Euro trip !

[svandamme]

Going to do 4 day road trip in May, friday morning to monday evening with a friend.


Primary goal is to visit Auschwitz,
So friday , we leave early, drive via Germany to Poland, stay the night
then visit the camps early morning

Midday we start the slower, return trip, by driving to Prague..
Dinner, then see what the night has in store ..

Sunday we have some time to sightsee in or around Prague

Sunday evening probably head on over to Nuremberg (or Stuttgart for the P Museum.. Not quite sure about that yet, sort off think it would be masochistic to go watch Porsches while Porscheless.

Nuremberg has some historic importance, and it's on the right road when we return to Belgium from Prague..So spend the night sunday evening, visit monday morning, and head on back to little old Belgium...



Anybody from Germany, Poland or Czech Republic on the board, or other nationalities that might have some tips or things we should see while we are there?

[motion]

Wow! Sounds amazing... be safe!

[Rick Lee]

I've been to Auschwitz. IIRC, it was about a 40 min. bus ride from Krakow. Krakow is totally awesome, sort of like a small version of Prague. It'd be out of your way, but Malbork, formerly known as Marienburg when part of Germany, is near Gdansk and has the largest castle in the world. Warsaw is probably halfway between Malbork and Krakow. IMHO, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum was more interesting than Auschwitz.

Be sure to check this site out.

Third Reich in Ruins

If you go to Prague, be sure to go see Lidice near Kladno. It's the village that was wiped off the map as reprisal for Heydrich's assassination.

I'll be in Prague (again) in a few weeks and plan to go see where Heydrich's car was hit.

[Embraer]

check out Kutna Hora, too. not WWII related, but the ossuary is amazing

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Embraer

check out Kutna Hora, too. not WWII related, but the ossuary is amazing

That's on my list for this upcoming trip.

I also plan to tour the Pilsener Urquell brewery in Plzen and hopefully Budvar (Budweis there, Czechvar here) in Ceske Budojovice on the way to Salzburg.

[Embraer]

when i backpacked for a few months, i lived in the streets with bums, occasionally stayed in hostels, and drank a lot of urquell and budweis. the going rate around '05-'06 was the equivalent of 25 cents a pint. i drank it out of necessity...diet pepsi was way too expensive!

[Embraer]

be sure to eat some mozart balls in salzburg, too.

[LSA]

Auschwitz is a very sobering experiance

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

That's on my list for this upcoming trip.

I also plan to tour the Pilsener Urquell brewery in Plzen and hopefully Budvar (Budweis there, Czechvar here) in Ceske Budojovice on the way to Salzburg.

Best beer I have ever had! On the tour they gave you samples straight from the holding tank, nothing else has come close.

[svandamme]

few weeks? when? i'm there weekend of 18-21 may


Malbork won't work, it's the wrong end..
Lidice is perfect for sunday on our egress.


The reason for visiting Auschwitz is based on a personal priciple, that if i tell people (and i tell this because i mean it, not because i'm in the local tourist business) that Ypres is must see for historical significance and serves as testament of the horrible things that people do to one another.. I figure i should also do my part and visit the other places like Ypres.

That's the primary motivation for this visit


that being said, we got 4 days, and it will be around 2000 miles worth of driving.
So i'll have to make choices.. Can't see it all, but thanks for the tips, cause that gives me stuff to choose from !

Any pubs or bars i should know about in Prague?

[Rick Lee]

I'm going to miss you by a day or two. I arrive in Munich on 05/13, will be in Plzen the next night and probably the next three nights in Praha.

When I went to Plzen in 1990, unbeknownst to me, it was the weekend of the 45th anniv. of the US liberation of the town and all the hotels were booked. The two E. Germans I was with and I just gave up and grabbed a taxi back to the train station to head to Munich. The taxi driver handed us a brochure and it turns out he took people like us in for a night or two for under $10 per night per person. So we stayed at his house. He had been kicked out of school for participating in the Prague Spring protests and told he could never work any job other than as a taxi driver. It was a blast. He drove us around, arranged our train tix when we left, had CNN at home, which was covering Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and I had been off the grid for a few weeks. I have his address somewhere in the attic and will try to track him down again.

[svandamme]

to bad, would have been nice meeting up in Prague for couple of beers

[Dottore]

That's a lot of driving in 4 days!

Although it's heresy to say it here, I personally think the Porsche museum is overrated. Not a worthy destination in and of itself IMO.

How about the Augustiner Kloster Brewery outside Munich as a destination? There are several hotels nearby. Brilliant beer and outragous pork hocks. You could spend a lot of time there. I certainly have over the years.

Or you could blast straight through to the Eiffel, and do a few laps of the Ring? Then you'd almost be home.

[LWJ]

I have been to Dachau. Sobering is not the word. I see the world differently ever since my visit.

Have a safe trip.

Larry

[svandamme]

Dottore, Munich is to much of a detour, like you said, a lot of driving in 4 days, i don't want to add even more miles.. it would cut to much into the visiting part.
Though it is the right time of year for the Munich Beer gardens... It's not compatible with driving.


The Ring, i wish, but i'de rather make that a dedicated visit, so i don't start my 23 km lap of the ring already exhausted from driving the 2500 km's drive getting there

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by svandamme

The Ring, i wish, but i'de rather make that a dedicated visit,

Same here. After driving around for months (yes months) in my GF's mom's GTI Golf I didn't really feel up to crashing someone else's car on the ring.

A dedicated trip. Now that's a whole new story.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by svandamme

The Ring, i wish, but i'de rather make that a dedicated visit, so i don't start my 23 km lap of the ring already exhausted from driving the 2500 km's drive getting there

Hmmm! Maybe we can save that for when I fly out.

[svandamme]

yeah, maybe by then i'll have some decent run flat tires on Bimchit 1.
though i'm not entirely convinced the tires will fix everything on that car.
I'll have a look at the dampers over the weekend, see if there is anything adjustable on em.

[slodave]

Just cut the springs.

[svandamme]

That won't do much good is it.. it already bottoms out if i put weight in the back and drive over a speed bump , and not even at speed.

[Divedeep]

Do not waste your time in Nuremberg after having visited Prague. Yes, it has an old town center which was heavily bombed during WWII and the old castle is looking good from the outside (you cannot visit the inside). Duerer lived there so it was a pretty flourishing place at that time.

On the way to Belgium (from Prague) you can stop by in Wurzburg and visit the castle. It is a wine region and it is Asparagus season which grows in the neighborhood!!!
Cologne is another recommendation to visit the famous cathedral. Aachen is quite some history, too (worthwhile doing some research). And the ring is on your way!

Have a coffee at the Meilenwerk http://www.remise.de/Classic-Remise-Duesseldorf-english-summary.php in Duesseldorf to watch old cars.

Check out the UNESCO world heritages which are on your way between Prague and Belgium.

Stuttgart with its Porsche Museum is a detour but it also hosts the Mercedes museum...

Have fun and enjoy!