GErmany next year

I am starting to plan a trip to Germany next year - probably early June. I need some suggestions. We are planning to visit the town %26amp; area where my grandmother was born - Rodenkirchen, north of Bremen.

Here%26#39;s what we are thinking - very early thinking so any suggestions are more than welcome.

We are planning on 10-14 days. We are going to fly into Amsterdam because it is an easy direct flight from Houston that we can use our miles for. We think a couple of days in Amsterdam and then driving to Germany. (picking up the car on the way out of Amsterdam) Thinking of doing part of the romantic road, etc. Driving so kind of wandering - very flexible. We want to do a day or so in Cologne(climb to the top of the cathedral), Frankfurt any thing else we want to see and then heading south. We thought we would concentrate on staying mainly in the Western half of the country.

We are thinking about maybe staying in a castle one night just to do it. Otherwise, we hope to find some good b%26amp;bs along the way.

About half way through the trip we%26#39;ll head north to Bremen, Rodenkirchen, Oldenburg, etc. to spend probably about 3 days in the area.

We will fly out of Bremen through Paris direct to Houston - again on miles.

Please give me any suggestions for fun things to stop and do. We are up for just about anything, but not really into the nightlife scene.

Also, my brother wants one day to play golf. Is it possible to rent clubs there? I really don%26#39;t want to have to keep his clubs with us as we travel around. Any suggestions for a good course - hopefully somewhere that there is something else for the rest of us to do?

One of the problems we are having is scale. Being from Texas, driving a couple of hundred miles isn%26#39;t really that big of a deal, but we are having problems figuring out if we are allowing enough time. We don%26#39;t want to try to cram in too much. When I%26#39;m looking at distances, I%26#39;m trying to include at least twice as much time as I think it will take.

I%26#39;m planning on taking by Garmin GPS with the upgrade that includes the European maps. Has anyone done this? Is it worth it?

Any suggestions for renting a car? Is it possible to pick it up in Amsterdam and return it in Bremen?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Kim

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If you are visiting the Romantic Road, here are two castle hotels you might look into. The first is Burg Hornberg ( http://www.burghotel-hornberg.de ) by Neckarzimmer up the Neckar River from Heidelberg and along the Castle Road which may not be out of your way to the Romantic Road and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The other is Burg Katzenstein ( www.burg-katzenstein.de only in German) which is fairly close to Noerdlingen on the Romantic Road.

As to renting a car, take the train to Germany from Amsterdam, and do it there if you are going to return the car in Germany. This will avoid a probable large drop off fee. With most car rentals you can drop the car off at any office in Germany without having to pay additional fees. If you book your ticket enough in advance (89 days prior to journey at the earliest) you can get highly discounted but limited train tickets ( www.bahn.de ).

For places to visit and things to do, contact the tourist information offices for free information. You could start with the German one, the ones for German states you will visit, the ones for particular areas, and also the ones for villages, towns and cities. In general, most tourist information websites can be accessed through www.PLACENAME.de, just enter the place you%26#39;re interested in. Many places will be happy to send you free information.

Germany is full of wonderful places to visit with over 30,000 castles and palaces alone. In and around any place there should easily be a week or two of excellent things to see and do, therefore there is no real need to drive to a distant place unless there is really something that you want to see there.

You should have a nice trip.

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I notice that I got one of the websites wrong, it should be www.burgkatzenstein.de .

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For distances go to google.com maps (upper left corner)then select get directions put in city to city and addresses if have them(can also add cities)it will print out route with times and kilometers so you can plan.

I have used about 10 different car rentals and the least expensive we found for 2009 is skycars. Yes you can pick car up in Amsterdam and return in germany but you pay about $150 more but it varies between countries and car rental agencies.

If you can find euro Atlas Germany they are very detailed. If you can%26#39;t find here I have bought them in Gas Stations in Germany.

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The drop off fee can be quite high if you rent in one country and drop in another as mentioned. You may want to take the train from Amsterdam to Cologne and rent the car after your stay in Cologne. You can then drop in Bremen at the end of your trip and save the drop off fee. Also, renting in Germany is usually cheaper than neighboring countries. one place to rent through that I can personally and highly recommend is gemut.com. Have gone through them twice while renting in Germany and their rates are good and customer service is excellent. They have several rental companies they go through and can match or beat any competitor%26#39;s rate. Also, they will quote you a rate in U.S. dollars and hold that rate for you even if the dollar should weaken against the Euro. On the other hand if the dollar should strengthen against the Euro you could call right before you leave and they will probably give you a better rate. If you have a gps with Europe maps I would take it. It was well worth the cost on our last trip.

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I have been trying to contact burg katzenstein by e-mail for a while now with no luck. I want to book a night there for next July.

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%26quot;I have been trying to contact burg katzenstein by e-mail for a while now with no luck. I want to book a night there for next July.%26quot;

The website says that they are open in January, so they should be there, but maybe slow in replying. You can see the prices on their website. However, my computer suggests that their e-mail site is not secure. You can also contact them by phone: 0 73 26 - 91 96 56 or by FAX (which I would suggest) 0 73 26 - 96 35 24 . When dialing from the US, enter your international access code, then 49 and dial the number omitting the leading 0 which is only for calls within Germany.

A short distance north of Katzenstein is Neresheim Monastery which has a lovely Baroque church and shouldn%26#39;t be missed as you are so close.

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Thank you. I will try to fax them today, once I determine my international access code (I don%26#39;t get out much!)

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Well, I%26#39;ve tried to fax them 3 times with no answer from their fax machine. I%26#39;ll try again tomorrow. After that, I give up. It isn%26#39;t worth all this hassle.

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