to protect them.

 

Customs processing in the USA has been changing a lot the past 5 to 10 years. It should be virtually all kiosk/atm-type based. One year ago, returning from Costa Rica I had 3 or 4 liter bottles of rum--I was quizzed on that, told them I thought a gallon was allowed. This past June there were no questions about my 4-liter package. Not sure how they treat beer and wine.

My Google Fi (Motorola phone) works seemlessly in Germany and Costa Rica. A few years ago in Hungary, I would have to reinitialize the carrier every couple of hours but it worked well. Fi runs on the T-Mobile backbone in the USA and the German dominate player is in the T-Mobile family. Fi data use overseas is charged at the same rate as in the USA. Someplaces, wherever one is, will hit blind spots. Somewhere in South Dakota I noticed my Fi connection was using Verizon.

The Deutschland-Ticket (D-Ticket) has been a relatively new rollout over the summer. The DB site has only been selling the subscription using a Eurobank-based debit card system, but many of the transit associations sell it via a credit card, e.g., the Munich transit system (MVV). It is 49 Euro/month and has to be canceled (suspended) before the 10th of the month for the following month, in other words no later than 10th of October to suspend for November and beyond. It is good for 2nd class seats on regional or local transit (trains Regional Express RE and Regional milktrain RB, S- & U-trains, trams, buses). Not valid for ICE and IC.

Very sorry you will jinxed limited to pils and helles. And you spent 3 days in Munich? But, yes, northern Germany tends to be more limited in options, but usually the black bier is available (Schwartzbier sp).

 

Visitors to Germany are sometimes surprised and disappointed that they cannot get an Altbier in Munich or a Doppelbock in Hamburg. You are not going to find a bar with 20 taps serving all the different German styles, that is just not how German bars work. (If you do find a bar with 20 taps, they will probably have 20 IPAs).

In Germany most of the time you will be drinking the dominant local style, whatever it is, and it may be difficult to even find anything else.

 

This due to having almost exclusively tied houses. Many breweries own the buildings in which bars/restaurants are located, or they tie the house to the brewery and not the party leasing the space. Crazy amount of (legal) financial shenanigans.

 

Even though many bars/restaurants/pubs have tie-ins with specific brands such as in Munich: Augustiner, Hofbrau, Paulaner, etc., seldom did I ever encounter less than 5 style offerings.

 

I just smile when an American tells me you don't need to know the German language in Germany. That tells me the have stayed in American chain hotels in the major cities, and haven't gotten out of the tourist areas.

 

@Beer_Economicus Very nice write-up. Thank you.

You sound like you enjoyed yourself doing some things, but yet disappointed with the overall trip. I wonder if you tried to do too many things but couldn't do everything that you wanted and that's the reason for the disappointment.

But the one thing that stands out to me is that you were alone for the entire trip. Maybe that's the way you prefer it and you and I are different in that sense, but having someone else along would make a huge difference in my enjoyment (and it has for me when my wife and I traveled three times to Europe). Let's call it an extra comfort level being in a strange place but having someone you know with you.

But you had a great, enjoyable experience and you learned from your trip, and that's what matters. Again, thanks for the write-up.

 

The experience of travel and especially traveling outside the USA. For one thing, the pace really slows down and I came to learn rather quickly that was a good thing. Sounds like you also discovered the effects of jet lag, which is both a time zone and the amount of traveling during a day, from door-to-door. Different people experience time travel differently and the older you become the more challenging the adjustment becomes. Anyway, in Lacanau Plage, I was schooled to "relax" during a lunchtime snack. And in Western Ireland, the late afternoon of the first day from the USA, I was nicely schooled by the bartender that a proper pour of a Guinness takes time! He nicely showed me how to order my 2nd from my table twenty yards away.

Language is a challenge. Even in the USA. If you live in Boston try going to Mississippi or Alabama or thereabouts and trying to understand what is being said or what to order at a "restaurant." During my first couple of visits to Bavaria, despite plenty of cheat sheets for food names, etc., it simply doesn't prepare one for the colloquialisms. This is no different in Latin America and Spanish, where the common names for items such a tires, breaks, papaya, buses, passion fruit, banana varieties, colors can be so different.

Garmin/Google are really not that much different in Germany than the USA. I learned a long time ago during road trips that things just didn't add up. Why? The "computer" assumes you a riding in a robotic, nuclear-powered, closed-system vehicle where there is no road construction or lousy roads, or traffic. For road trips my rule of thumb is to add 20 percent to the Google estimate adjusted accordingly to the type of roads (e.g., 40 mph curvy high elevation scenic road).

One thing I love about starting a trip flying into Munich is how easy and ordered it is--very welcomed as a jet lagged person. We usually spend the first several days in Munich or Regensburg to adapt... and we don't feel like we are wasting time because there is still so many enjoyable things to do. My knowledge of the transit system has come a long way since my first trip in 2005.

Well, Beer_Economicus, it seems like you are much better prepared for your next trip to Bavaria!

 

Just my $0.02 on your report. You (correctly) said to visit tourist stuff. As a first time visitor, I agree 100% with that. You also say that it's very similar to the US. I also agree with that.

BUT, I have found that as you get further away from the touristy stuff do you find the more "German" things and see more of the culture. And, as you learn the language, you understand more about Germany (or any country).

You chose to drive instead of taking train - that's fine, but when you immerse yourself more and it starts to get uncomfortable, that's when you are getting closer to experiencing more at a different kind of level. At least that's what I have found in my days of travelling.

 

I appreciate the honest write-up, it was well done and I'm sure took some time and organization. Here are a few of my thoughts...

People do tend to over-romanticize things, myself included sometimes. People ask what driving on the Autobahn was like and I'm quick to say it was pretty much just a highway. A highway where you can get passed like you're standing still when you're going 80 mph/130 kmph but that's a different story. Still though, If you're driving through Koln you're probably going to sit in traffic.

European hotels are not great. Not near what you get for the price from American hotels, at least in my opinion/experience. For me, there was always some issue with the shower. Sorry you didn't get a comfortable space. Service at restaurants in Europe is slower than the US, and Germany takes it one step further it seems. It's an adjustment. I will say it's also an adjustment the other way. After living in Germany for 4 years I was really taken aback when I was trying to have a meal with some extended family and it felt like we couldn't have a conversation without the server asking how we were doing every 5 minutes and hustling us out when we were done with our food. Just a different approach.

I think it's hard visiting somewhere just for a few days (or even a few weeks, I felt like my 4 years wasn't enough). Sometimes repeated visits helps you find the more charming, less touristy parts of the country you are visiting. It's very adventurous of you to go somewhere without knowing the language and dealing with the bumps and bruises that go with it. Hopefully you will go back one day and have a better experience.

A lot and I mean a lot of places in Deutschland, if you say Bier without specifying, they will just bring you "the normal beer". In Heidelberg, if you asked for a beer they'd bring you the Pils, if you wanted the Export or the Wheat beer you'd have to specify. And that, by the way, would cover most beer menus in HD - one Pils and one Export on tap, Wheat Beer in a bottle.

I'm way off-topic, but one favorite memory was me going to a very small neighborhood festival in Heidelberg. Two young volunteers were manning the beer station, which proudly advertised, "Bier, 2,70/Weissbier 3,20". Guy in front of me in line asked, "what kind of Bier?". The two volunteers looked at each other and giggled at the question. "Ganz normales Bier!" So he ordered a Ganz Normales Bier.