This has been a busy week making modifications to the Itinerary due to an unanticipated holiday in Germany. While trying to reserve a rental car for the last portion of the trip, I became aware of the “German Unity Day” holiday on October 3, 2012. On that day, we were originally scheduled to arrive in Nuremberg, Germany from Prague, where we intended to rent our car for the short drive to Rothenburg. When I entered Nuremberg as the pick up location for the car, we were surprised to see that all of the rental car locations were closed on October 3.
I immediately did an internet search for Nuremberg Holidays, thinking this might only be specific to that city, especially since it is a Wednesday. That was when we discovered that it was a National German Holiday, explaining the mid week closure of all of the rental car locations.
This developed into a set of several options, trying to determine a viable plan for this situation. There were several factors working against us, first, there was the need to rent a car in Germany, since we were returning to Germany from the Czech Republic, and the need to avoid any change in country drop off fees, which can be upwards of $300-$400. Second, our choices were to try and modify the itinerary prior to Prague, possibly making a shift in the schedule to arrive in Nuremberg on October 2 instead of October 3. However, since Oktoberfest in Munich has caused an extreme scarcity of hotel rooms, especially looking to change to a Saturday night stay, we were locked into our one Sunday night stay in Munich.
Next, we considered returning to Munich from Prague, and renting a car there for October 3. We did discover that the Munich Car Rental locations were open on the holiday, I am sure mostly due to Oktoberfest. Our concern with this plan was two fold. First to consider was the availability of return bus tickets from Prague to Munich. If there were regularly scheduled trains, accommodating larger numbers of passengers, we would have considered it, but with only bus service to Munich from Prague, and it being Oktoberfest, and being a National Holiday, the odds were not favorable for getting a bus to Munich. Secondly, we were also adding about an hour to the drive to Rothenburg, reducing the time available to arrive there early in the day. This plan was abandoned.
We also considered just keeping the rental car we were originally dropping of in Munich, and instead of taking a bus from Munich to Prague, driving from Munich to Nuremberg, parking the car for two days at a public lot, and having it waiting for us when we arrived back in Nuremberg on October 3. This was also rejected, mainly due to a lack of information on parking facilities near the train station (for the bus) in Nuremberg, and also having to pay for parking the car for the additional night in Munich. There was not a significant difference in the rental pricing either, the total cost being the same for the two separate rental periods, even for less days, as compared to the one longer rental. Considering these factors, plus parking, plus time to drive to Nuremberg from Munich, we abandoned that option.
Next option we considered was just adding an additional nights stay in Prague, arriving in Nuremberg the day after the holiday, and then heading to Rothenburg. This seemed to be the the most attractive option, with the biggest downside being reducing the time in Rothenburg from two nights to one night. This plan was considered, but there was some concern that we would not arrive in Rothenburg early enough in the day with the travel time from Prague to Nuremberg by bus, time to get to the car rental location, rent the car, and then drive to Rothenburg. With only one night, and if we arrived late in the afternoon, we would not get to see much of the town before dark.
When we were looking into parking at Nuremberg, I discovered that there were some interesting things to see there, and there is also a large Christmas shop in the old town district. Based on this information, we decided to just stay one night in Nuremberg, and renting the car early the next morning so we could maximize our time in Rothenburg. We also found that the hotels in Nuremberg were reasonably priced, close to the train station and rental car location, and would give us some time to explore another city. So, as a result, the decision was made to add a one night stay in Nuremberg, and this is now reflected in our new itinerary. We will take the bus from Prague to Nuremberg, stay one night there, rent the car in Nuremberg early Thursday morning, and continue on to Rothenburg. The drive from Nuremberg to Rothenburg is less than 90 minutes, so we should be able to get there early in the day, and maximize our time there.
We have also made a couple of other tweaks in the itinerary, revolving around the time spent in the Fussen area. We have opted to reduce the number of nights in Schwangau (near Fussen) from three to two, and then move about 40 km. to the city of Oberammergau, famous for its Passion Play, for two nights. There are some sights to see in and around Oberammergau that are about an hours drive away, and many reviews of the Fussen area sights indicated that the region around Oberammergau was nicer than the Fussen area, and a better base for exploring nearby sights. This is a mountainous region of Germany, and driving distance times are impacted by the mountains, making the Fussen area less time efficient to see some of those father away sights. In addition, most opinions were that after visiting the two castles near Fussen, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, there was not else much left to see in that area. The additional night in Oberammergau comes at the expense of eliminating the night we originally had scheduled in Augsburg, Germany. The new itinerary now has us driving from Oberammergau into Munich and dropping off the rental car near our Munich hotel.
In the Oberammergau area, one of the sights we plan to visit is the Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car in the town of Ehrwald, Austria. The Zugspitze is the highest peak on the Germany-Austria border, and offers fantastic views of the mountains.
The Itinerary and Route Map Page listed on the right Sidebar under the “Pages” heading has been updated to reflect these changes, as well as the route map. Since the overall route map and associated itinerary is now a separate page, I did not place the current map and itinerary within this post. In addition, the Itinerary With Hotel Links Page has also been updated with these changes. These are listed under “Pages” on the right sidebar of this website.