Any recommendations on a decent hostel in Cologne? Going there during the end of June.

>>1125103
Just do airbnb, probably cheaper. Also OP, add German Rail Pass website to the sticky.

>>1125099
How is communication for an English only speaker? Will I have trouble in places outside of Berlin?

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>>1125170

I've only ever used AirBnb for renting entire apartments/houses, what's it like renting singular rooms? Seems like it could be awesome and awful at the same time.

Also, is Essen, Dusseldorf, or even Dortmund worth it? Ill be spending a few days in Koln but I want to know if either of these cities is worth it to spend a night or two in?

>>1125246
Absolutely everyone under 30 speaks great English. I'd say half of the older folk in the major cities speak passable English. All railway, medical, police, etc personel speak passable English as well. The only people you might have trouble communicating with are older people in rural areas or older East Germans who never had to learn English in school.

I'm English and have been working here for the past year and haven't had any real problems yet, aside from some old women working in government offices.

Oh and in Berlin you will probably hear more English than German.

>>1125170
Well part of staying in a hostel is to interact with other travelers. If I stay in an Airbnb not only will I pay 5x as much but I won't be able to interact with anyone else, aside from my host if I don't choose an entire apartment.

>>1125267
yes all 3 are cool

>>1125267
düsseldorf is a nice town, attracts the more wealthy old-style west germany crowd. i'd pass on essen and dortmund. ugly towns with nothing much too see unless you're really into Ruhrgebiet industrial history

>>1125267
Mixed bag desu. Met some cool qt's, eccentrics, and a few crazies.

I will be staying in Koblenz, Mainz and Oberwesel next month for castles/museums/boat trips/walking.

Is there anything in particular you guys would suggest?

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>>1125316
>>1125291
The thing that makes me hesitant about it is how much your experience rides on the host. I imagine most hosts do it just to help pay rent and don't want much interaction with their guests. I'd also imagine some do it to meet, chat and get to know travelers, they are probably a minority though? It probably sounds desperate but how often do your hosts invite you out to drinks or just hangout?

Also, best beer/oldest breweries in Germany?

Gonna hit the last weekend of Oktoberfest with a few friends (all in our mid-20s) and work our way up to Berlin afterwards. Here's a loose itinerary:

Day 1 Munich/Oktoberfest
Day 2 Munich/Oktoberfest
Day 3 Munich – Nuremberg
Day 4 Nuremberg/Rothenburg
Day 5 Nuremberg – Dresden
Day 6 Dresden – Berlin
Day 7 Berlin
Day 8 Berlin
Day 9 Berlin – U.S.

All of us are equally interested in history and culture, but I'm wondering if we're cutting our time in Nuremberg/Dresden too short. Considering dropping one city in favor of the other. Two of us lived in Germany as kids (but never explored the eastern parts of the country) and have already been to Rothenburg. But damn is that torture museum cool.

So, /trv/, what would you recommend schedule-wise? Any preference regarding Dresden or Nuremberg?

Also, any general tips for some first-time Oktoberfest attendees?

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>>1125586

>any general tips for some first-time Oktoberfest attendees?

Never been the Munich during Oktoberfest but I hope you started looking for places to stay, apparently the city becomes a clusterfuck and hotels, hostels, and Airbnb is booked several months even years out.

Also, Dresden? Why??

>>1125604

We've already got a hostel locked down in Munich close to the city center.

As far as Dresden goes, we've never been and thought it'd generally be a good stop for some more history/aesthetics.

>>1125267
Düsseldorf is a really wealthy city with some expensive ass shopping and a decent altstadt. Essen and Dortmund are avoid at all costs. I would only recommend Düsseldorf if you have a lot of extra time to kill. I'd recommend Aachen or something before Düsseldorf

>>1125586
>I'm wondering if we're cutting our time in Nuremberg/Dresden too short.

of course you do,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8T44KwXBjs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDH-KreUHZM

But next time you go to Germany you can just leave out Oktoberfest and spend more time in worthwhile locations.

I tried to buy some train tickets on bahn.de but it says the "online ticket" is not available. The only option is "tickets by mail" and I'm not sure they ship outside Germany.

What the hell? I can't buy train tickets?

>>1125604
>Oktoberfest

it's fucking awful. my tip is don't go. way better beer fests in pretty much all the surrounding cities.. Straubing, Augsburg, Regensburg, Landshut...

There are just too many drunken tourists at Oktoberfest and everthing costs a fuckton. The subways will be full of drunks and puke. In the evening, the trains will spread these drunks in a 100 mile radius around the city.

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>>1125586
Bring some 1€ coins to go pee, a lot.

Dresden is pretty cool but I wouldn't recommend more than 2 days at most. If you can, try and spend a day in Leipzig. Dresden was completely destroyed in the second world war so almost everything old is a reconstruction but most of Leipzig survived with 90% of the city avoiding destruction.

>>1125708
Some tickets like international tickets can't be booked online or by machine, only by travel office or Reisezentrum. I know it's a lot of bullshit but that's German bureaucracy for you.

>>1125708
What tickets do you want to buy? You can always get them at the train station.

>>1125586
Cut off Rothenburg, it is just too far away from your route. Consider visit Bamberg instead.

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I have a flight with Ryanair at 8:25am from SXF-CGN. I have no luggage or bags aside from a backpack that I'll bring. What time would be a decent and acceptable time to arrive at the airport?

I'll be staying in Freiburg im Breisgau for a fews days and I have a whole day that I'd like to use to do some hiking in the Black Forest.
Which trail would you advise me?

>>1126314

http://easyhiker.co.uk/category/europe/easy-hikes-germany/easy-hikes-in-the-black-forest/
might be helpful

>>1125569
>Also, best beer/oldest breweries in Germany?
Beer is a very regional thing in Germany. You'll find tons of small breweries that only supply a handful of towns around them. So it's kinda hard to define a "best" here.

The two oldest breweries in Germany (and the world) are considered to be Weihenstephan(1040?) and Weltenburg(1050).

>>1126201
Two hours before departure, same as any other airport. You never know

Going to Munich in a few weeks as a kind of post graduation thing since I'd saved up some money. I hear it's pretty pricy but I've got a host family so no worries w/ housing. I figure I'll try to hit all the museums and such in the city. I'm there for three weeks. Is doing a weekend trip to Berlin and/or Vienna reasonable/worthwhile? Anything in the immediate surrounding area I should be checking out? I'm not huge into beer so just going to breweries isn't very appealing but I'm open to it.

>>1126672
>Munich
>weekend trip to Berlin

Better check a map. Unless you are looking at flights.

>>1126672

They are reachable by train, albeit long train rides. Might be worthwhile to try and grab a budget plane ticket once you know your plans, it would probably be cheaper and a bit faster.

Go checkout Neuschwanstein castle, Salzberg might also be worth a day trip or an overnight trip.

>>1126721
wtf is wrong with this? with a train these are 6 hours, easy doable

planes should cost about the same but u need to get to the airport, through security, get from airport to berlin. in the end its about the same time but not so comfortable

if i wouldnt find a really cheap plane ticket i would take the train

>>1126727
The train is nearly 100€ one way. I would recommend looking into a coach. I rode from Berlin to Munich for 22€ in prebooked tickets. On the way back I bought a ticket 10 minutes prior to departure and paid 52€.

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>>1126672
That depends what you're into. If you look at pic related you can see basically everything that can be reached within a few hours. This makes these destinations great for day trips. Just take a train/bus in the morning, explore a bit, and then take a bus/train back home in the evening. Salzburg, Passau, Innsbruck, Nürnberg, Neuschwanstein are all decent places to see and are reachable in a few hours.

Anglofag who's lived in Germany for 6+ years here. AMA.

>>1125267
Essen and Dortmund are really not that bad. They're industrial cities, not really picturesque "must see" tourist cities though. I don't know if I'd make the effort if it's your first time in Germany.

Essen is actually quite nice to live in. People in the Ruhrpott are a bit friendlier and more open than the German norm. It's where Kraftwerk comes from, so if you want to see what inspires their music, there you go. Essen has the Zeche Zollverein (old coal mine) and the Red Dot Museum (if you're into design).

>>1125291
>Absolutely everyone under 30 speaks great English
Citation needed. Some do speak excellent English, but I'd say for the majority, even under 30s, it's only passable English. It is not 'great'. Still, it is probably way better than your German so communication shouldn't be a huge problem.

>All railway, medical, police, etc personel speak passable English as well.
lel. no.

>>1125708
Depends on your route. If it's on a normal short-haul 'Regional' route, or from state-level train companies (subsidiaries) you can usually only buy tickets from the machine. International (crossing the German border) tickets should be fine though. Depends how far of a distance you're trying to book.

>>1126754
Don't forget Augsburg.

>>1126672


“You do not even go somewhere else, I tell you there's nothing like Munich. Everything else is a waste of time in Germany”
~ Ernest Hemingway on Munich
But for tourists it's mandatory to visit Neuschwanstein Castle.

you might want to check out some other locations nearby
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Munich#Go_next

>>1126968
I find Munich rather overrated. It's nice to get your beer and pork shoulder, and chat with the tarty waitresses with their shirts that pop their tits out... but after you've seen the sights around the city once, meh. It feels noticeably provincial to me, and chock full of snobs (not everyone, nor not as bad as some smaller Bavarian cities, but definitely you feel it). It also doesn't seem as big as it really is (perhaps that's a good thing though). Don't even get me started on Oktoberfest and the bloody Italians.

Not saying anyone shouldn't see it -- I get it -- but it's not the 1920s anymore.

>>1125099
How badly am I going to be robbed in Germany?

I'm expecting your polizei to have that shit on lockdown but I visited France and Italy before and pickpockets kept targeting my family and I. They didn't steal anything but it got real old really fast.

>>1127245

1. there are absolutely no pickpockets in rural Germany
2. nearly all pickpockets are gypsies, usually kids
3. there are some hotspots around popular tourist destinations, if you go there don't carry much money and take care

https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/europe/germany/ticket-scams-fake-inspectors-and-pickpockets

>>1126769
>Norddeutsche/Ruhrpott
>friendly

yea right buddy. they are as spießig as they come.

>>1127361
If you're going to greentext me, at least quote me accurately.

First of all, I said Ruhrpott, not northern Germany. The Ruhrpott ≠ northern Germany. Just ask anyone from Kiel, Rostock or Oldenburg.

Second, you have to be from a real and utter shit hole to consider the freakin' Ruhrpott of all places 'spießig'. Krefelder oder was? That or you don't understand the word. There is a certain working-class industrial pride to people from the area. When I lived in Münster and later Stuttgart, I visited the Ruhr area often over a few years because I had friends from Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund and Essen... and the Ruhrpott was a truly noticeable drop in pretentiousness and attitude... and a truly noticeable increase in some negative qualities, but at least the people were easy.

I live now in a mid-size northern German town and my fiancée is from Baden-Württemberg. I've been everywhere in the country multiple times, so I think I can make pretty reasonable comparisons.

Anyway... For the anglos here, spießig is something like bourgeois or square/suburban/etc., and it's a common mild insult to throw around in Germany. Regardless, it is not mutually exclusive with friendliness. You can criticise or make fun of the Ruhrpott for 1000 other things, but being spießig is really not one of them, sorry.

I guess it's all relative though. It's still Germany we're talking about, after all. All Germans have a stick up their ass compared to most of the rest of Europe. Only Austrians and Swiss are arguably equal or worse, in my experience.

>>1127245
Not likely. If you pass out drunk in an area in a larger city with a lot of people of, ahem, 'Migrationshintergrund', well, you might be missing a wallet in the morning. I have a couple friends who pickpockets tried to rob (they noticed and shouted so weren't actually robbed). This was in a club and in a large crowd at a city festival, and in both separate cases they were sandnigs (i.e. gypsies). Shit happens, but I never worry about it, and feel a lot safer here than back home.

Story time: I have a colleague (in her 50s) who's from a small town in north-western Niedersachsen. She went home one weekend, used an ATM, but was in a rush, had a senior's moment, and managed to forget to take the actual cash out of the machine when she left. Long story short, the next person immediately behind her, a local girl, had taken it (before the cash was sucked back in) when she used the machine. It was all caught on tape, and after checking the bank's ATM records, this being a small town the police immediately knew who it was. They drove to the house and arrested (yes, arrested) the girl for theft. They called my colleague an hour or so after she reported the money lost (to the bank, who had called the police), and told her she could come collect it. They said that she COULD press charges against the girl if she wanted. But in their opinion, since she was crying and shaken up, had apologized, didn't think she was stealing, she seemed punished enough, and thus recommended not charging her.

Does anyone know of any good hostels in Nuremberg/Nürnberg?

>>1127389
>>1127329
Yup, kept getting confronted by groups of Indian looking kids asking us to sign some bullshit petition to distract us and knocking into us to try nick something.

>>1125291
Not true. There are actually a lot of young people who speak very poor or at best passable english.

>>1127473
there is on in the castle
http://www.jugendherberge.de/en/youth-hostels/nuernberg253/portrait

and two more in the city center
http://www.hostels.com/nuremberg/germany

make your choice

>>1127683
This.

Basically if they went to a Gymnasium (the 'highest' level of Germany's three-tiered highschool system), they should be able to speak fairly decent English. If they went to the middle or low-tier highschools, they probably don't speak English much at all, as English isn't a serious subject focus there.

Even of those who went to Gymnasium, it's possible they could have dropped English as a subject, or just weren't very good at it. I work in a university, which means students (basically) need to have gone to a Gymnasium... I'd give a rough estimate of 2/3s of first-years fresh out of highschool being 'decent' at English. Not fluent, may not understand every word, may not use a wide vocab themselves, usually don't have a comprehensive grasp of grammar, majority really can't write (I mean proper writing) for shit in English. That's only 2/3 of the 30-40% who go to a Gymnasium in the first place.

Rounding off our numbers, that's maybe 20-25% of all young people speaking decent-but-not-fluent English. Kind of impressive, but nothing to really brag about.

How common is it to just show up to a train station and buy a ticket for the soonest available train rather than booking ahead? Are there generally a lot of time slots available? In my case, I'm staying one night in Hamburg, and then I would like to spend a random amount of time the next day in Hamburg before going to Berlin (or possibly Prague).

>>1127774
Yes. You can always buy a ticket from the machine. If the train's seats are overbooked, then I hope you like standing. On busy routes at peak hours, I would spend the 4€ for a seat. Keep in mind, you ALWAYS will save money by booking at least up to a few days in advance. One and two days before the price will start creeping up (depends on the route, but let's 20-40€ per day), and buying on the day itself, well you're basically throwing your money down the toilet. It's worth booking advance, you'll save a lot of money.

You can also buy from the human beings at the ticket counters, but you'll be charged a few euros more for it, and in my experience most don't really speak English and get grumpy if they are forced to use it.

Is it really illegal to cross the road unless the light is green? How many people actually follow ridiculous laws like that?

>>1128516
Yes. If you cross on red and are caught by the police you can face a huge fine and/or lose your license if you have one. And most people do follow the law. But of course there are people who do not, mostly young people and immigrants.

Just the other day I exited a bus with a group of about 15 other people and were walking to the U-Bahn station which was located across the street. We were met by a red light at the crosswalk and all of us waited except one woman who decided to cross. Almost everyone started shouting to her, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???? THINK OF THE CHILDREN YOU SHOULD BE SETTING AN EXAMPLE SHAME ON YOU!!!" I thought it was pretty funny and stereotypically German at the time.

>>1128516
Everyone does usually. Unless their is really no car in sight.
Crossing while children can see you (who may copy your behaviour) is also looked down upon.

>>1127499
kek, gypsies do that all the time. Just shout at the to bugger off

>>1128516
Well, it is illegal in most of the civilized world. But it IS an overhyped meme yea. People generally wait for the lights to change in most civilized countries as well, but Germans do jaywalk just as often as Americans (my frames of reference).

I ride my bike everywhere, and if the light is red but no cars are around, I just go, especially for small/side streets. At night, with empty streets, I also just go (looking around first).

Do it front of police though, and you have good odds of getting a lecture and a fine (15€). If you have a German driver's license, they could take a point off you if they're feeling like being real smelly dick holes. That goes for police already on foot on the street. Fuckers are too lazy to get out their cars if on route to give you a ticket for minor shit.

The hysteria about not doing it front of children, lest they all start throwing themselves under bus wheels, is also somewhat true.

>>1125625
I have a photo book of Essen that I got in the seventies. It may not have points of interest but in seemed like a decent city. Liked the pictures of Gruga Park.

>>1127743
Damn, these are expensive. Better off with an Airbnb

>>1127473
How long are you going to be staying in Nuremberg? Might be better to do couchsurfing. There used to be a pretty cheap hostel right in the city center but they changed it into a refugee shelter.

Ask away if you have any questions, I've lived here all my life.

>>1129671
I'll be in Nürnberg from the 2nd of July until the 5th. I don't really want to couchsurf because I'll be meeting some people on the 3rd and then going to Rothenburg ob der Tauber on the 4th. I'd rather stay in an Airbnb but Germany's restrictive hosting laws make everything expensive or limited so that's why I'm looking for a hostel now.

>There used to be a pretty cheap hostel right in the city center but they changed it into a refugee shelter
Shame. There's an Ubergangswohnheim near where I live but it's just full of refugees now and all they do is cause commotion and crime. Turned the entire block into a dump.

Are there anything I must see or do while in Nürnberg that doesn't show up on the 1st page of Google?

>>1130079
Depends on what you're interested in. I think the best view of the city and the castle is from a parking garage at Adlerstraße in the city center.
If you're into small hipster cafes and shops you should check out Gostenhof (also called goho).
If you like clubbing and techno music, check out Rakete or Mitte for the best electronic clubs.
Otherwise I would suggest catching a train to Bamberg (takes about an hour) and check out some Beergardens. They've got the highest density of breweries there in the world and Bamberg is a pretty beautiful and relaxed student town although it's probably full of busloads of senior tourists around this time.

>>1130079
AirBnB works just fine everywhere in Germany that isn't Berlin. Don't know what you're complaining about. Germany isn't a cheap country, but it's generally pretty affordable. Some cities lack enough affordable housing, but a large part of this underused single-family homes occupied by a single elderly person.

I'm motorbiking through Germany next week, Munich to Cologne, I've got the Romantic Road on my list but are there any other scenic routes/regions worth going through between those 2 places?
I did the black forest last week and it was fantastic.

>>1131940
>Romantic Road
sounds like you're set.

I quite like Münsterland or Emsland. Flat, rural, but with a kind of pastoral ideal. Old little palaces (from various richfags or bishops), tree lanes, little quiet brooks, sections of forest, etc. Pretty darn cozy.

The Harz is also nice, but not really in your direction.