Minisode: Germany Travel Tips
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Hello and welcome to Rick Steves Over Brunch, a podcast where two travel writers discuss episodes of the classic travel television show, Rick Steves Zero. I'm Stephanie Craig from History Fangirl and he's Christopher Mitchell from Traveling Mitch. And in today's mini-sode, we're discussing our best Germany travel tips. Like all of our topics, this one was voted on by our patrons and our Patreon group. If you're not a Patreon member, there's a link in the show notes.

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So, we're going to dive into this topic. Full disclosure, it tied with where to go in Europe in autumn, and we decided that we would make Germany the public one. But if you just really want to know about where to go in autumn, it's in the other group. What is your first Germany travel tip, Chris? So, this one probably won't surprise anybody who has been listening to us for the last

three or so years and that is visit all the beer halls um and drink as much german beer as you can because it's excellent i've mentioned this before but germany is extremely strict um partially to the purity laws but extremely strict about what you can and can't include in beer and it means they just make borderline obsessive about high quality beer and i don't think you have to use the

Yeah. Borderline. I think that. Yes. Okay. Fair enough. Obsessive. I think it is well documented that they're not so. Okay, great. So let's remove that caveat and just go for it. Very obsessed. And yeah,

That obsession leads to excellent beer. And I think my experience with the beer halls does span a good amount of Germany. But when I do think of beer halls, I do think of some of the classic beer halls in Bavaria, particularly in Munich. Not necessarily just the more touristy ones like Hofbrauhaus and Bavaria.

a few others, although they're good fun, to be honest with you. I can't really say anything bad about them. It was not a place where I visited that it seemed to be no locals there. I mean, it seemed to be people were enjoying all the beer halls. It wasn't like it was just all tourists or what have you. But I just would make a point of visiting all the beer halls you can.

I just found personally that, you know, if you want to smash the stereotype of, of, you know, Germans being very calculated and reserved, go to a beer hall and just see how much fun cities, you know, and the people are having their live music, big pretzels, big plates of food and a lot of laughter and great conversation. I just think that's, you know, if you're going to try to understand the country, that's a big part of it is understanding that the culture around the beer is

I also mentioned this in other episodes, but it's not an accident that this is one of the only nations where you're legally allowed to drink beer during the day at work. I think in Bavaria, you're legally allowed to consume a liter of beer a day at work.

which is like, I need to get a job in Bavaria immediately. But anyway, that's my first one is just to, that's a great way to tap into the culture is to visit beer halls. Well, as you're your own boss, I'm sure you could do whatever you wanted. This is true, but I do get the sense that if my wife Bree was coming home at the end of the day and I had consumed a liter of beer that day, I,

Maybe one day it'll be fine, but 10 days in a row, I think I'd be pushing it. I think she's like, I'm teaching and you're drinking Bavarian beer at your desk all day. Maybe you can get Bavaria to pay for it.

Well, that's true. I mean, if it's, if it's, um, if it's tourist, like tourism board sanction, then that's fine. Right. I can, I can drink a liter of beer a day. What, what is, uh, what is your, uh, first, uh, Germany travel tip? Well, if anyone listened to my, the travel fails, many, so that came out last month where we really bared our soul. That was a good one.

My Dresden tour story. What I would say is do not show up in Germany without a debit card that has access to cash because I lost mine in. So I was trying to remember like how it had happened that I ended up without being able to get cash. I lost mine in Serbia and I had just been, and I like getting a card replaced from the U S was a nightmare. So it just, I just didn't get it replaced. So I only had a credit card that didn't let me have cash advances on it. And I was like,

And I set up for cash advances, but it took like a couple of weeks to get it. So I think I was in Germany for like a week before I had access to get cash out and doing Germany credit card only is the worst. Like it's just the worst. I would get cash out at the airport when you land or at the train station when you cross the border, if possible, so that you don't accidentally almost get arrested. I will change my second tip because my second tip was to have cash. Oh, okay.

Because Germany does not... Yeah. Yeah. The reason that I thought that was worth mentioning as a travel tip is because you make the assumption that because Germany is so high-tech and they would just most certainly have a very robust system of ability to use credit cards and so on and so forth, but actually...

what people don't realize is that Germany is also hesitant to get rid of tradition, I think. And in some regards and like, they've just held onto the cash tradition in the same way that like, you might be shocked if you went into in some Austrian and German bars, you can still smoke.

which doesn't seem like the note of like a hyper-progressive society in some regards, but there's certain things that are just held onto and kind of protected as like sort of pseudo-tradition in some way. And for some reason, cash is something that has just been held onto, like notably. Yeah, and it is one of those things where I think that...

If you're in London or Paris and you just see how easy it is to get by without cash, you would be shocked. Or like most of the rest of the planet now. I mean, I shouldn't put a huge blanket like that. But really, I mean, it's more the standard now. Oh, yeah.

I could get, I could get like, it would be unpleasant, but I could get through a lot of Southeast Asia. The only thing I think you would absolutely have to have cash for are like the tuk-tuks. You could get, you could, because what you do when you, if you're in a situation where you don't have access to cash, but you have access to credit card, your credit card is you just really do your research. You call ahead and make sure you pay a little bit more for things and

then you maybe would otherwise pay because you don't want to be in a situation where there's a problem. I could do that much work and do it in Bangkok or Siem Reap or like Hanoi. Like I could literally make it work. I, cause you would just find the places that take credit cards. Like I made it work in Germany because I had to, but I literally almost got arrested. And if you did not hear the travel fails, Minnesota, I'm not going to split.

for you. That is one of, I think the best things we've ever done. Yes. I love, I love recording that. But yeah, it's, it's, and it's, and okay. That's a good thing for us to like just mention as a preconception about like Europe, um,

A lot of people think like the further east you go, the like more things will be like rural and like less connected and less Internet access. And actually, like getting like Greece or France or Germany to become more modern is a lot more difficult than having Romania go from nothing to Internet.

Like, and so you find the fastest internet speeds in Europe are like in Romania and Bulgaria because they don't have as many old systems in place that they're building over.

you know they don't have layers and layers and layers and they're not replacing like dsl lines because like the village just didn't have internet so all of a sudden when the village gets internet it gets 2015 internet or 2017 internet it's you know you're not and so whereas like in athens sometimes it's really hard because they have internet but they got internet that they put in in 2005 and they're not interested in upgrading it at that hotel or whatever yeah yeah yeah and like also like with taxes and labor and stuff like some places just

I would never be a digital nomad in Greece. And I lived as a digital nomad in Bulgaria for four years with fantastic internet. So you just, you can't. And also I could easily get by in Sofia for like weeks at a time without ever needing to see a piece of paper money, but like Germany. No, no, no, no, no. All right. What's your next tip? Yeah, I can do my, I'll do a second tip. That's besides that. Okay. So my second tip would be for, um,

for people who aren't interested in eating meat with every meal, the tip would be to, you know, maybe bring cliff bars or nuts or something like that with you. It's not a big problem. Berlin has an incredible vegan and vegetarian food scene. There's, you know, most big cities in Germany have plenty of vegetarian options, but if you're going to be traveling more rural to smaller towns, I just found that it was hyper meat centric and,

And there might be some instances where you wish you had some snacks with you that weren't, you know, that would allow you to take a sidestep for meat for a second. And it was just really, you know, the tip being to kind of point to people who, you know, it's especially in the small towns. It's like there's still kind of that attitude. At least I found where it was like if the meals include meat, it's not a meal sort of thing. Yeah.

So just be weary of that. If you are someone who is trying to be a vegetarian, that small town Germany still, you're not going to find a lot of meatless options. So that is my tip to keep that in mind. You know, it's funny. I haven't spent a lot of time in small, small town Germany because I did Berlin a few times and then I did Germany.

Dresden and I would go out like of the cities, but I never really like camped out in a German village for a while, which would be really fun. I didn't have any trouble eating vegan because I'm obviously not a vegan, but my sister's a vegan. And so it's made me think more and more about like food restrictions and how that would be difficult in certain places. Um,

Though I do think Germany's probably got a high number of vegans per capita compared to a lot of the world. So there's probably something, but yeah, you're going to have to, anytime you get somewhere small, like to a small town in Europe, you pretty much have to. Yeah. Yeah.

plan out a little bit better. Or like, there are just certain places where I would always have my own snacks. Like I always have my own snacks and like an Irish road trip, always bring your own snacks to Iceland. Like if, you know, that just might be a situation where if you have real dietary restrictions and you're in, whether they're allergies or whatever, and you're in small town, rural, anywhere, I would just make sure you have something with you. Yeah. I think, yeah. And then we could just use it as a broader tip. I think there, like there's,

You're going to find a mecca of incredible vegan and vegetarian food in the bigger cities, particularly Berlin. It has incredible vegan and vegetarian food because it's always been a countercultural city. Whatever everyone else is doing, Berlin is ahead of the curve in the other direction. I think they

They're very much the opposite of what you find in small towns. But yeah, I would pack accordingly. And that's just primarily for anyone who's listening who would rather not eat meat for every meal. All right. So something I will say is my next tip is like,

And it's not something that I have actually been able to do. So this is just a tip that's based more upon my like overall regret of where I've been so far and what I want to add, which is if you're in Germany, try to see East Germany and West Germany. I've seen a lot of East Germany and I've been in West Berlin, obviously, but

but I've not seen a lot of Western Germany. So I've been to a lot of like East German, you know, museums about what it was like. And I've been to, you know, a lot of sites in Berlin about the Berlin wall and the war, but I have not gotten to see similar type of museums and stuff in West Germany. And it's possible that there aren't as many museums,

and stuff to what life was like then because sometimes the winning side doesn't feel like it needs to explain itself as much. But I can tell when I'm in East Germany that I'm on the edge of Eastern Europe and it feels very Eastern. And I feel like I have missed out so far and obviously someday I'll rectify this on seeing what Western Germany is like and being on the Eastern edge of Western Europe. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. I have more exploring to do

I mean, as we kind of talk about it in a lot of different episodes, my bucket list grows enormously by the day. Every time we talk, I pad my...

my bucket list, but I'm, I'm with you where I've, I've certainly been more, more in the East. And there's, there's plenty that I want to see in the West. All right. So we are going a little bit long probably because we had a lot to say about cash in Germany. It is a very surprising situation, but what is your final tip to share today? Yeah, I'll try and keep it succinct. And that is just that I,

there are some countries where this will probably surprise nobody, but there are some countries where the, you know, the rules are put out there and then broken left, right, and center. Italy comes to mind, Turkey comes to mind, Greece, Spain, to a certain extent. But, you know,

in Germany rules are followed. And that means that trains leave exactly on time. Public transit runs exactly on time. You're not going to be waited for. There's no margin for error. Even things that like you think of as,

you might not even think twice about like jaywalking is really frowned upon. Um, anytime you're going to. We're like, we have two different mutual friends, two different mutual friends who have both been told to die by local Germans. One of our mutual friends is German for jaywalking. Um, we,

You know, yeah, that I wanted the jaywalking was the one I wanted to highlight because I, I used to, I visited, I went, I was staying with my friend's brother in Berlin and he's from the UK and,

And we were drinking and having beers. And I think we started a jaywalk. And he was like, no, I don't think you understand. I think the big thing to realize is if you're going to subvert or mess with the rules there, you're going to draw attention because everyone's following the rules for the most part. And you'll draw...

I personally was not told to die, but that is intense. And that was my big one there. The rules, I guess, there are printed on stone. You know, they're there to be respected and revered. And they're not whiteboard rules, you know, to be washed away and used and kind of taken with a grain of salt.

No, the story that I didn't tell about Dresden, Dresden was traumatic on many fronts, though I love it so much. It was a lot after being in Serbia and Bulgaria to get to Dresden, which feels like the capital of roles.

Um, woman who checked me into my youth hostel. So I, there are youth hostels in Germany. I was like 34 at the time, but I was still allowed to stay in them. Like there's some where you're not, but this one was fine. And I got a single and my like booking.com booking or whatever said that it was going to be fee free. And she said that there was going to be a fee that I had to pay the like youth hostel membership fee. And I had specifically booked one that said I didn't have to.

And so I showed her on my paperwork because you better be able to back up anything that you say to someone in Germany. So I showed her my paperwork where it very specifically said this would be my final price and there would be no add-ons.

And she, this was like a 19 year old girl, like got on the phone with her manager. It's like two 30 in the morning. She like realized that I was going to be right. She was so angry that I didn't have to pay the fee. Like she doesn't own the hotel. She's like, it's like if your Starbucks barista was mad, you didn't have to pay state taxes. Like that's what was happening.

And that when I paid like my actual price, I was supposed to pay. She yelled at me that I should read contracts better. And it was like, girl, the reason I'm not paying this fee is because I read my contract. I didn't show up to Germany unprepared. So like even like she was mad that I wasn't doing something because she thought it was a rule. It was crazy.

Intense. That means that I love Germany. Yeah, I was going to say, we talk about this, but I absolutely adore the nation. It's a fascinating spot. But I would go back in a heartbeat. Yeah, it's a great country on so many levels. It's a place I really love visiting, but all of the rules, I can see why my ancestors were like, let's go. Yes, I think that's fair to say. Yeah.

Cause like my family is very German, like on one side is very German. Like, but I get it. Like I get why they wanted like a little bit of freedom and then to go home, you know, like we love Germany so much, but we are not a rule following people. Yeah. Rules, rules. I don't get along. I actually thrived in the Turkish. Everything's a gray area world because I love area. I love it's where I want to live my whole life.

Honestly, it's wonderful. I mean, like it was so different from Canada where it's, you know, everything's stringent. There's no flexibility, but like, quite honestly, I mean, I spoke nearly fluent Turkish. So it was, it was this beautiful moment where like most things, um,

People were just so impressed that I'd spent so much time trying to learn Turkish when so many other people hadn't. And this isn't like a pump my own tires thing. This is just, I really was dedicated to that cause to try and learn Turkish. And they were just like, things were just, doors would open for me, you know? And people also love to flex a little bit of their authoritarian muscle a little bit. Like if they have the ability to help you out sometimes, they're like, check out what I can do for you. Like you thought this was going to take weeks, but I'm going to do it for you right now. And you're like...

bureaucracy is subjective there. So it was, it was pretty great. Did you give your final tip? Did we, did we talk after rules? My brain, my final tip is real easy. Go on organized tours when you're trying to deal with heavy history stuff. It's also like a good tip. You're going to Poland and you're going to Auschwitz. Like if you're going to tour like a Holocaust memorial or a Holocaust site or something that was bombed or even like,

Like the murals in Berlin, because so many of them are political, having a local explain it to you doesn't mean you're going to agree with everything they say. And someone who's very educated on the topic, there's so much about Germany that we think we understand from looking at it. So many of us have German relatives or German ancestors, and we think Angela Merkel's cool. Yeah.

We think we understand it. And we've seen so many world war two movies and world war one stuff. And like, you just really don't understand it. You know, I would watch Rick Steve's fascism in Germany special, which we didn't cover yet, but we covered the fascism in Europe special. And I would do, which is like, yeah, because like the story of what happened there is so big. There are so many pieces to it. It lasts for so long, you know, like in Berlin, you see how people are still grappling with it today. Um,

And it really does. Like we talked on the fascism episode about how like that really informs how we feel about what is happening in the world right now. And it does like, I don't think a person can go to Germany without,

learn about the history there and then not see parallels. Yeah. But it's not an easy thing to conceptualize if you're not doing it in kind of an educational oriented way. And so like, even like just the walking tours there are helpful. I just don't try to put it together on your own because like no one brain can understand all of this by itself. Yeah. It's very, it's a very multi, some of these issues are extraordinarily multifaceted and complicated and deep. And yeah,

Why not take that opportunity if you're presented with it for the opportunity to, I think when I went to Dachau, I want to say we had a guided tour with somebody who was familiar, like had experienced it when it was running as an internment camp. And of course, I mean, like you can't do anything but just shut up and listen. And there's a certain amount, like it can be easy to take historical events and leave them as

It's something which happened to another people at another time, but it's remarkably moving and powerful for somebody from that experience who's around to still talk to you about it, to let you know more about it. I had a tour in Prague around the 1968 movement to be freed out from under...

the Soviet thumb, you know, and that whole revolution there. And it was like the tour, I think was run by the grandson of like a martyr of the movement or something like that. And it was, it was just, you know, of course it's just a different perspective, right? When you understand, and he was using the we pronoun, you know, talking about,

how he felt about the situation in the nation. So I think that's a, I think that's a good tip. So we're going to wrap up today, but thank you guys so much for listening. Thanks so much, guys. We'll catch you soon.