Paul and I recently took the vacation of a lifetime to celebrate our 25th Anniversary! Several of you have asked for notes and tips for planning a vacation like this, so I will do my best to deliver.
The vacation planning started about a year ago. We made a similar trip in 2018 to Germany with side trips to Paris and Austria. It started with, “Where do you want to go after we visit the family?” Paul’s mother was born in Seeheim-Juggenheim, Germany. So, that is a fun, “required,” stop. It is located just outside of Frankfurt, and it is the start of the journey.
Supplies to order ahead, available on Amazon:
- European Power Converter with USB Adapter
- Extra Charger cords with USB-C and Standard USB for the car
- Order Euros from your bank; we budgeted 200 Euros/day.
Fly into Frankfurt Airport:
We began watching the flight schedules and prices through Google Alerts and the SkyScanner App. We wanted to fly business class for the long flight. (Some things are worth it.) In the end, we chose Condor, a German airline that once had a direct flight from New Orleans, but now connects with JetBlue through JFK. Most flights leave the US in the afternoon, and they land the next morning in Frankfurt. Don’t go to sleep after you land. Try to stay awake until at least 9:00 pm. This is the best way to reset your internal clock.
In our 2018 adventure, I fell in love with the Alps. I took a picture of the most beautiful mountain on the road between Innsbruck, Austria and Garmisch, Germany. We decided to visit it for a few days and stay in Seefeld in Tirol, Austria. I chose Venice, IT for our “Side Trip” with another night or two in the Italian Dolomites. It sounds easy to say it now, but there were a lot of Google Maps and Driving Directions/Times involved in the decisions. We decided to keep the driving time between points to less than four hours.
Decide the mode of travel in Europe:
- Trains
- Rental Car – our choice was Enterprise.com
- Boats – Water Bus Alilaguna
The hotels were booked through Booking.com or using the hotel points that we pooled together. Most rooms in the older cities were in local hotels or Zimmer Frei. Booking.com has an option to prepay the rooms; this option made it easy to budget as well as make the return bill much easier to handle. Both of us stay primarily in Hilton or Marriott for travel with our day jobs, so it is nice to be able to combine our efforts for things we want to do. We chose the Chain hotels in the major cities, Heidelberg, Venice, and Munich.
Now that you have the big picture, I will get to the details of the destinations and, of course, the food!
Stop #1 – Deutsche Weinstraße – 85 Km of Pure Enjoyment
We love our 🍷, and even toasted with a German Riesling at our Wedding 25 years ago. The Weinstraße is one of the many Wine producing regions in this beautiful country, and it also crosses into France if you would like to do that. The first night was booked in Leinsweiler. Our 2018 adventure was booked in Landau.
Laura is the perfect host at Laura’s Weinherberge. And the Gasthaus is connected by a lovely courtyard to Stuebinger. We had a wonderful tasting and ended up with our first three bottles of wine.
After an amazing dinner that included the first, and highly anticipated, schnitzel of the vacation, both of us slept through the night to get ready for another fantastic day of wine on our way to Heidelberg, Paul’s favorite city.
Breakfast in Europe definitely lives up to the thought that “Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day.” A fantastic selection of Breads, Meats, Cheeses, Vegetables, and Coffee and Juices compliment the standards for Eggs and Bacon. Breakfast is an adventure in Europe. Laura’s breakfast was a treat with the Eggs and Bacon Sunny Side Up!
Most of the Weingut’s work their fields during the week. Weinstrasse is best enjoyed on a Saturday. I am linking up our favorite wineries here:
Day #2 Heidelberg is up next…
#travel #jennskitchenblog #jennstravelblog #germany #wine #winestrasse #deutcheweinstrasse #travelfood
