By Karen Bradbury
Published: June 29, 2010
Care to hazard a guess as to the age of the railroad in Germany? It’s an impressive 175 years old this year. And to make note of the occasion, Deutsche Bahn is offering a couple variations of a “Jubiläums-Pässe.”
For 175 euros, you can purchase a rail pass valid for 175 consecutive hours — that’s 7 days and 7 hours — of rail travel in second class within Germany. The pass is available for purchase now, and is good for travel through Aug. 31, 2010. If you’re 26 years of age or under, the pass will only cost you 145 euros. The pass is valid for all types of trains, although you’ll have to pay a surcharge to use the City Night Line routes.
Should a week be insufficient time to see everything on your list, there’s also a month-long version of the pass available for 299 euros. Those 26 and younger can get the pass for 246 euros. Sounds like a nice way to cap off a tour of duty in Germany, by finally making it to those cities you just never seemed to have the time for. We tend to forget that the northern reaches of the country have some very nice beaches along the Baltic seacoast. So conceivably you could organize a couple days at the beach, a spot of hiking in the Alps, and some big-city culture in Munich, Dresden or Berlin. Sounds like an exhausting but fun way to get the most out of a week’s vacation time and say goodbye to a land you’ve enjoyed calling home. Or, if you’re new on the scene, this could be a fun way to get to know the lay of the land.
Weltzar, Germany as seen from across the Lahn River Stars and Stripes/ Karen Bradbury
By Karen Bradbury
Published: June 21, 2010
In our busy, overbooked world, it almost seems taboo to admit that you might actually have a weekend coming up and nothing particular planned. For parents, the very notion of a Saturday and Sunday devoid of obligation must seem unfathomable. Sans the responsibility of offspring, and having a husband who works irregular shifts, I often find myself at loose ends on my days off. And when the weather’s decent, the last thing I care to do is sit home and watch TV, or heaven forbid, catch up on the ironing. Not all activities make for pleasant solo pursuits, but there is one to which I always seem to return. Cycling.
So it was that on the first weekend of May, I plotted a two-day bicycle ride. Although I briefly considered the Taunus mountain range, I quickly discounted that in favor of a route that would be reliably flat. How to guarantee that? Opt for a course alongside a river. I’d previously done stretches of the Rhine, Neckar and Moselle, and I was eager to experience something new. I pored over online resources geared to those considering escorted, multi-day bike trips and was quite taken with the route as described along the Lahn River, a tributary of the Rhine. So, early on a Saturday morning, my trip commenced with a train ride to the town of Wetzlar, some 40 miles north of Frankfurt, bicycle in tow.
The Ebro River as seen from the road to the dam by Mequinensa. Karen Bradbury/ Stars and Stripes
By Karen Bradbury
Published: June 4, 2010
Ryanair destinations come and go. I was disappointed when they shut down the
Zweibrücken-London Stansted route, but since I’d flown it only once, I can’t
claim to have lent it much of my financial support. Several months ago, a
Spanish city by the name of Lleida popped up as a new destination from
Frankfurt-Hahn. It’s a smallish city, population around 130,000, in the
northeast part of the country, and part of Catalonia. The city is also known by
the name of Lérida.
When I went through the motions of booking a flight there on the Ryanair Web
site, and realized I could snag two round-trip tickets for a grand total of 45
euros, I decided to push the “confirm” button. My motives for wishing to travel
to that area were pure -- my husband, an avid fisherman, had been dreaming of
the waters of the River Ebro for some time.
