Travel in Germany
During our year in Sweden, we took a trip around Germany and Austria for Christmas (2002). Most of the trip was spent in Germany. You can read about that trip here, or you can jump directly to descriptions of the days we spent in various cities:
- Cologne (Köln) (December 27)
- Frankfurt (December 19, 20, 21)
- Mainz (December 28)
- Munich (Mü) (December 29, 30)
- Rothenburg (December 22, 23)
- Rüdesheim (December 24, 25, 26)
- St Goar (December 28)
Holidays
We knew that since we were travelling during the holiday season that many stores and businesses would be closed part of the time. But as Americans/Canadians, we think of this as being Christmas Day and New Years Day. That's not quite how it works in Germany. (Sweden is similar to Germany in this regard, but maybe a bit more like the U.S.) Many places close early on Saturdays throughout the year, and are closed all day Sunday. They also close early on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. And they are closed all day on Christmas Day, Second Christmas Day (Boxing Day), and New Years Day.
That adds up to quite a few days. Our vacation spanned 16 days, and stores were closed early or all day on nine of those.
In addition, some places appeared to be closed for a longer holiday break of a week or two. And several of the touristy places were closed for the entire off-peak season -- from October until March.
We normally prefer nature to businesses anyway, but this time of year is rather rainy and a bit cold, so it would have been nice to spend a bit more time inside stores. But we managed.
