2019-Paris, Normandy, Bastogne and Munich

3,563 Views | 21 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by SW AG80
Honorary Ag
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2019-Paris, Normandy, Bastogne and Munich...

I would appreciate any advice on planning ideas for this trip next summer. We plan on being over there at least two weeks. We are taking our 13 year old son who is fan of the Band of Brothers/Pacific series. I checked out the Band of Brothers tour, but think I would prefer to go at our own pace (rental car) with possible local tour guides/museum access. I also realize it is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. We are initially planning on leaving the last week of May.

So planning on the Beaches at Normandy/Museums, Ardennes/Museums, Dachau, Third Reich, Eagles Nest/Museums.


Any input would be appreciated...

Thanks

94DallasAG
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Lived in Munich as a kid and went back for the world cup in '06. Love the city.

Are you going to Dachau? My parents took me when I was around 12 - very surreal experience. I still remember the odd feeling I had walking into the property.

Honorary Ag
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Yes planning on Dachau for sure...Thanks
eiggA2002
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Fantastic! Did a very similar trip, several years ago when I was in high school with my Grandfather who was in Fox Company (sister to Easy Company). Having him as our tour guide was incredible. He recalled his sand tables and maps so well that he could still locate the field in which he landed in Normandy. Anyhow, we did Normandy (St. Mere Eglise, Carentan, Pouppeville, etc.) and of course the beaches, cemetary, and Pointe de Hoc. I remember Bastogne being very interesting, especially some of the museums. We only went to France and Belgium, but swung through Verdun (WWI battle) and through the Champagne and Chateau regions as well. You'll never forget it...and thank you for taking your son! He'll never forget it!

As for accommodations, we stayed in farmhouses or B&Bs when in Normandy. There are several smaller tour companies that will take you on day/half-day tours to fit your schedule or sites. Otherwise, you can do it on your own and that's fine too. If you're not staying in Normandy it's a reasonable day trip from Paris.
94DallasAG
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You should definitely go to Englischer Garten. There's a beer garden there called Chinesischer Turm which is cool place for great German culture.
TXTransplant
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I've been wanting to take my son on a similar trip and have looked at a couple of options. National Geographic offers a really great looking itinerary that takes you from London to Normandy (with the option to travel on the anniversary), but it is super expensive. I've also looked at a company called Backroads Travel that does a biking trip through Normandy, with two days to explore the beaches and surrounding areas.

I'd be curious to hear what itinerary you end up putting together. This trip is still an option in my mind for 2019.

We did a Germany trip a few years ago. I think Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau are musts. You can do both in a day.
SW AG80
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I am interested also.
tommyjohn
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Hire a private guide for Normandy. It is expensive but worth every penny. We used Dale Booth and cannot recomend it enough. He will customize your itinerary.
ClickClack
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Stay on the Viktualienmarkt in Munich. Awesome central location and there's a great market and huge beer garden right outside your hotel. We stayed at Derag and it was great. 2 minutes walk to the new town hall with the glockenspiel.
Oak Forest Ag
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I did a D-Day/Normandy tour with Paul Woodage a few years ago. It was incredible! Here is the website:

https://www.ddayhistorian.com/

FYI, next year (2019) is the 75th anniversary of the D-Day operation.

I've been to Dachau, Auschwitz and Birkenau. Very surreal, sad and humbling experiences. Pure evil at work.

Cowboy1990
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Will be in France for about 2 to 3 days this July.

Question is, is Normandy something that could hold the interest of a 10 year old?

My 13 year Old definitely wants to see the Eifel Tower so we are doing that for sure.

Just not sure if we want to spend more time in France or an extra day in/around London were we will be for 3 to 4 days as well.
Texaggie7nine
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Did Bastogne last week. Very cool experience and great museum. Wish we had stayed there more than just a daytrip. Also, if you go, it's worth the 20 min drive up to the La Chouffe Brewery in Achouffe and grabbing some beer and food in the tavern. Some of my favorite beer on the planet.
7nine
88jrt06
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94DallasAG said:

You should definitely go to Englischer Garten. There's a beer garden there called Chinesischer Turm which is cool place for great German culture.
Absolutely.
Englischer Park is stunning in general, as well as Munich's grand plazas.
And, JMO, Munich is my 3rd favorite European city, behind only London and Amsterdam.
Silky Johnston
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We will be in Paris in May and would like to do a day trip to Normandy. Can anyone suggest a tour guide or company? I see a couple of suggestions above, but those look to be unavailable on the days we could go.
Texas_Aggies13
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We did Paris, Normandy and Munich this past summer - for the Normandy tour we used Overlord Tours. They were fantastic - small group, guide was very knowledgable and it was an easy day trip from Paris. They even picked us up and dropped us off at the train station.

To OP, if yall are into WWII history (or war history in general), Paris is an amazing city for that as well. We spent quite a bit of time in the War Museum connected to Napoleon's tomb.

Also - check out Fat Tire Tours in Paris (Aggie owned, I believe) - we did 3 or 4 tours with them and they were all worth every penny! Yall will have a great time, jealous of your upcoming trip.
jkeeton81
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I just booked my flight to Paris actually for September. Planning to do Normandy, Bastogne and Munich. Just trying to workout the inner country travel now
JMac03
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jkeeton81 said:

I just booked my flight to Paris actually for September. Planning to do Normandy, Bastogne and Munich. Just trying to workout the inner country travel now


When I traveled over there before I went I stumbled across a blog/website called Seat61. Soooo much useful info. I still is it when planning trips for others. Tells you how to travel all over Europe and other countries.
SwissAgg
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Crusaders41 said:

Will be in France for about 2 to 3 days this July.

Question is, is Normandy something that could hold the interest of a 10 year old?

My 13 year Old definitely wants to see the Eifel Tower so we are doing that for sure.

Just not sure if we want to spend more time in France or an extra day in/around London were we will be for 3 to 4 days as well.
You didn't say whether your ten year old is male or female, but it would definitely be interesting

for a male!! There are a lot of museums in Normandy dedicated to various topics such as

Paratrooper museum, Rise of Fascism, etc. You could easily spend the week there.


As far as Munich goes, the best Biergarten is Augustiner or Taxis Biergarten.
HollywoodBQ
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Here's some detail for the Bastogne part of your trip.

I was there 11 months ago and wrote about it on the TexAgs History Forum.

https://texags.com/forums/49/topics/2864454
HollywoodBQ
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A couple things I never got around to adding to my Bastogne thread.

You can go see the original foxholes where Easy Company was dug in before they assaulted Foy. I highly recommend walking through the woods there.

I highly recommend touring the American Cemetery in Luxembourg. This is where General Patton was buried. And then, drive about 2 km down the road and go to the German soldier cemetery in Luxembourg. Both of these were very moving experiences.
arrow
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I just got back from Germany/Austria.

I underestimated Munich. What a beautiful and extremely clean city to walk around. We stayed at the Platzl Hotel which was an excellent location and had a nice little bar which stayed open late. Hofbrauhaus is right next door and Marienplatz Square is about a 5 minute walk (we took a train to Dachau from here). I second the Chinesicher Turm in the Englishcer Garten as a great place for a big beer. My favorite beer/food experience in Munich was at the Viktualienmarkt. Bring some coins and you'll have the best beer and brat service we found in Munich.

We had an excellent dinner in Berchtesgaden at Edelweiss Panoramic. We sat outside under umbrellas with an amazing view of the Alps (and Eagle's Nest). I ordered the filet and it was the best meal of the trip. We used Eagle's Nest Historical Tours and I thought they did a good job. The guide was very neutral regarding her history, so not a lot of American or Band of Brother's specific content (unlike the guide we had last year in Normandy.)

I went to Paris last year and day tripped to Normandy. We did Bayeux Shuttle's American D-Day Experience (full day group) and thought it was excellent. I only had the day so if you have more time I can see having a better experience renting a car and self-pacing the sites. That said, our guide with Bayeux added color that I really appreciated.

I've mentioned this several time since I've been back: The emotions I felt in Normandy (Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, the American Cementary, etc) were so strikingly different than how I felt touring the WWII sites in Bavaria (Nurnburg Rally Grounds, Dachau, Eagle's Nest). A sense of pride and admiration for the men and women of the "Greatest Generation" versus being sick to my stomach and almost nauseous in Dachau.
Honorary Ag
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Here is the update of our trip to Normandy, Bastogne, Munich and Berlin:

We picked up our rental car and a major debacle occurred, see www.platform832.com

June 7th & 8th-stayed a thttp://www.hotel-paris-honore.com

Jun 8th- Traveled to the Normandy region from Paris and this is where the real fun to the trip begins we booked an Airbnb close to Omaha Beach. We did not realize the significance of this booking, especially not knowing the area real well. This residence was used by the Germans prior to D-Day and is featured in the movie The Longest Day (although in the movie it is not the actual house used). Our neighbors during our stay were German historians and gave us this information. Also, it was around the corner from the Overlord Museum,
The National Cemetery and Omaha Beach. [img][/img]
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7626925?bev_ref=&eal_exp=1552786910&eal_sig=9d67c819a1b836c2c7ea2135d1912c6c84e9debd45ee37eaa141ec8973d41e2e&eal_uid=242507666&euid=159cbc07-7719-35ca-f553-146c10fd13b4&photo=&user_id=&source_impression_id=p3_1572473403_1Nj9NQq8bpve9XW7

Jun 9th-Drove to Saint-Come-du-Mont to visit the D-Day Experience Museum. The C47 simulator is a must do. We mainly did it for our 13 year old son, but it is a very moving sensational experience.https://www.dday-experience.com/en . While we were in the area we also did Dead Man's Corner Museum.

Jun 10th-We scheduled a full day tour with D-Day Battle Tours. Monica Baan was our guide and she did an excellent job. We started in Sainte-Mre-glise at the Airborne Museum (https://www.airborne-museum.org/en/). Then we trekked our way across to various sites in the region involving the 82nd & 101st Airborne battle sites. Traveling to Utah Beach, Point-du-hoc (our son was given a Ranger cap and tab from two of my Ranger friends and he took them with him), Omaha Beach and ending at The National Cemetery for the lowering of the US flag. Monica was so careful to fully represent the accurate retelling of our history on this foreign soil. You could hear in her voice the reverence and appreciation to our military for rescuing Europe from Naziism. Also, it was quite moving to walk the hallowed ground of our cemetery as our flag was being lowered to Taps.

Jun 11th-Travel to Bastogne, Belgium. We stayed in Houffalize, Belgium at the Cocoon Hotel Du Commerce (https://cocoonhotels.eu/en/hotel-du-commerce-ardennes/). We were 10 miles from Bastogne. We were unable to book in Bastogne, but I highly recommend the small village we stayed in.

Jun 12th-Battle of the Bulge tour with Roby Clam. Although we only met on the day of and spent an entire day with this fine gentleman, by the end of the day he was like family. I highly recommend his tour, a fantastic guide and honors the memory of our military by being extremely accurate and sincere in his retelling of our sacrifices. We traveled the southern portion of the Battle of the Bulge and in his telling of the famous General McAuliffe quote "Nuts" he relished in that the Germans did not know what that meant which is "Go to Hell"! He is the best and on our Christmas card list (http://www.bobguide.sitew.com/#General_informations.A)[img][/img]

Jun 13th-Visited and toured the 101st Airborne Museum, Bastogne, Belgium (http://www.101airbornemuseumbastogne.com)

June 14th-Traveled to Munich via Luxembourg. We stopped at The National Cemetery to see a Great Uncle who was KIA on Dec 23, 1944 in the Battle of the Bulge. They definitely put out the red carpet for us. We were personally escorted to his grave site and they brought along a next of kin box that contained sand from the beaches of Normandy and a US and French flag. The intern took the sand and rubbed it into the etching on the marble cross so you could easily read the name/unit/date. In addition, they gave us a packet of information containing all the information they have on our uncle. Then on the way out we met Commissioner Dorothy Gray who was appointed by President Trump for the the Board of Directors for The American Battle Monuments Commission. She was visiting the area and she wanted to know if there is anything they could do for us and if we had any input on our visit. She stated that this is one of President Trump's priorities for our veterans. We stayed at the Art Hotel (https://www.arthotelmunich.com/de)[img][/img]

Jun 15th-Munich we were scheduled to visit the Eagle's Nest, but it was closed. So we changed plans and visited Dachau Concentration Camp. It was a very depressing to be honest, but informative. Never give up your 2nd Amendment rights.

Jun 16th-So just for filler we decided to tour the Nymphenburg Palace. Not much to comment here.

Jun 17th-Turned in rental car and flew to Berlin on the 0630 flight arriving around 0800 (~$120/person). We stayed at Midi Inn (http://kudamm.midi-inn.de) which is right around the corner from the Luxury District.

Jun 18th-We took a private tour with guide Janna L. Ressel (http://www.berlin-privateguide.de/en/your-guide-janna/). She was very thorough and informative of Berlin from Hitler to the fall of the Berlin Wall to current day. Where we had lunch is where they filmed the bar scene for the Inglorious *******s movie.

Jun 19th-Berlin to London flight.

Jun 20th-London to OKC.

Overall view: It took about a year and a half (type A personality anyone ) of research for us to plan and research this trip. We took in account that we would do one main event per day and not push ourselves to do the National Family's Lampoon Vacation . Looking back what we planned worked out fine, but could not account for the airlines delay on the 6th.

At first we planned on just going for D-Day, but after looking at the map we decided Bastogne is within driving distance and this is the 75th Anniversary this year for that battle so let's go there. Oh look, we are not that far from Munich let's go visit the Eagle's Nest and Dachau. So since my wife's parents were going to be there and they were stationed in Berlin during the Berlin Crisis let's go there too. Our son is a huge fan of the Band of Brothers so we decided that since we are going to Europe we might as well just do as much as we can. We ate at all the local places (our kids really like American fast food), but we stated we are going to eat and experience the local fare which they really liked. We rented a car from Paris and drove all across that part of Europe to Munich. There are many toll roads especially in France. Interesting observation with the memorials across Europe our National Cemeterys are pristine and beautiful, the German cemetery near Bastogne is maintained (black crosses), but not as well as ours and the memorial to the Soviet soldiers in Berlin is a mass grave of 40,000 soldiers with the only names being mentioned are Lenin and Stalin.

Things we learned and did (most of you probably already know this):
  • Use a CC that does not require a fee for European transactions (ours didn't), also increase your limit for emergencies
  • Convert US dollars after arrival to Euros (you don't need that much cash)
  • The rental car gave us more options and time to see things than using mass transit
  • Know where Enter is to go down an underground parking garage (see blog post)
  • The prices are comparable mostly to US prices

If you have any questions please let me know and I might can share in more detail.




SW AG80
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Honorary, great recap. We are planning a trip very similar to yours. This will help a lot.
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