B & B in Germany

"Paul" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi there,

My wife and I will be touring in the Neckar Valley area of
Germany in June and intend staying in Bed & Breakfast
accommodation. Our german is virtually nil. Does anyone
know if the local Tourist Information Offices will ring
around for us each night, or do we just knock on doors and
use semaphore? What time do we need to arrive somewhere to
be sure of a bed for the night?

There is a link to B+Bs on the Neckar route here:

germany-tourism.deroute46.htmlOpen ↗

Info centre tab - accommodation - B+B

When we toured Germany by car, I booked all of my
accommodation on the internet, even small guesthouses. You
just then turn up say "Guten Tag" and hand them the printout
from your computer with your details on. If you do it off
the cuff, look out for the sign ""Zimmer Frei" (room free)
knock on the door and say "Zimmer Frei?" They will be used
to dealing with all sorts of nationalities so don't worry.
--
Simon Mason Anlaby East Yorkshire. 53°44'N 0°26'W
simonmason.karoo.netsimonmason.karoo.netOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

When we toured Germany by car, I booked all of my
accommodation on the internet, even small guesthouses. You
just then turn up say "Guten Tag" and hand them the
printout from your computer with your details on. If you
do it off the cuff, look out for the sign ""Zimmer Frei"
(room free) knock on the door and say "Zimmer Frei?" They
will be used to dealing with all sorts of nationalities so
don't worry.
--

Yup - I found booking accommodation in Germany easy. When
the Unfit Family stayed in Cologne last year, I booked the
accommodation online via the Cologne Tourist Board. They
were very helpful.

Plus, quite a few people in Germany can speak English too.

Also found generally people very friendly if you are at
least making the attempt to speak some basic german - a few
phrases are handy at breaking the ice, so take a phrase book
with you :-)

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get
correct one remove fame & fortune
h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel
is switched off--

"dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Also found generally people very friendly if you are at
least making the attempt to speak some basic german - a
few phrases are handy at breaking

the

Quoted message said:

ice, so take a phrase book with you :-)

I must admit it was tough when we went on grand tours of
Europe, since I had to learn bits of French, Dutch,
German, Czech , Italian and so on. The numbers were easy
'cos of my hobby, but people were genuinely pleased when
you said "Dobry Den" to them in Czech when they knew you
were British by your car on the filling station forecourt
or wherever.

I didn't bother with Letzeburgesch though, although I now
and again watch Luxembourg TV and it seems everyone there
has a French first name and a German surname, like Guy
Weber or Marcel Schulze. Weird.
--
Simon M.

Simon Mason said:

I didn't bother with Letzeburgesch though, although I now
and again watch Luxembourg TV and it seems everyone there
has a French first name and a German surname, like Guy
Weber or Marcel Schulze. Weird.

But then, all the hotels and cafes there seemed to be owned
by Dutch anyway... I had a very confusing bike trip about a
decade ago from Amsterdam to Basel which mostly followed
borders, and most of the time the people didn't speak the
language of the country we were in, and seemed to prefer
being paid in the currency of the neighbouring country.

Roos

Wouldn't that be "B&F" (Bett und Fruhstuck)? ;-)

(Paul) of url='http://groups.google.com/'http://groups.google.com/url said:

My wife and I will be touring in the Neckar Valley area of
Germany in June and intend staying in Bed & Breakfast
accommodation. Our german is virtually nil. Does anyone
know if the local Tourist Information Offices will ring
around for us each night, or do we just knock on doors and
use semaphore? What time do we need to arrive somewhere to
be sure of a bed for the night?

A bit of vocabulary for you. Doppelzimmer = room for two
people, quite likely to have one double bed in Zimmer
mit Dusche = room with a bath or shower WC im Flur =
bathroom along the corridor (W is pronounced V, so WC
sounds like vay say)

What time you need to arrive depends enormously on how
touristy the area is, and whether it is school holiday time
locally. German states set different school holidays so they
are staggered across the country; some do start as early as
June. What may well limit your cycling time is that most
eating places outside big cities have kitchens that shut at
9pm, so to get a meal you need to be sitting down ready to
eat by 7.30-8.
--
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit. Henry Brooks Adams
Steph Peters delete invalid from [email hidden]
Tatting, lace & stitching page <sandbenders.demon.co.ukindex.htmOpen ↗

[email hidden] (Paul) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Thanks for all the help. Some useful info there! We have our
phrase book ready and will certainly be trying to
communicate a little in german. From previous experience
though, you can practice a phrase for ages, finally use it
and be well understood... it's when you get the reply the
trouble starts! All part of the fun though!

Thanks again,

Paul New Zealand.

(Paul) () said:

[email hidden] (Paul) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Thanks for all the help. Some useful info there! We have
our phrase book ready and will certainly be trying to
communicate a little in german. From previous experience
though, you can practice a phrase for ages, finally use it
and be well understood... it's when you get the reply the
trouble starts! All part of the fun though!

"Entschuldigung. Ich bin ein Kiwi. Ein Kiwi, Sie wissen? Ganz-
Schwarz? Lord der Ringe? Walmitfahrer?" :-)

I loved Germany. Great place for cycling, the locals are
friendly, the beer is good and although the tea isn't up to
much, the cakes more than make up for it. Have a great trip!

--
Matt K Dunedin, NZ

Paul said:

[email hidden] (Paul) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Thanks for all the help. Some useful info there! We have
our phrase book ready and will certainly be trying to
communicate a little in german. From previous experience
though, you can practice a phrase for ages, finally use it
and be well understood... it's when you get the reply the
trouble starts! All part of the fun though!

Thanks again,

Paul New Zealand.

I don't think you'll have much problem communicating. Most
hotel and guest house owners will speak enough English and
local tourist offices certainly will. It might be a good
idea to ring the tourist offices and ask them to arrange
accommodation. I would think you only need to do this in the
morning before your arrival in each destination.

There is a national network of hotels and guest houses that
specialise in bike touring and provide secure bike storage
etc. The website is bettundbike.debettundbike.deOpen ↗ but it's all
in German. If you speak with tourist offices you might want
to ask to be booked into Bett und Bike accommodation.

Esterbauer Verlag publishes a wide range of Bikeline cycle
touring guides (esterbauer.comesterbauer.comOpen ↗). These are
mostly in German only, and the Neckar one certainly is, but
the maps are very detailed. Each guide contains a list of
accommodation and, although not shown on the example pages
on the website, it's probably easy enough to understand.

The website itself provides a reasonable amount of
information about the route, unfortunately only in German.
It says the following about accommodation:

"In the upper reaches of the Neckar as far as Tübingen
you'll find a only small number of guest houses and hotels,
but this appears to be adequate in view of the low level of
tourism. Accommodation is more expensive in the Stuttgart
metropolis. Along the subsequent Wine Road (Weinstrasse) to
Heilbronn there seems to be a gap between supply and demand:
a high number of tourists means that rooms can get booked
out quickly, particularly at weekends. In this area you
should reserve your accommodation by phone before midday.
You shouldn't expect any bottlenecks along the Castle Road
(Burgenstraße)in Odenwald."

Heidelberg is a very popular destination so you should
expect problems there. I suspect that the difficulties
referred to along the Wine Road reach a peak following the
grape harvest in Autumn so you might not have any problems.

--
Michael MacClancy Random putdown - "He has Van Gogh's ear
for music." - Billy Wilder www.macclancy.demon.co.uk
www.macclancy.co.uk