Best post cruise stop: Frankfurt, Munich, or Vienna?

Ah, yes, if you are still in London, how great that you can easily make repeat visits to your favorite cities! Will you stop in Paris for that Klimt show? I am fantasizing about that now myself!! Maybe on the way home from Vienna....

Ah, yes, if you are still in London, how great that you can easily make repeat visits to your favorite cities! Will you stop in Paris for that Klimt show? I am fantasizing about that now myself!! Maybe on the way home from Vienna....

We can easily get to Paris on Eurostar and the station for departure is only 10 mins from our house. We go to France fairly frequently, but tend to take the car to northern France as OH is interested in WWII history, but we've visited loads of WWI sites too as we normally stay in the same BB near the Somme.

We are fairly busy this year, so not sure we'll get to Paris. I'm not a huge fan of Klimt, but will probably revisit the Belvedere when we are there in October.

There is a Frida Kahlo exhibition on at the V&A in London until November. I'll probably go to see that. We are very lucky in London to have so much art and culture on our doorstep.

We're back to the Baltic soon. Looking forward to revisiting the Hermitage and going to the Faberge Museum.

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We lived in London for two years. How I miss it!

We lived in London for two years. How I miss it!

It's very easy to get to lots of interesting places and doesn't cost a fortune.

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While the cost of travel from London was pretty reasonable, especially with some advance planning, the high rents in the city meant that it cost a fortune to live there, or we probably would have stayed longer.

Munich you can take a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle.

Appreciate all of these great comments and follow-ups. Super love BOTH Vienna and Munich. Probably give a slight edge to the Imperial City of Vienna. Such great class, style, history, music, architecture, etc. Both have wonderful nearby options, including the Mad King's palaces, Salzburg near Vienna, etc.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 227,819 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

From our 2002 visit to Munich, here are three quick visuals from my photo library/files to bring back good memories. First is their famed City Hall with its beloved Rathaus-Glockenspiel. Every day at 11 a.m. (as well as 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. in summer), it chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century to the amusement of big crowds. Second is inside the Hofbrauhaus for their music/entertainment programs. There you watch waiters and/or waitresses carrying at one time as many as ten large mugs of beer to tables. Third is an example for one of the tables along their main, pedestrian-only street near City Hall where you can dine outside and enjoy the food/beer in a great, historic setting.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these pictures larger/better!)

Here are some highlights and potentials in Vienna from a Spring 1997 visit. First, from spectacular Vienna, this great “Imperial” city has a nice pedestrian-only area that runs from St. Stephen’s Cathedral towards the main Hofburg Palace area. Second is an example of the main live music/dance programs that we attended. Third is an example inside their main art museum with its great treasures.:

Another movie recommendation - a classic - The Third Man, set in Vienna, filmed in black & white (Olson Welles) but renowned for its cinematography & the look of post-war Vienna. The Ferris wheel Welles and Joseph Cotten were on is still in action today. You might even want to see the sewers ;)

Of course Munich is lovely & historic too but Vienna seems the clear favorite here :D

Arrrgh....now that I am looking to book flights, the prices are crazier than when I last checked. Duh. Waited too long. Now that direct flight back from Vienna comes at a premium.

Originally we wanted to go to Berlin, but ruled that out for the direct flight convenience of a non-stop. Now that I see how much more Vienna will cost, I feel like I need to reconsider. We have not visited either city, so either one would be new for us, with that thrill of initial exploration! While we have been totally sold on Vienna by all the great comments here, other than some of the art work I wanted to see will be off in Paris, I can see us easily getting back to Vienna on some kind of river trip one day.

Any feedback on Vienna vs. Berlin for a 3 day visit? (We like art & museums, history, vibrant public life, old buildings, walking tours, etc.)

I think Vienna is a more beautiful city, but Berlin also has a lot to offer. We spent three days there two years ago and would definitely return. There are lots of good museums and art galleries. We also visited Potsdam.

It is considerably cheaper than Vienna.

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Berlin's Museum Island has world class museums. My favorite is the Pergamon. Tons to see and do in Berlin - google is your friend.

I am biased towards Vienna, but I found Berlin to be quite spread out. It doesn't have a real centre and it takes a while to get from place to place. Nevertheless, public transport is excellent in both cities.

Of the three choices listed my vote was for Vienna. Clearly I'm not in the minority about that ... But Berlin is also a wonderful choice, although I do note OP's problems with flights to/from there. Coming from NYC we don't have such a problem.

My other suggestion probably has even more transit problems than Berlin would, but we went to Bayreuth in 2008 for the Wagner opera festival and spent several days in the area, which were wonderful. We had a car (rented in Berlin) and had a lovely time in the general area. We would tour in the morning, then drive to Bayreuth for a 4pm opera performance. We found a lovely restaurant/bauhaus about a 20 minute drive from the opera house so we had a late lunch there before the opera, and a post-opera "snack" afterwards.

So you don't necessarily have to limit yourselves to major cities ... unless, of course, you want to!

I saw a post on Opera-l just yesterday where the poster would like to retire to this area because there is so much to see, do, and above all -- EAT DELICIOUS FOOD.

Mura

Let me be different. I vote for Munich, one of my favorite all time cities. I spent 3 years in Germany while I was in the service, been to all 3 cities and still vote for Munich.

Now depending on the time of year you are going, if you get there anytime near Octoberfest, ii is a non stop party for about a solid month and more.

But besides that, we loved Bavaria, the Alps,

Arrrgh....now that I am looking to book flights, the prices are crazier than when I last checked. Duh. Waited too long. Now that direct flight back from Vienna comes at a premium.

Originally we wanted to go to Berlin, but ruled that out for the direct flight convenience of a non-stop. Now that I see how much more Vienna will cost, I feel like I need to reconsider. We have not visited either city, so either one would be new for us, with that thrill of initial exploration! While we have been totally sold on Vienna by all the great comments here, other than some of the art work I wanted to see will be off in Paris, I can see us easily getting back to Vienna on some kind of river trip one day.

 

Any feedback on Vienna vs. Berlin for a 3 day visit? (We like art & museums, history, vibrant public life, old buildings, walking tours, etc.)

If you are now looking at Berlin or Vienna you have a tough choice. Berlin is more vibrant but has less old buildings. It is also more spread out and less walk-able in that way. The public transport is great but there are sights that won't be walkable.

Personally I prefer Berlin (I was there last week) though I also like Vienna. I enjoy the more recent history in Berlin that is more relevant to me personally and also enjoy the great examples of modern architecture. The restaurants also suit me much better as there are a lot of outstanding Asian and less formal restaurants in Berlin's great neighborhoods. This last point is a great advantage of Berlin for a 3 day visit (which I consider fairly long) you can enjoy a really different aspect of Berlin each day.

Berlin!

For our post-cruise meander, we settled on three days in Berlin.

This will be in early September. We booked a hotel called The Circus, at Rosenthaler Platz.

What are some of your favorite, don't-miss neighborhoods for first time visitors?

As city tourists, we like art, architecture, history, lively public life.....