This post is how we picked Germany, how does one plan a trip and then re-plan it and then plan it a 3rd time. This is first post on my three posts for Germany.
Part 1 - Germany 2021 - To go or not to go
Part 3 - Germany 2021 - The city tourist
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How it began?
December holidays are too good to be missed for a vacation. In 2020, the pandemic scared us to be at home, but we made great use of it by getting cats. 2021 has been an equally busy year, so a year end break is a well deserved one :)
But what do you do if you are at Oct-end with no plans at all? One is to think domestically. That was quickly moved to a backup plan. For international travel, you start looking at countries which (A) are allowing you to travel and (B) have a visa on-arrival.
This quick check will land you in Thailand, a place where I have not been there but many Indians have gone there. So, you say why not? Good nature, affordable and closer to India as well. A quick flight check showed that the round trip to Thailand from BLR is ~INR 60K per person. What? Turns out, everyone is going to Thailand and flights have limited seats left.
Here is how the mind works now - 60K is 3 times what I would pay. who is playing 60K for Thailand? 60K is what I would pay for a US trip or a trip to Europe. Wait, Europe. oh, I can go to Europe.
BLR-France-BLR -> 85K
BLR-Italy-BLR -> 1L+
BLR-Amsterdam-BLR -> 90K
BLR-UK-BLR -> Some travel restrictions
BLR-Frankfurt-BLR -> 65K
ooh, Frankfurt. yay!
Land in Frankfurt, travel across Europe (because Schengen) & then fly back. This is doable.
Plus, India has air-bubble agreement with Germany.
But what to do in Germany? Won't it be too cold?
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Germany - An ideal Christmas destination!
Germany, it turns out, is one of the best places to visit during Christmas. Christmas markets, a fair/carnival/flea market, is an amazing festive atmosphere, with christmas trees, lights and alcohol and lots of food to eat. Christmas markets originated in Germany. As a lover of Indian flea markets, I immediately liked this.
Next, I had always meant to travel to Germany to understand more about its past about Nazi party and World-war 2. I had read the book - The rise and fall of Third Reich by William Shirer in 2020, and I had always meant to visit Germany after that.
Plus Germany borders with Austria, Hungary, so they can be cool places to visit.
But, a key insight upon research, most of the German Christmas markets close by Christmas or before that. So, if that is motivation #1, the trip has to start before. Hence, we moved the dates a week before, departing at 17th December to experience this. Also, 16 days is better than 10 days :) New Zealand trip was also 16 days, so there is precedent :). Mind can convince you of anything.
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Schengen VISA
While the process of Schengen VISA is simple, the process requires that you should have booked all your flights and hotels before you apply for the VISA.
I took the appointment a week later, so that meant, I had a week to plan the entire itinerary, research airbnbs, hotels and book them. It meant a week of extra 3 hr shifts, post work, to get everything in order. Here was the plan
Frankfurt - Dresden - Nuremberg - Munich - Budapest - Vienna - Frankfurt
Why Dresden ? Because Christmas markets were founded here. And Slaughterhouse Five. So it goes...
Why Nuremberg? Because of the trials.
And things followed from there on. Berlin was ruled out since it was at the other corner.
And finally thanks to booking.com for all the fully refundable options without making upfront payment. So, we had 16 nights of fully refundable bookings.
The Visa interview happened on 15th November. At the VFS center for Schengen VISA, there is a counter for every Schengen country & UK. A good way to see which country has visitors lining up. Turns out, only UK & Germany had visitors interested. Even for Germany, we were the only ones for tourist visa. A sign of things to come :)
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Omicron - Corona strikes back
VISA came to us by first week of December. But by this time, there was a new variant in town. First. detected in South Africa, it was spreading across the globe. India had couple of cases on 2nd December. Countries were shutting borders, starting with South Africa. Suddenly UK cases were spiking and all countries shut their borders to UK.
We were reading the news everyday. Germany case count rose to 50K cases everyday. Many christmas markets were cancelled, especially in the Bavaria. So, Dresden, Nuremberg, Munich markets were not happening. Our itinerary was going down the drain.
Newer mandates were coming in. Germany made restrictions to be 2G+ which meant that in order to visit any public place, you need to be either vaccinated or recovered but with a covid test no older than 24 hrs if it is Rapid Antigen test or 48 hrs if it is a PCR test.
We were vaccinated and recovered, so no issue there. Issue was with Covid tests, Rapid tests costs 15Euro per person, PCR costs 50-Euro. Just the test costs every day will go up to 75K INR.
In addition to this, something more interesting happened. Austria came up with some bizarre guidelines for Indians. Indians can enter the Austria on Covishield but it will not be accepted at any restaurants, museums or public places. Smart Austria had its cake and ate it too.
Budapest so far was ok, but our plan was Budapest-Vienna(Austria)-Frankfurt. Without Austria, even Budapest was not looking good.
The first plan was not looking good. Silver lining was that not all christmas markets were closed. North Germany & Berlin still had markets going on. Only Bavaria had cancelled its markets. Our goal was to chase markets, so we created a new plan.
This time, it went like this -
Frankfurt - Trier - BadenBaden-Fussen-BadenBaden-Strasbourg-Paris-Frankfurt.
Frankfurt & Trier still had their christmas markets going on. Trier was chosen because it has been winning the award of best christmas market in Germany!
Our entire planning resolved Fussen because of Newscwanstein castle. This castle is in the must-todo list of all German itineraries. Its tickets were getting sold out, so even before we booked any ticket. I had booked castle visit tickets for 23rd Dec here. These were non-refundable. Hence, whatever we do, the itinerary has to be part of this.
Given Bavaria had such tight restrictions, we thought we will go to France which was allowing Indians and Christmas markets were going in full swing. Strasbourg is next to Baden Baden and has a very famous christmas market.
We cancelled hotel reservations of Austria/Hungary and booked new ones for Strasbourg & Paris. All fully refundable.
Plan was still on.
But, cases were going up. Good news, not in India. India was still under 10K a day and Germany was allowing visitors from India with no restrictions.
However Europe case count was going up, especially of France. Germany's one stabilized at around 35K. But all around Germany, things were not looking good.
Everyday, Kanishka & I would debate whether we should go or not. Biggest fear of mine is that what happens if we go there and test positive in Germany. It would be a disaster. Not only the trip will not happen but quarantining in a hotel in Germany will be way more expensive. With no support system. This thought was scary.
A weekend before the travel date, I thought to cancel the trip. Surprisingly, Kanishka seemed upbeat and said let's go. Her positive attitude gave confidence. We did the shopping for cold weather that was there in Germany. It was not a final decision but I was prepared.
Finally, two days before the travel date, on 14 Dec, it seemed that Germany is still allowing visitors. We are vaccinated and recovered in last six months. Second dose vaccine was also mere three months ago. So, this would be prime immunity, it will only go down later. We made the call to go.
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Final plan before departure
- Land in Frankfurt. Attend the Frankfurt Christmas market
- Rent a car from Frankfurt to Baden-Baden
- Go to Trier. Attend Trier Christmas market
- Drive to Baden-Baden. Visit the baths.
- Drive to Fussen. See the castle
- Drive back to Baden-baden. Leave the car.
- Take train to Strasbourg. 2 nights Starbourg
- 5 nights in Paris
- Train to Frankfurt and fly back.
Since, this journey included a rental car, I had to read about car driving in Germany and its signs. It was confusing at first, more so driving in the city.
Baden-Baden was picked because of its baths which were also called a must-do experience in Germany. Also, there was a Casino there, 200+ years old Casino.
Paris was looking very exciting with Disneyland, Notre Dame, Louvre and so many touristy things. This gave a Euro-trip feeling. Plus the christmas markets were still on there!
Our onward journey was with Etihad which provided Covid insurance incase you test positive. They would pay 100Euros a day per person which was a good relief. Etihad in general is a very good carrier with very informative website. Our return flight was with AirIndia. Since Germany & India have air-bubble agreement, we were sure that we would fly back :) Etihad & Air-India was not by design but it was a very good combination in the end.
With hope & slight fear we took the flight.
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