10 tips on travelling in Germany

Cheap airline tickets
I usually book my tickets in advance with Lufthansa/Swiss Air. They have offers for open-jaw round trips between Singapore and Europe at around SGD800. These include meals, 23kg checked in baggage allowance and 7kg carryon baggage allowance.

Where to stay?
For hotels, I would recommend Motel One which has several chains throughout Germany. If you are looking for something even more affordable, B&B is good as well. Wombats hostels in Germany are clean and very popular.

Good walking shoes
Besides uneven cobblestones, broken pieces of glass can be found anywhere on the streets of Germany. Expect lots of walking and climbing of stairs. Good walking shoes (preferably covered) are recommended and practical. No German would be seen with flip flops on the streets in Germany.

Buying train tickets

You can buy train tickets online from Deutsche Bahn website or from the ticketing machine. Usually, you get a discount for purchasing train tickets in advance. The ticketing machine generally do not accept big notes like 50 Eur. Remember to validate your ticket before boarding.

Train seat reservation

Long distance trains like Intercity Express (ICE), Intercity (IC) and Eurocity (EC) allow you to make seat reservation at around 4.50 Eur. Is it necessary? Nope. You can save money if you know which seats are not reserved. In the photo below, the window seat is reserved from Hamburg to Berlin while the aisle seat is available. If a seat is reserved from B to C and you are travelling from A to B, you can still sit down at that seat. Of course, that requires you to know the train route well enough.

Do I really need to buy a ticket? They don’t check anyway!

Yes! You wouldn’t want to be caught as a Schwarzfahrer (a person without ticket). It is good to plan your itinerary and purchase a day ticket on days that you would be doing lots of travelling within the city. You never know when you would get checked. I had a day ticket in Berlin and was taking S and U Bahns like nobody business and never got checked. However, I was checked shortly boarding the train in Hamburg.

The guys in the photo did not have the correct ticket and were each fined 20 Eur. If they did not have a ticket, they would each be fined 60 Eur. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Toilets

Generally, you need to pay 0.50 Eur to use the toilet. You can save money by using the toilet at the restaurants which you dined in, at the museums which you visit or on the trains. Note: you would need to pay to use the toilets at the train stations, but not the ones on the train.

In Europe, toilets are usually labelled as WC which stands for water closet. Ladies are also labelled as Damen while Gentlemen as Herren.

What to eat besides pork knuckles and German sausages?

You can try roast pork, Donerteller, and for Asian food fried duck with curry. Portion is huge by the way. If you have enough of meat, you can go for soup too. For authentic bayerisher cuisine, you can go to beer houses like Augustiner, Paulaner, Höfbrauhaus or Löwenbrau.

By default, water is sparkling. Order stilles Wasser if you don't want carbonated water.

Gelato and good quality ice cream can be purchased at 1 to 1.50 Eur per scoop. Get it in a cone.

Bayerischer Krustenbraten at Augustiner

Dönerteller 

Fried duck curry rice

Shopping

Generally, the same shops can be found in any city in Germany. Tourists can get VAT tax refund on items which cost at least 25 Eur. Bring your passport with you whenever you go shopping. In generally, plastic bags are chargeable. Hence, bring your own reusuable bag when you go shopping.

Besides chocolates (Ritter Sport) and sweets (Haribo), you can find lots of goodies at the supermarket. I like to buy wine at Rewe (a supermarket) and you can buy multivitamins at the drugstore (Rossman) at 0.40Eur. Compare that with the multivitamins from Watons which are also made in Germany.

At supermarkets, the cashiers do not pack the items for you. You would have the pack the items into the bags yourself. Make sure you pack the items fast enough as you would not want to be holding up the line.

Jay walking

There is no German equivalent of the word jay walking because the Germans do not jay walk. When in Germany, do as the Germans do. Do not jay walk.

Salzbergwerk and Königssee, Germany

My main reason for visiting Salzburg was to visit Königssee. When I was doing my Masters in Germany, my then colleague showed me a picture book on Königssee. It is so scenic! I have to visit it one day!

From Salzburg Hbf, take bus 840 to Salzbergwerk, which is a salt mine in Germany. Bus 840 leaves every hour at .15 from Salzburg Hbf and the journey takes around 40 min. Tickets can be bought from bus driver. Purchase a Tageskarte (All Day Pass) at 9.80€ which also cover other local buses around Berchtesgaden. Note: Salzburg is in Austria but Salzbergwerk is in Germany.

You can check the schedule for bus 840 here. http://www.albus.at/files/2011/12/2015-05-24-TFP-S_840.pdf

Present your Tageskarte at the salt mine and you would be given a 10% discount. The tour takes around 1.5 to 2h. It is 12 deg C the salt mine and every participant given a set of salt miner costume to wear during the visit. The tour is conducted in both German and English (live commentary in German and recording in English). The explanation in German and English are rather different. Personally, I found the German commentary more informative. 

Me in salt miner costume

The slide was certainly a highlight!

From Salzbergwerk take bus 840 to Berechtesgarten Hbf and change to bus 841 to Königssee (King's lake). Take a boat ride at Königssee. 

There are 2 options for the boat ride. Either you take to St Bartolemä (35 min one-way,  €13.90 return) or if you have more time, take to Salet (1h one-way, €16.90 return). Both have pubs and walking trails, so it’s easy to fill up a bit of time. Take note of the timing of the last return journey. If you miss it, you either have to stay in the hotel there or pay a premium for your private boat ride back.

Hearing echo

Biergarten at St Bartolemä

Salet

Bremen, Germany

Bremen is located at northwest of Germany. Ever since I got to know of the fairytale "The Bremer Stadtmusikanten" (The Bremen Town Musicans), I wanted to visit Bremen. The Bremer Stadtmusikanten is one of the fairytales written by Brüder Grimms (Grimm Brothers). Other well-known fairytales by the Grimm Brothers include Aschenputtel (Cinderella), Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty), Schneewittchen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) The Little Red Riding Hood, The Frog Prince and so on. Bet you didn't know that these famous fairytales have a German origin!

Statue of The Bremer Stadmusikanten. If you haven't read this book by the Grimm Brothers,
 I'd recommend you to read it!

It was a short walk from Bremen Hauptbahnhof (main train station) to Marktplatz (marketplace). I visited Bremen during the period when there was the Bremer Freimarkt (a mini Oktoberfest carnival) at Bremen Hauptbahnhof and Marktplatz. 

Bremen Hauptbahnhof

Freimarkt

Old Town Hall

Marktplatz

Knight Roland. I spent a long time looking for Roland because it was partially blocked by all the decorations!

 St Petri Dom (St. Peter's Cathedral)

Dinner was currywurst and Glühwein

Deutsche Bahn (the German railway network) went on strike the week I decided to visit Bremen. This had several implications. My train was cancelled and I had to take another train at a different timing. As I had only purchased the departure train ticket before the strike was announced, I had to purchase the return train ticket at standard price. No more discount ticket :( Luckily, I purchased the ticket even though there was a strike going on. On those trains that were still running, everything was running as per normal and there were train conductors who checked our tickets on the train. 

I stayed at a single room at Bremen Zollhaus. Even though it is not located in the city central, it is easily reached by the trams within 3 stops. It is located along a brightly lit and quiet street and the room was very clean. I felt very safe and peaceful staying there and I'd recommend it to you.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

One of the places I'd highly recommend you to visit is Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It is accessible by train and is within walking distance from the train station. The old town is accessible by foot.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a magical, medieval town in Germany that is along the romantic road. Fairytales come alive here! There are shops that sell many christmas decorations the whole year around! It is like a christmas village. I'm sure children would enjoy themselves there and it is ideal for the entire family to visit. 

Castle gate at sunset

Take a walk along the town walls

Visit the medieval crime museum to see the items used in torture during the middle ages

The Night Watchman's tour is not to be missed! He was a fantastic story teller. I feel that I could learn so much from him! He projected his voice well, had appropriate pauses, spoke at comfortable pace, injected humor and most importantly, he was passionate about the tour! He collected his fee at the end of the tour because his group grew along the way! 

All the architecture are beautifully preserved

The Christmas store at Rothenburg ob der Taube

Nutcracker

Based on my personal experience, I would not recommend staying at the youth hostel at Rothenburg ob der Tauber. I reserved for a bed in a 4 beds female dorm but in the middle of the night, a couple came into the room. The reception was closed so I had no choice. I couldn't sleep at all that night because 2 of the occupants in the room were snoring thunderously! After that incident, I decided to book a single room in a youth hostel even though it cost more. 

If you have some time to spare, do visit Nürnberg which is a 1h train ride from Rothenburg ob der Tauber. 

Blackforest, Germany

Schwarzwald (Blackforest) is located at the south of Germany. It is the origin of cuckoo clocks which are all hand-made and handcrafted. Blackforest covers quite a big area and I visited Titisee.

The scenery was so breathtaking! Once I arrived at Titisee, I felt so relax and all the stress simply disappeared. I took a boat ride at Titisee. I'd recommend you to spend the entire day at the Blackforest to explore and relax. Don't forget to taste well-known German cuisine such as pork knuckles and blackforest cake while you are at the Blackforest. 

There are two types of cuckoo clocks, the mechanical clocks which require winding and the battery operated clocks.

Above is an example of a battery operated clock. The two weights at the bottom are very light and are used for decoration only.

Above are examples of mechanical clocks. There are three light weights, one is for the time, one is for the cuckoo bird, and one is for the music. These weights are light and require winding daily.

The above mechanical clock has two heavy weights, one is for the time and another is for the cuckoo bird. These weights are heavy and require winding once a week.

I bought the last mechanical clock with two heavy weights. As you can see, it is expensive. If you want to get one with music, it would be even more expensive. But it is for the craft and skill taken to make the clock. It comes with two years warranty and they have a service center in Singapore. As the packaging is huge, I shipped the clock back to Singapore.

The cuckoo sings once at the half hour mark and completely at the full hour. Don't worry if it gets too noisy. There is a on-off switch at the side so it's very convenient to get the bird to shut up. I have always wanted to own a cuckoo clock and now I finally got one. Now then I realize how high maintenance it is. 

Well, for now, let's enjoy hearing it sing cuckoo cuckoo...