Göttingen, a city in central Germany near the village of Obernfeld our first destination, is on the ICE high speed train line equally reachable from Frankfurt or Berlin. The best fare from Chicago and non-stop no less was Air Berlin to Berlin. So I emailed Gesche, our friend who lives in the far southwest corner of West Berlin, ostensibly to tell her that we would would be in town for one night and wanted to invite her out to dinner, but knowing she would insist we stay at her house - Hotel Lobo as she terms it - even with 3 other guests.
Whenever we have to connect to a train and then get off very early the next morning, or connect to an overnight flight from Chicago to Europe, rather than getting up early enough to catch the 6:12AM train to Chicago, we take the evening train the day before and spend the night somewhere. In the past we had spent the night near the airport; but this time did so in Kewanee, Il. It is ideal because the evening train gets there at 7:27PM, the morning train departs at 8:07AM, and there is a nice mom-n-pop motel within walking distance of the station.
Our itinerary:
- Day 1. Kewanee
- Day 2. Flight to Berlin.
- Day 3. Berlin
- Day 4-5. Obernfeld
- Days 6-9. Bike tour - Gerstungen, Schmalkalden, Hildburghausen, Coburg, return to Oberfeld
- Day 10-12. Schärding
- Day 13-19. Bike and Barge tour - Passau, Linz, Grein, Emmersdorf, Tulln, Vienna, cruise Vienna to Au on der Donau, cruise Linz to Engelharzell
- Day 20. Overnight train to Berlin
- Day 21. Berlin
- Day 22. Home