Paris and Germany!
Here’s our 10 day itinerary for Germany with quick stops in Paris and London. I’ve said this before but I every time we book a trip I wish we had just one more week! but, as always, this ended up being a good amount of time. A short visit to a city is better than no visit to a city! Here’s our schedule, a bit of the planning process, and where we stayed:
Our schedule:
Day 1 – Paris
Day 2 – Paris
Day 3 – Paris/Bamberg
Day 4 – Bamberg
Day 5 – Bamberg
Day 6 – Bamberg/Bad Wiessee
Day 7 – Bad Wiessee
Day 8 – Bad Wiessee
Day 9 – Bad Wiessee/London
Day 10 – London/travel home
Our planning:
As I’m sure you noticed, our itinerary is a little wonky. The main reason for the trip was to see Tillman’s cousin, Rolf, get married in the South of Germany (yay!) We looked online for a flight deal to Europe and let that dictate our travel, which is why we started in Paris. It was my FIRST time in Paris and really everything I wanted it to be. I’ll be back some time soon for sure!
From there we went to Bamberg, a small town that doesn’t seem to top everyone’s Germany itinerary. Let me tell you, it should! Tillman is German and Bamberg is the town his mother grew up in. It’s beautiful and has a rich history. We were lucky enough to be there with T’s mom and get a grand tour. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site (and looks straight out of a fairy tale.) Add it to your list!
So after Bamberg we traveled south together to meet the rest of his family for the wedding in Bad Wiessee on the shore of Lake Tegernsee in the Bavarian Alps. It was an absolutely charming spot and a beautiful wedding!
From there, we traveled back to London to hop on a flight home. We ended up with a full afternoon/evening and morning in London. It’s always amazing to me how much we can see in a city in a day! We saw a bunch of sites, ate some great Indian food, stopped at a pub, and had an English Breakfast before catching a flight back home!
Where we stayed:
We stay in Airbnb’s pretty often (check out Airbnb here for a $40 credit, if you don’t already use it!) but because of the nature of this trip, and the short time in multiple places, we stayed in some great boutique hotels instead. Here’s where we stayed:
Paris – Hotel Bradford Elysées
I quickly found out there are a million hotels in Paris. We chose this one based on a combination of things like location, ratings and price. Being my first time in Paris, I can’t say if it’s the best hotel, but I found it covered all the C’s (central, cute, comfortable, clean and convenient.) Plus we had awesome service from the front desk who helped us out with a few reservations. Would definitely stay there again.
Bamberg – Altstadt Hotel Molitor
From the hotels website because they sum it up better than I could: The Altstadt-Hotel Molitor was originally one of the oldest mills in Bamberg and was elaborately restored with attention to detail and the urge to combine old with new. From here you can walk to the adjacent Hainpark, in 4 minutes to the cathedral and the pedestrian area or stroll comfortably uphill to the famous Bamberg beer cellars. Far away from through traffic, you can enjoy the silence, comfort, the charm of a 500-year-old guild house and all bundled in the middle of the old town!
Bad Wiessee – Hotel Terrassenhof
The wedding here was beautiful. The hotel has a terrace right at the water front for an excellent space to grab a beer and enjoy time outside. It also offered a nice breakfast spread and a little boat house where we rented paddle boards. But the hotel itself was a little aged and, honestly, I might search around for something else if I were to go back.
London – Hotel Indigo London-Paddington
Hotel Indigo was small, as expected, but cute. The big selling point was how close it is to Paddington Station. Definite London tip here: Take the Heathrow Express. It goes directly to Paddington with no stops which only takes 15 minutes! Paddington Station is at the heart of London’s West End and has easy connections to the rest of the city by Uber or the underground. Plus it’s walking distance to various sights, parks, restaurants and bars.