POST UPDATE: After spending some time at the Germany Train Site, DB Bahn, there are more than adequate trains available for travel between Augsburg, Germany and Munich, Germany. We no longer think it will be a problem to get on a train sometime in the morning. There are departures from Augsburg about every 40 minutes, so while it might be crowded from Oktoberfest, there should not be any issues getting to Munich without the rental car.
I have also added a Travel Site link for a very good write-up on one of the excursions we are planning to do while in Lucerne, Switzerland. It is called The Golden Round Trip & Mount Pilatus Tour, which starts on a scenic cruise boat in Lucerne, traveling on Lake Lucerne to the town of Alpnachstad at the foot of Mount Pilatus. From there, you take a cog railway to the top of Mt. Pilatus, then take a Cable Car to the town of Krienz, and then a short bus ride back to Lucerne. This excursion was on our original planned trip to Lucerne two years ago that we had to cut short. The author of this web site is very interesting, and reading about her travels is inspiration to us all. Here is a link to the site for The Golden Round Trip & Mount Pilatus Tour
Original Post: Not a lot going on in the trip planning arena this month. We went ahead and completed the hotel reservations for Augsburg, Germany, and for our last night’s stay in Frankfurt, Germany, near the airport. The hotels in Augsburg were actually filling up quickly, I think a lot of people stay on the outskirts of Munich for Oktoberfest, and commute in via train. Apparently, it is about a 30 minute train ride to Munich from Augsburg.
We will have to determine if it will be easier to drive the rental car into Munich, or train in from Augsburg. There are pros and cons to each method (aren’t there always!). The only downside to dropping off the rental car in Augsburg is the availability of train tickets into Munich with Oktoberfest in full swing, our concern being based on seeing the hotels in Augsburg filling up quickly. The hotel we reserved in Augsburg is about 600 meters from the Europcar rental office, and only about 650 meters from the train station in the other direction. In addition, parking for the rental car near the hotel will be an additional Euro 9.50, and it is in a public lot, not at the hotel. So cost wise, it is better to go ahead nd drop off the car a day early in Augsburg, then take the train into Munich. It is probably more convenient also.
We may just have to see if we can purchase our train tickets online within the 90 day window before the travel date to make sure we have one. I would imagine it is a regional train, so reservations will be optional, and based on travel in Germany before, not necessary since none of the locals seem to pay the additional fee, and the result is that your reserved seat will usually be occupied anyway, and no one generally wants to move. Since we want to leave early in the morning, and it is a Sunday, the trains may not be that crowded since the crowds seem to go to Oktoberfest in the late afternoon or evening
Our hotel in Munich is also fairly close to the train station, so we should be able to walk there once we arrive.
We have downloaded some good information on getting to Paris from the Charles de Gaulle airport via the train. This has been converted to a PDF file and uploaded to out Kindle and to the iPad. We are going all electronic this trip, no more paper guidebooks, we have them loaded onto the Kindle, and they are also available for adding to the iPad through the Kindle App. This will also be the case for any of the supplemental information and reservations we have, they will be converted to PDF and uploaded to various devices. In the end, we hope to see an overall reduction in weight. We will plan on using the Kindle for day to day travel, and the iPad for backup and reading on the flight. I won’t have to dismantle our paper guidebooks anymore, taking out the appropriate sections for weight reduction, and leaving the bulk of the book at home, torn binding and all.
We did end up purchasing a travel insurance policy, the Allianz Global Assistance Deluxe Plan through Allianz Global Assistance. It seemed to fit our plans, and we only purchased it for the value of the non-refundable airfare, plus some additional coverage for other non-refundable items. It can be increased if need be, but the majority of the reservations we currently have are refundable, with some minimum notification. I have decided not to go back and pick out other accommodations that may be cheaper if pre-paid, that would also increase the coverage need on the policy. Maybe I will look closer to the trip time to find any “deals” and make changes at that point.
We have begun to formulate a plan for our time in Paris, trying to make decisions on what attractions to visit in each day, taking into consideration that some sights and museums are closed on Mondays and some on Tuesdays, and we will be there on Friday through Tuesday.
We will be purchasing the Paris Museum Card at the airport upon arrival, it is a good deal, and we are there long enough to take advantage of the savings in cost and the savings in time (hopefully) of getting quicker access to sights through the special pass entrances. In addition, we will be purchasing a Paris Visite Card for transportation. We have calculated it will be slightly more cost, but gives us access to get from the airport into Paris and from Paris to Versailles, both of which are outside of the inner coverage for standard Metro tickets. It gives us more flexibility, and avoids having to wait in line for the additional tickets necessary for these two locations. After all, our time is also worth money, as they say.
Well, that about sums it up for now, we will continue keep everyone updated. However, there is probably going to be a little bit of a lull in the planning efforts other than education via the internet and guidebooks on planning our time at the various stops.