Romantic Germany September 27, 2014

joycesw

We have just booked this trip, our 13th with Tauck. Anyone else going on this trip? Would also love to hear some comments and advice from recent travelers. We are arriving in Frankfurt a few days early and would love some suggestions about places to see, eat, etc.

AlanS

joycesw wrote:

We have just booked this trip, our 13th with Tauck. Anyone else going on this trip? Would also love to hear some comments and advice from recent travelers. We are arriving in Frankfurt a few days early and would love some suggestions about places to see, eat, etc.

Joyce- I'm not going and can't help with Frankfort- but check out my comments in the Alps & Dolomites forum on Munich, re, local guide when you tour the Residenz, Segway tour, and other things to do. It doesn't look like you will have enough time for the Segway tour however. Also, see my comments about Neuschwanstein and Mary's bridge.

Also, you might be able to impress your Tauck or Neuschwantsein guide with your knowledge of history when you tell him the theatrical set designer, Christian Jank (not an architect) who designed the exterior of Neuschwanstein, also designed a bigger, more impressive,more inaccessible, and more magical castle for Ludwig II. Ludwig died (was killed) before it was started but he had already purchased the land, and had a road and water run to the site for this new castle which was to be called Falkenstein:

Jank's sketch:

joycesw

Thanks, Alan! Great info! WIll check everything out...you must be gearing up for your Africa trip. Wasn't that the next one for you? I assume you took your "Monster Outlet" on this trip...how did it work out for you? Sure beats crawling around a hotel room on all fours looking for outlets or having to decide which lights you can afford to unplug without plunging into total darkness!

AlanS

joycesw wrote:

Thanks, Alan! Great info! WIll check everything out...you must be gearing up for your Africa trip. Wasn't that the next one for you? I assume you took your "Monster Outlet" on this trip...how did it work out for you? Sure beats crawling around a hotel room on all fours looking for outlets or having to decide which lights you can afford to unplug without plunging into total darkness!

Kenya/Tanzania is on for next June followed by Ireland in the fall. The outlet really worked great, thanks!!

The only issue was the weight of the multi-outlet, plugs, and cords occasionally pulled the adapter out of the socket- it was easy to tell when that happened, however, because the blue light in the Monsters plug would go out- that blue light is a nice touch. There were a few times when all four receptacles were occupied- laptop power supply and some mix of iPad, iPhone, or one of my three camera battery chargers (two Canon SLR and a GoPro)! Unfortunately, the Canons take two different batteries and different chargers.

I've been researching universal battery chargers that will handle both Canons so I can leave one or two chargers at home. I've found a few chargers that will handle two different Canon batteries at once and also have a USB port that I could use to the charge the GoPro battery while it is in the camera- one charger for all my batteries woujld be great! There always seems to be a catch, however.

British

Alan, my Tauck forum recommended monster outlet worked great in Africa!

AlanS

British wrote:

Alan, my Tauck forum recommended monster outlet worked great in Africa!

I can't take credit for it. Joyce is the one who originally suggested it, I just passed the word around.

joycesw

Man, Alan, you have a bunch of chargers to recharge! My Nikon camera, that I used for the safari has a battery that charges from the camera...a pain, so I bought an extra battery, and it was the best move I ever made! I actually ran through two batteries during the day quite frequently. However, they both needed to be fully charged... I think it was all the zooming in and out that ate up the charge. Fortunately, my husband's compact Canon recharges quickly which freed up a plug. About that blue light...both a blessing and a curse! Prior to monster outlet, I have what I thought plugged in, only to find, much too late, that I had not turned on the on/off switch to turn on the power. That nifty blue light lets you know it is getting power. On a good note, it is a nice little night light , and on a bad note, it is an annoying night light...we just put something over it..

AlanS

joycesw wrote:

Man, Alan, you have a bunch of chargers to recharge! My Nikon camera, that I used for the safari has a battery that charges from the camera...a pain, so I bought an extra battery, and it was the best move I ever made! I actually ran through two batteries during the day quite frequently. However, they both needed to be fully charged... I think it was all the zooming in and out that ate up the charge. Fortunately, my husband's compact Canon recharges quickly which freed up a plug. About that blue light...both a blessing and a curse! Prior to monster outlet, I have what I thought plugged in, only to find, much too late, that I had not turned on the on/off switch to turn on the power. That nifty blue light lets you know it is getting power. On a good note, it is a nice little night light , and on a bad note, it is an annoying night light...we just put something over it..

Yup a lot of chargers. The batteries last longer on my new Canon. Also, while I'm sure Canon batteries are made in China, the non-Canon batteries made in China, don't seem to last as long. I suppose, theoretically, I could plug a couple of devices into the USB ports on my laptop, but charging is usually slower. I know what you mean about too much blue light!!! a couple of times I had to cover it with a room service menu.