Question for the Germans -- how best to get from Quedlinburg/Goslar to Fussen?

[x4000]

Hey guys,

I know that we have a lot of Germans on the boards, and my wife and I are planning a trip there for our 10th anniversary.  It's been 20 years since I've been to Germany, and she's never been, so we're quite pleased.  Anyway, we're going to be spending time in a couple of areas, and we want to avoid having to drive 8 hours to get from the Quedlinburg/Goslar area down to Fussen.  We looked at regional flights and that doesn't seem like it's a good use of time, and so we were looking at trains instead.  It's fairly confusing, though!

Any advice is appreciated.  We have some German friends of the family that we'll be visiting in Meine while we are there, and they may have some ideas on this anyway, but I know a variety of you live in various areas and might have a particular suggestion.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

[TheVampire100]

Trains and Busses are probably the best way to travel around in Germany. Flights are not very common here (which is funny because we have with the Franfurt Airport one of the most important airports in the world).
Die deutsche Bahn (national train company) is however very expensive unless you have a special multi-use ticket. The reason behind this are multiple walkouts from the drivers here. Train drivers seem underpaid.
I for myself use a lot of bus routes. They are in my opinion better than the local train routes. They are most of the time on schedule, give you some comfort and most importly, they are cheap. However bus routes aren't very common like train routes because they are more or less "new". But a lot of bus companies add more and more routes to their plans and like I said, they are very cheap.
The driving time if a train and a bus is also not that much different. It depends on the traffic at the Autobahn. If there is a lot of traffic the bus will of course take more time.

[nas1m]

Cool stuff .

As far as I see it you might actually be best off by driving, though .
The train connections I could see at a glance took up 10 hours if riding from Quedlinburg to Füssen and round about 8 hours if you are going from Goslar.
Going by car will reportedly take you round about 6.5 to 7 hours according to my Google Maps.

If you don't mind the extra time and possibly changing trains a couple of times going by train might be less stressful, though, since there is a lot of construction work going on at the moment if you are going south (the A7 is notorious for it). Make sure to make a reservation, though, especially if you are travelling with your kids!

On the other hand, you Americans seem to be really nuts for our Autobahn - at least going from what I see when looking at my American coworkers .

Pity you are not grazing Hannover (thats where I live) as near as you are if you are staying in Goslar.
I would have enjoyed shaking hands and buying you a beer .
Although I can fathom how much spare time of that sort you will have on your trip - especially since I know what life is like if you are married and a father .

When are you coming?
Anyway, a nice and safe trip to you and your family!

[x4000]

Thank you for the information!  I had no idea about the construction, and had not thought of buses.  That's a really good point.  We will be renting a car for travel on a lot of areas, but wanted to skip that on that particular leg just because it's so long.  Not that we haven't done 8 hours by car before, but it's not super relaxing in the middle of a trip, and we'd rather be able to actually see some of the countryside, etc, versus one of us having to keep eyes on the road.

We won't be taking my son (not much of an anniversary trip with kids in tow, and he's too young to really appreciate it yet), so the kids part at least won't be a trouble.

We're going to be in the Harz mountains area for the bulk of our trip, and they have a lot of train routes there, I understand.  I'll have to check and see if a multi-use pass would work with them as well as the trip down south.  And I'll definitely look into trying to get these in advance.

And it is indeed a shame not to meet!  I always wish I could meet more of you in person.  Truthfully, Keith and Blue and Cath and I have never met one another.  Erik and Pablo and Josh and I have met each other respectively, but nobody else in the company has met anyone else in person.  What a strange world, right!?   But I feel like I get to know people quite well through their writing.  That's how it always was a few hundred years ago, anyway, right?

I'm still open to any and all tips anyone has, by the way.  Thank you again!

[Castruccio]

Truthfully, Keith and Blue and Cath and I have never met one another.  Erik and Pablo and Josh and I have met each other respectively, but nobody else in the company has met anyone else in person.  What a strange world, right!?   But I feel like I get to know people quite well through their writing. 

Please tell me you guys have at least spoken on the phone.

[x4000]

Truthfully, Keith and Blue and Cath and I have never met one another.  Erik and Pablo and Josh and I have met each other respectively, but nobody else in the company has met anyone else in person.  What a strange world, right!?   But I feel like I get to know people quite well through their writing. 

Please tell me you guys have at least spoken on the phone.

On Skype loads of times, yes.  Because our company spans an 9-hour difference in time zones, we don't tend to all get on at once, though.  Usually it's by smaller groups around a specific topic.  We also send many, many, MANY emails.  The amount of communication and back and forth is absolutely enormous.  There have probably been 15-20 emails today between Blue, Cath and I.  Conservatively.  Keith and I haven't had a whole lot to talk about, so maybe 8 between us.  Erik and I have had maybe 7ish, it's been a variety of topics today, and Keith was on a couple of those.

[TheVampire100]

Wow, that's very uncommon for people that work so close together. I cannot even imagine how this works out but your games spek for themself, so, yeah, it works ^^

[x4000]

I think it happens more than people realize.  In my past job there were clients that I would work with (business that were clients of the business I worked for) who I knew the staff of very well.  We talked mostly by email and phone, and did millions of dollars in projects together.  I'd occasionally fly out to meet some of them somewhere, but usually we did not bother.  Sometimes it was really disconcerting to meet someone I knew only by voice and email and go "so that's what you look like in person?"  Not in a bad way, just sometimes I expected that they were younger or older or just different somehow.

My dad works for a big company and is having to coordinate with people on three continents basically daily.  So I mean, it happens all the time.

Welcome to the new world!

[eRe4s3r]

Mhhhhhh... depending on when you plan this trip be sure to check for possible worker strikes in rail and air traffic

Aside that, the town is called Füssen, not Fussen ;P and 8 hour drive from Quedlingburg to there is very optimistic.. personally I'd take a long range bus but... even then it's a 9 hours minimum trip. You'd spend an entire day just on the road, basically. Rail is not faster because there is not a direct route, you'd have to change trains at least 5 times, and some of those I spotted listed were privately run rail companies (those often service particular lines only) that you need to buy separate tickets for... so this is a huge hassle. Especially because a delay here or there would mean you miss trains that may only go hourly or every 2 hours....

So anyway, depending on the "when" you should consider planning this tour with a travel agency well ahead of time. Mainly because during tourist season Füssen will be swarming with people and hotels will be full. And out of tourist season even more so. Because not all hotels will run tourist services during those months. Surely there must be some professional travel agencies for Germany where you live ;P

If I'd plan this trip for myself I'd either plan a trip with direct rail routes (along ICE lines) and restrict myself to the proximity of wherever ICE stops, or I would not even consider trains... too much hassle and time pressure with transitions. Even if it's likely cheaper than a long-range bus. But on the other hand, if it's a modern bus then traveling in that is a lot more comfortable than planes or trains

[mrhanman]

You know, it's funny.  Here in the USA, I wouldn't even consider bus or train travel.  Yeah, it's an option, but I'd just assume drive or maybe fly anywhere I needed to go.

[eRe4s3r]

You know, it's funny.  Here in the USA, I wouldn't even consider bus or train travel.  Yeah, it's an option, but I'd just assume drive or maybe fly anywhere I needed to go.

Well you can drive that of course Just saying a long range bus and renting a car "at location" would be an option to consider

[TheVampire100]

I don't like to drive long ways on my own. And like I said I prefer the bus. It also has wlan in most cases which die Bahn still lacks.
However the wlan in busses is most of the time not very stable and you have to struggle to get a steady connection.
I noticed it's in front of the bus better as in the back but most of the time it just is reeeaaaally slow.

Like I mentioned above i don't like to drive long routes. It's because I need something to do. Something that's NOT driving.