Advice for Europe
I’m looking for some help on a few things: Trip Insurance; best way to get an international phone; fun things to do in Amsterdam, Munich and Frankfurt; and solutions to get rid of the volcanic dust cloud from hell.
We are leaving on our honeymoon to Europe June 4 to 16 and I am finally getting stressed and scared that this volcano shit is going to ruin everything. It seems like flying in to Rekyjavik from NYC won’t be too much of an issue, but getting to Amsterdam could be. I don’t mind being stuck in Europe as much as being stuck in Iceland. At least we’d have options in Europe! I hoped that maybe The Scrabbled has been to Europe and can give me some advice and/or links. Tripadvisor has been helpful, but it’s a lot of info to sift through in a short period of time.
Anyway, can any of you suggest:
- Trip Insurance – I am reading that AIG Travel Guard is good, but AAA also has a company. I can’t figure out if it will cover the use of Marriott points or cancellations related to volcanos.
- International Phone – I plan to stop by the Verizon store in the near future and see what their options are, but I figure I will definitely need a phone in case of these imminent flight changes. Does anyone have experience with getting their phone to work internationally, or do I have to wait to get over there and get a SIM card or a prepaid phone?
- Overnight train – has anyone done this? We’re planning to go Amsterdam to Munich. Not sure when to buy that train ticket…before we leave, or after we get there.
- Amsterdam – we have two and a half days, hypothetically. What is essential to see?
- Germany – same question. I think we’re going to hit Munich for a couple days over a weekend then do day trips from Frankfurt for a couple days before leaving.
Iceland is going to be pretty damn cool, but I don’t think we’ll get anywhere near that volcano unfortunately. I hope we see a lot of whales, meet interesting people, and have great seafood.
Thanks for any help or advice!
Comments
I’ve only been to Munich. The Olympic park is nice, you can walk to the top of the hill and see for miles. Apparently the BMW museum has a cool tour, but I never got to that. We did go to an industrial or mining museum, which was actually pretty interesting, figures it being Germany. Obviously drink some beer. The Hofbrau Haus is the touristy spot, but still pretty cool. There was a section of town that was basically a footpath with only bars on it, I don’t remember what it was called. And it might be worth it to check ahead if any of the big beer halls have something going on that maybe you could get tickets to, I had definitely the most fun at one of them.
We’ve been to Europe twice and have never gotten any sort of Trip Insurance. To be honest, this is the first I’ve heard of it. That isn’t to say it isn’t a good idea, just that we’ve never had a need for it.
For international phones, we have iPhones and AT&T so our experience could be very different from yours. But essentially, I just called the 611 AT&T information number and said “hey, I’m going overseas for a few weeks. What do I do?” and they gave me international roaming and data plans for a month. It ended up being an extra $40 or so, but we were able to use our phones like normal all throughout so it was nice. You can also just call them and request to have those things turned off if you’d rather not pay, but then your phones will be no good to you.
We did do an overnight train and it was quite nice. We didn’t get a sleeper cabin or anything, we just slept in our seats.
Amsterdam: I don’t remember. Seriously. There were lots of bikes. I ate mushrooms after eating a pot brownie and my hostel room became a giant van gogh painting.
Germany: We’ve only been to Berlin, but I also don’t remember much from there on account of the fact that we were staying with some polish priests and gosia’s family and we were drinking their homemade beer the whole time. We went to the zoo and did some general driving around — saw where the wall was and whatnot. But as for the rest of Germany, I can’t really help you there.
Ooh, also, the big park in town, we would eat lunch and (naturally) get drunk there. There was a beer garden in it, and we were playing frisbee and such. There was a part of the creek that ran through the middle of it where a constant wave formed, and there were a bunch of surfers on it, which was pretty cool to watch. There were also many naked Germans, which was typically not pretty cool to watch.
Rent a bike and ride out to the Van Gogh Museum. Listen to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea while walking through Anne Frank’s house. Do drugs, find the world’s best bakery whose name I was never able to recall, and get the cinnamon pretzel ice cream sandwich thingie.
I just did a Frankfurt-Dusseldorf-Amsterdam-Belgium trip in the fall of 2008, so here’s some advice based off of my experience:
Trip insurance. Like Hutch said, I don’t really see the need for it. I guess if it covers this volcano bullshit it might be a good idea, but I dunno.
International phone. I left my phone at home when I went and it was the best decision I ever made. I like my vacations to be an escape, so I don’t need to be connected while I’m away. The internet will be readily available everywhere you’re going anyway in case of an emergency, but I guess I can understand the desire to have maps and what not readily available assuming you have smartphones.
Amsterdam. Definitely follow Paris’ advice. Also, when I was there we met with a friend who was working for Boom Chicago (an American comedy troupe). This was right before the last presidential election so the show was focused solely on American politics. It was really fun to be part of a foreign audience for something like this, and I’d imagine whatever they have going on now will be equally good.
That friend also hooked us up with a guy that does semi-private boat tours. There are tons of large boat tour operations in Amsterdam, but I was assured that this intimate one was way better than any of the bigger ones. I had a great time on it, so I’ll see if I can dig up the name if you’re interested.
Oh, and stroopwafel. Eat lots of stroopwafel.
Frankfurt. We flew into Frankfurt and only spent one day and one night there. We arrived on Unity Day so the place was deserted, but I wouldn’t recommend spending much time there regardless. It’s a nice place, but it’s also a very modern city lacking a lot of the charm you are probably expecting from Europe. It’ll probably serve as a decent base for day trips, but I’d recommend going somewhere else if you aren’t locked in.
Munich. I haven’t been, but I’m going in the fall. We plan to visit the beer gardens and all that in the city, but I also want to check out some of the monastic/traditional brewing sites elsewhere in Bavaria. If you’re into beer I would recommend looking into something like this. My plan is to check out Schneider, Weihenstephan, and Klosterbrauerei Andechs. (http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/munibrew.htm)
I third the suggestion to walk through Anne Frank’s house while listening to Neutral Milk Hotel. I also recommend you visit her house at night, when the crowds are smaller. But make sure you have enough time to check out the exhibit they have in the back of the museum, I think it’s usually centered around human rights.
Also I have never purchased trip insurance but also I have never waited longer than 20 minutes in a security line and always make my 15 minute connections, so I am one of the luckiest travelers on the planet. Double check to make sure the insurance is still good due to “acts of God” because that’s how they get you.
I think Europe is like South America in that both continents are full of internet cafes. They might be a good option if you can’t work out a decent international phone plan.
Have fun!
The best advice I got was from a friend of mine from Poland, and it goes something a little like this “Don’t get stabbed.” also, please don’t tell people you are Canadian.
You are leaving 8 days before the love parade, which I hear is amazing.
Thanks everybody—I really appreciate the help and advice!
Steve said:also, please don’t tell people you are Canadian.
do people actually do this, or is it a myth? i have never done/experienced it.
Hey, I’m not sure if any of you perused that website above, but it’s a pretty interesting read if you’ve got the time. You can get the gist of what makes the tour so great by watching the video at this link too:
http://amsterdamboatclub.com/getaway.html
Suz, you should really look into doing this while you’re there.