Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

There may be other issues for cell phone use other than just the recharger voltage.

Are you planning to drive outside Munchen? You can take a long day trip down through Garmish over the Alps to Innsbruck and thence to Satzburg prior to returning to Munchen.

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

Well there's Electricity Around the World for electric converters.

And there's Mobile Phone Guide for interoperability of cell phone transmission standards. Your cell phone may simply NOT work in Europe. There have been several threads here about people buying a "throwaway" cell phone when they reach Europe, where you pay for your minutes upfront.

I never got into those adapter things myself. I did huge amount of world-wide travel in the 1980s and just always used a blade razor.

Make sure your passport is up to date. There's a big backlog on issuing/renewing passports because of new DHS regulations.

Get an "international driver's license" for a few bucks at AAA. It's little more than a certified translation of your state's driver's license into a dozen or so languages, with any restrictions or endorsements noted.

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

I'd recommend using wikitravel to help you with Munich. I spent about 3 months in London and Europe and used Wikitravel almost exclusively to help me plan out what to do in the cities and places I'd go. The thing I like about it is that it is written and updated by people who have gone to these places and are just typical travelers like you and I.

The voltage is the same throughout Europe. Certain appliances that you use may need a converter while others may not. You will probably need a socket adapter for your things that already convert the voltage. Depending on the part of Europe, the wall outlets can be different. I think you'll probably need a voltage converter for your razor and a wall outlet adapter for everything else. The cellphone probably converts the voltage automatically and just needs the appropriate adapter to connect to the wall, the ipod I'm not so sure on.

The cellphone can be a tricky issue. Depending on your phone, you may not be able to go overseas with it as they use GSM almost exclusively in Europe. The carrier that you use here will also charge you high roaming fees when you are over there. I'd recommend that you contact your carrier and find out about these roaming fees and also check on whether or not your phone can function over there because they also use different bands (850,900 mhz). If your carrier is charging ridiculous roaming rates, it may be worth your time to pick up a prepaid sim card over there and use that.

Make sure your passport is up to date and if it isn't, get on that now. The backlog can be lengthy especially right now in the travel season.

Finally, contact your bank and credit card companies to notify them that you are going over there. The bank can notice transactions coming up over there and list your account as a victim of fraud and freeze your stuff. It would suck to be over there with no money. US banks also partner with big banks over there so be aware of that too because it will affect the ATM choices that you make over there. Avoid the currency exchanges at the airports and train stations throughout Europe, if possible use a bank as their rates will always be better. I'd also recommend doing some exchange here in the US before you leave so that you have funds when you touch down and need to get around.

I spent 4 days in Berlin and loved it! I would like to go back and do Munich because I've heard great things about it, but maybe someday.

Hopefully this helps.

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

Check your existing chargers for their input specs. Many, such as laptop AC adaptors, DVD players and the like say 100-240vac, so all you need is the actual plug adapter to convert to the round-prong plug that they use in Germany (220V, 50Hz power, BTW). I did this with both my laptop and portable DVD when I traveled to Southern Germany in 2003, and had no problems.
I didn't have time to drive the Alps- too busy working in Regensburg.

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

The power voltage in Germany is 220V or 240V and 50Hz.

Make sure the adapter or other devices you connect to this power say it can handle 240V (this is even more important because it's higher than in the US).
Most adapters on shaving devices, laptops, electric toothbrushes etc. sold in Europe are 110-240, but I'm not sure about the ones sold in the US. The connectors have two round pins and may have a ground-connection on the edge (probably not used by anything you take with you).

The adaptor you may need will look something like this:



They have different pins in the UK, but if you won't be there, you're alright with one like the above.

I would hesitate to buy a general 240V -> 110V power adapter: they're heavy and you may not want to take it back to the US. They cost roughly 30 Euros, but it may be wiser to inspect your gear before you leave to Europe and (especially if you think you may travel more often overseas) to buy a replacement shaver (or whatever) that can handle both voltages.

Cell phones are indeed GSM type, you probably need one with a SIM card. The frequency used is 900MHz. We used to have double-frequency phones (900/1800) for international use, but the standard frequency in the US is 1900MHz, so what we're using here now (if a world traveller) is a tri-band cell phone (900/1800/1900).

Unless you go to the UK, make sure you have Euros with you to pay small immediate costs (like a taxi to your hotel).

The language in Germany is German. (Surprise, isn't it?)

Most younger people will understand English, but this may not be true with older persons. Also, if you address someone, they may not realize immediately that you're speaking a different language so a first line may be met with confusion, even if the person appears to be rather fluently English speaking. People will NOT understand English better if you raise your voice or go on repeating something that's clearly not understood loud and insultingly slowly over and over again.

When in Munich, try some Bratwurst.

(Don't go into Basil Fawlty mode, but no need to be really nervous about the topics you may want to discuss.)


Cees

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

Oh dear, you mean they permit that to be shown on the Continent?


And the language in Austria is German, NOT "Austrian" no matter what a senior US official says otherwise.

You have 5 months: try picking up at least a few phrases in Deutsch.

"Bitte, kann Ich auf Englisch sprechen?" - May I please speak in English? - is a good start and lets the locals know you are sorry that your German skills are minimal.

Actually for an English speaker German is a much simpler language to learn than the Latin languages (IMHO). English is basically a very low dialect of Old German. What you will find is that the vocabulary words are very similar: it's the grammar that's somewhat odd. I took two years of high school German in the 1960's, and even though I've become horrible at grammar it all comes back after a few days in Germany or Austria. In Bavaria, they speak German with a "southern" accent, similar to Texan in the US.

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

Actually, the expression should be "Bitte, darf Ich auf Englisch sprechen?" "Darf Ich" asks permission, "kann Ich" asks whether or not you have the ability to speak English.

Be sure to see the Deutsche Museum. You could easily spend a day there.

I remember a great little restaurant on the Sparkassenstrasse near the center of town that specialized in roast pork. You'll know it by the smell and the sight of 15 or so pork roasts turning on spigots in the window.

And one great thing about German beer (and there are many) is that it's not spigots carbonated which means no hangover. I remember drinking 7 liters of beer one afternoon at the Oktoberfest and thinking I was going to hate myself in the morning, but I woke up the next morning and was ready to go again.

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

Rats. I originally posted "darf Ich" but went off and checked bablefish, which told me I was wrong. So I changed it. Turns out my memory was more accurate that bablefish.

Mark: leave your laptop at home since bablefish is crummy.

Re: Traveling to Munich for a few days; What do I need to know/do?

DO NOT MISS THIS MUSEUM!!! It's actually the Deutsches Museum with an 's'.

If you're looking for a site of historical interest to check out, I think the Dachau concentration camp is near Munich. I didn't have a chance to see it when I was there, but I'd like to go back sometime (also to take my son to the Deutsches Museum ).