We (family of four with girls 5 and 7) need help with the middle of our trip in the first week of June.
We%26#39;re planning on leaving Paris on June 5th and would like to catch an overnight train to Rome out of Zurich or Munich on June 10.
Initially, we planned to catch the train from Paris to Cologne, renting a car and spending several days around the Rhine %26amp; Mosel before heading south to spend a few days around Fussen before catching the overnight train to Rome.
Now we%26#39;re not so sure. Maybe that%26#39;s too much driving (Rhine to Bavaria)
Another idea would be to catch the train out of Paris to Bern (or someplace else in Switzerland), renting a car, and spending time around Lake Constance and Murren with a potential sidetrip to Fussen before catching the overnight train to Rome out of Zurich.
Each of these ideas is based on the thought that it would be a pain to rent a car to drive out of Paris and rental fees will be a lot cheaper if we pick up and drop off in the same country.
For background - we have pretty flexible kids. We%26#39;ll get our fill of museums and big city life in Amsterdam, Paris and Rome, so we%26#39;d like to be more rural, castle, walled city, river and lake-oriented during the middle of our trip.
We%26#39;ve already been to the Rhine, Mosel, Rothenberg, Fussen, Gimmelwald and Innsbruck on previous trips (without kids). So we%26#39;re comfortable hitting some of those again, but it would be cool to explore new ground as well.
So... any thoughts on what to do for five days that would be fun for kids between Paris and our eventual destination of Rome?
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hey martyn,
any way you would choose, it sounds like a cool trip. you are right, driving out of paris is indeed a pain in the, so taking the train out of paris to switzerland or germany sounds like a good idea.
have you considered go to stuttgart? our valued travel expert marco polo has posted quite bit about stuttgart and its surroundings. and it is handy for lake constance (meersburg) and not far away from munich for your overnite train!
have fun - tom
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You can take the French TGV direct from Paris to Stuttgart, if you book 89 days ahead you can probably get the special 39€ tickets ( www.bahn.de and then change to English). The German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg ( www.tourismus-bw.de and www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de for the excellent castles, palaces, medieval monasteries and gardens operated by this state) has many excellent places to visit, and Stuttgart ( www.stuttgart-tourist.de ) is this state%26#39;s capital. (Both will send you free tourist information, and for the BW website also request %26quot;Baden-Wuerttemberg 2009 erleben%26quot; for the German-language website as in the back it lists places by their type (e.g. amusement parks, palaces and castles. etc.) and has contact information.) Some things that would interest the whole family in Stuttgart besides the sights (palaces, opera house, stiftskirche, Markhalle, etc.) in central Stuttgart:
Wilhelma, Europe%26#39;s largest combination zoo-botanical garden set amidst the nice Moorish architecture of this former palace- www.wilhelma.de
the excellent Mercedes Benz Museum which appeals to visitors of all ages and genders, and the new Porsche Museum- Stuttgart is after all where the automobile was invented
the three large mineral baths, the Leuze one has a Kinderland and you can swim in bubbly carbonated water
the world%26#39;s first modern TV tower has an observation deck
Museum am Loewentor has an excellent collection of local dinosaurs and Ice Age mammals
you can look through the telescope on Uhlandshoehe on clear nights
Stuttgart has world-reknown ballet and excellent opera. Perhaps Sleeping Beauty or another such performance will be given that children enjoy.
The special pirates exhibition at the Wuerttemberg Museum in the Old Palace may still be on. It is particularly for children.
Stuttgart is Germany%26#39;s largest city with vineyards, which are extensive. You can take pleasant walks through them, visit the Wine Museum, and also visit wineries, Weinstube%26#39;s and Besenwirtschaft%26#39;s. ( www.stuttgarter-weinwanderweg.de ).
A 15 minute S-bahn journey away:
Esslingen with its excellent well preserved medieval center- www.esslingen.de
Ludwigsburg with Germany%26#39;s largest perfectly preserved Baroque palace, the Swabian Versailles, with the best palace tour I%26#39;ve been on in Europe, four excellent museums (the fashion museum has lots of clothes from the 1700s, children%26#39;s as well as adult%26#39;s), extensive gardens including a nice fairy tale one that the whole family should enjoy, and two smaller associated palaces set near a deer park (several days to see it all)- www.ludwigsbug.de and the palace is in www.schjloesser-und-gaerten as are the Stuttgart palaces.
A short train journey away is the old college town of Tuebingen ( www.tuebingen.de ) with its hilly cobblestone streets, castle, half-timbered houses, interesting shops, one of Europe%26#39;s oldest universities, and you can take a ride in a punt like they do at Oxford and Cambridge or row a boat yourself on the Neckar River. Just north of Tuebingen is the well preserved medieval monastery Bebenhausen (in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ), and even closer to Stuttgart if you have a car is the Ritter SPORT factory with a small museum on chocolate manufacture, a nice art museum of art in the form of squares (their candy bar shape) which is excellent and all would enjoy, and also a large sales room at discounted prices.
The Black Forest ( www.schwarzwald-tourismus.info ) is nearby, and there is a camel farm where it may be possible to ride camels ( www.camel.de ).
The low limestone mountains, the Schwaebische Alb ( www.schwaebischealb.de ) are also nearby, with its numerous castles, caves, and excellent cliffside scenery. Little girls as well as adults would enjoy Germany%26#39;s oldest state stables at Marbach (Gomadingen) where you can visit the stallions in their stalls and the mares and colts will also be out in the fields ( www.gestuet-marbach.de ). The Alb has two excellent fairytale-like castles: Burg Hohenzollern ( www.burg-hohenzollern.com ); and Schloss Lichtenstein ( www.schloss-lichtenstein.de only in German) which is unique in being built from a Hauff story. The largest castle (fortress) ruins of the Alb is Hohenneuffen (in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ). Along and above the idyllic Grosse Lauter River is one of Germany%26#39;s highest concentrations of castle ruins, and you can also canoe on the placid water ( www.kanutouren.com ). The Danube in its gorge through the Alb is also idyllic with castles and palaces perched on the cliff tops. I believe it is Wildenstein which is a castle in this area which has a youth hostel. You can also stay in a castle from the 1100s on the east Alb, Katzenstein ( www.burgkatzenstein.de only in German).
Lake Constance is another excellent tourist area ( www.bodensee-tourismus.com ). Meersburg is the loveliest town on the lake and has Germany%26#39;s oldest castle ( www.meersburg.de ).
Upper Swabia ( www.oberschwaben-tourismus.de only German) has Germany%26#39;s highest concentration of beautiful Baroque churches, monasteries and palaces, and is home to the Baroque Road ( www.barockstrasse.org only in German).
There are also many amusement parks in Baden-Wuerttemberg (maybe do a search on the Germany forum using: marcopolko amusement parks . Also, if you click on my user name you can see the hundreds of my past forum replies on this area of Germany, and a GoList for Stuttgart.
For traveling around Stuttgart, a group local transportation ticket can be inexpensively used ( www.vvs.de ), for Baden-Wuerttemberg a group day train ticket for I believe now 28€ can be used allowing transportation on all local transportation and all trains except the fast ICs, ECs and ICEs. These tickets cannot be used before 9AM on a week day.
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Two mistakes with websites:
Ludwigsburg www.ludwigsburg.de
Camels in the Black Forest www.kamel.de
Also, the German train website is www.bahn.de , then change to English.
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