Introduction
Hi All So we will be taking a family vacation through Germany in march 2024. This will be me, my wife Yolandi, my son Connor, my mother in law Sari, who is in her 60's and so this had to be taken into account for the trip, and my mother will be joining us for the last portion in Heidelberg as she stays in England. In this post, we will show your our plans for our Germany Holiday Itinerary and which places to visit Our vacation will include the following locations: Land in Frankfurt
Rothenberg ob der tauber
Schwangau/Fussen
Breitnau/black forest
Heidelberg
We are flying out from OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 4th of March at 19:35 and landing at 5:15 in Frankfurt. This will be our first flight with Connor who will be just a week shy of two years old when we leave. So it will be a new experience for all of us.
Frankfurt
We will be landing in Frankfurt at 5:15am in the morning. Considering we have 4 people in the family, and carrying a wheelchair, a stroller, car seat, bags etc., we will be needing a larger car than a station wagon. so something like a minivan was suggested to us.This will help with the mother in law as well as its a spacious enough car and most minivans have sliding doors which are easy to get in and out of. After much searching, we found the Peugeot Rifter. We were only able to find this car through the discovercars.com website, the supplier we ended up using, okmobility, did not have it listed as an option on there website at all.
We are currently not certain exactly which model of the vehicle we will be getting, and have sent discover cars an enquiry on that front. We did book the 7 seater automatic, but there are various models within the range, some which have a satnav included, compatibility with android auto etc., but to find out exactly is not possible so we had to inquire with them on that. will advise which car we ended up getting once we have that confirmed, either at the airport itself or beforehand if they answer us first. But the boot space at a massive 774 liters is more than enough to accommodate everything we need. And considering the next car up was a 9 seater Mercedes Vito, which was overkill for our needs, this car fit in right with our budget and needs, as the Vito would have been about 75-100% more expensive than the Peugeot Rifter.
Once we have collected our car and had breakfast at the airport, provided the flight with Lufthansa doesn't give us breakfast, it doesn't state yet if a flight that early gets breakfast, Our first stop will be the Johannisburg Castle in Aschaffenburg. This is on our way to Rothenburg, as we can only check in between 3pm and 5pm. So we have a few hours to explore.
Here we will also be collecting our Konigsschlosser Combination ticket, as it will give us access to numerous castles on our trip including Neuschwanstein, Linderhof Palace, Residenz Kempten and Wurzburg Residence. We are buying the 14 day ticket even though we will only be in the area for about a week, its still a saving than having to pay individually at each location.
Once we have left the Johannisburg Castle, its onto the Wurzburg Residence. This location has a English guided tour at 3pm, after which we will make our way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. we plan to arrive somewhere around 5pm, as it is one hour away from Wurzburg Residence.
Rothenburg
All our accommodation for this trip is self catering facilities if required, but there are always restaurants in the area if needed. We opted for self catering as our party has certain dietary issues that would be wasted on a restaurant all the time, and we probably would have paid for a meal just to have it go to waste more than likely. Our accommodation for the Rothenburg stay is Gastehaus edelzimmer. We wanted a room for myself and my wife, one for Connor to sleep on his own in, and one for Sari as well so that everyone could do their own thing without waking anyone else up. We went for the Gastehaus Viktoria as it was the only family friendly accommodation and did not have multiple flights of stairs. Sari can do a few stairs, but not three flights. So this was perfect for us.
There is a Lidl, which is the German version of a small grocery store, nearby in the town. It is in walking distance from the Gastehaus, 15 minutes/1.1km, which is closer than the distance I walk my son to school everyday. So this will be a convenience, although probably a bit cold. We will be visiting the following locations while we are there: Christmas museum and shop
I will also be taking along my trusty mirrorless camera, which is still to be purchased, but I have decided on a Fuji xs-10 due to its multiple dials for ease of use, as well as the ibis(in body image stabilization). I have always had shaky hands and this will help.
Road-trip to Schwangau
We will only be spending one full day in Rothenburg, and when we leave the next morning, we plan on making two stops along the way. Yolandi and Sari will be visiting the Dachau concentration camp, while Connor and I will go the aquarium in München for that time. Dachau is not something a two year can understand or enjoy, but a bunch of fish swimming in a shiny large pool, that's entertainment.
each location lasts about 2.5 hours, as Dachau has a guided walk around the camp. So that means I basically need to entertain my son for that time, so therefore 2.5 hours in the aquarium at the same time. Lets hope that goes well.
The guided tour in the concentration camp starts at 11am for English speakers and costs 4 euros. so that will keep us busy till about 2pm, after which we are back on the road to Schwangau, which is about a 2 hour drive from there.
Schwangau
Schwangau is a small little town next to the more famous Fussen, but it has ample accommodation as well. Fussen is more of the tourist town, with restaurants, shops etc., but Schwangau is more rural and has a quarter of the population. I prefer more open space, less touristy etc. So we decided to stay at Haus Moni.There is a Lidl again available in Fussen.
The website doesn't seem to have been updated in a while as what booking.com said and what was written on their website stated different things about the rooms eg number of bedrooms. But we will be staying in the wohnung Enzian, which they have confirmed has three bedrooms, two bathrooms. I will confirm once we have finished our trip. Things we will be doing while we are there: Neuschwanstein
Cheese Shop We will be arriving the 7th of march and leaving the 10th, giving us two full days in the area.
On the way to Breitnau( Black Forest)
On the road again and this time we will be heading to the black forest, but naturally we have time to kill again on the road, and this time we will be stopping at two locations as well. First on the list is the Residenz Kempten, part of the Konigschlosser so all you need to do is arrive and join the tour which starts every 45 minutes. Be aware during the winter seasons(November, January-March), this is only open on Saturday and Sunday, from 10am-4pm. We are just lucky our timing means we leave on the Sunday for the Black Forest.
We will spend about an hour there, and then move onto the next castle in the list, Hohenzollern Castle in Sigmaringen. These tours appear to run every two hours, at 10am, 12pm and then at 1pm again. we will aim for the 1pm tour. Don't confuse this castle with burg-Hohenzollern, that is a separate castle nearby. It took me a few minutes to figure out the difference.
Then its onto our accommodation in the black forest, in a small town called Breitnau.
Breitnau
This small little town will be our home base while we are in the black forest, and we will be staying at a place called Ravenna Lodge. Being a small town, there is nothing in the area itself, but the location and the natural surroundings are what made us decide to stay here. Freiburg and Triberg are not far away, and as we have a car and will be driving around anyway, this was a good location for us.
This is all about experiencing the black forest itself, so traditionally its about hiking trails, the waterfall, the cuckoo clocks in the area, and then Freiburg as well with its church and marktplatz. We will be here from the 10th to the 14th, so three full days to experience everything in and around it. This will include:
On the way to Heidelberg
So after our time spent in the black forest, its then onto our final stop on our journey before heading home Frankfurt.
But naturally we have some time, so there are a few planned stops along the way. This will first take us to the castle we mentioned before, Burg Hohenzollern. The castle opens at 10am, and there are no guided tours in this castle, although they do have an audio app you can use. Staff are always available to assist with anything you need to know.
And the comes the stop Yolandi is probably looking forward to the most, that is the Ritter Chocolate factory in Waldenbuch. I have been there multiple times and always bring back a bag of chocolates for friends.
then we are moving onto our final stop to meet up with family in Heidelberg.
Heidelberg
On our final stop of our journey, we will be staying on a wine farm called Heidelberger Dachsbuckel.
We will be staying in the Pinot Blanc room. We did have some reservations staying on a wine farm, due to my wife being a recovering alcoholic, but this entire tour is going to have alcohol around it in some form or another, and she cant hide from it as their might be social situations where alcohol will be present, be it work functions, parties etc. its always going to be around, so this is more of a situation where she would need to take charge of the situation and be honest when she needs to be watched and when she is ok. This will be more focused on family time as my mother has never met her grandson, but there still will be a few stops we will be doing, some in the nearby town of Karlsruhe:
It will also be Connors birthday on the 18th of March, but we will be celebrating the Sunday before that with family. So we need to find a good konditorei (pastry shop) or backerei (bakery) for his birthday cake.
Return to Frankfurt and Home
and then on the 18th, it is our final day. We will be heading into Frankfurt early and going to the Senckenberg Museum for about 2-3 hours, which should take us till lunchtime. We only have a flight at 10pm that evening, so there is still some time fill up, but we can see on the day what we feel like doing to cover that. but it is Connors birthday as well, so maybe we will find a nice place for him to have a party. We will give an update on how it actually went in April next year. God Bless
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