A first-hand look at a Bavaria-to-Rhine educational trip, and why you should be sending clients to Germany.
Landing in Munich
After a long flight, I could not have asked for a better welcome. There's a Christmas market right inside the terminal: an ice rink, food stalls, music, the works. We grabbed our first gluhwein of the trip before it, and headed to Airbrau, the airport's own Bavarian brewery, for roast pork, dumplings, and a round of pilsners. From there we went down to the railway for the first of many train rides.
That train, by the way, set the tone for the whole trip. First class on the regional ICE line was quiet, uncrowded, and genuinely comfortable, the kind of experience I want for our clients. Worth noting for anyone nervous about paperwork: our tickets and seats were checked constantly, but nobody ever asked for ID.
Regensburg: Cathedrals, a Stone Bridge, and the World's Only Dachshund Museum
A local guide from the tourism board walked us through the cathedral, a beautiful example of Bavarian Gothic architecture, then along the Altstadt to the famous 12th-century Stone Bridge. We ducked into the UNESCO museum built into a former salt storage house on the bridge's west side, its beams still crusted with centuries of salt, and got a crash course in Regensburg's 2,000-year history in about twenty minutes.
Then came the surprise highlight of the entire trip: the world's only museum dedicated to dachshunds. The owners spent 25 years assembling the collection before opening in 2015, and it shows. Four rooms packed with dachshund toys, porcelain figurines, Christmas ornaments, and photos of famous owners with their own wiener dogs. We were greeted with gluhwein and three real, very enthusiastic dachshunds. The gift shop even sells Dackelbier, a beer brewed specially for the museum by a local brewery.
Lunch the next day was at the Wurstkuche, a sausage kitchen that has been in continuous operation for close to a thousand years, right beside the Stone Bridge. Their signature Sechs am Kraut, six small sausages with sauerkraut, mustard, and local rye bread, paired perfectly with a local pilsner. Afterward, we wandered into a tiny street of artisan makers and met a hatmaker at Hutkonig - Der Hutmacher am Dom, whose window proudly displays the actual hat Johnny Depp wore as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.
That evening, Alex at Weissbraeuhaus walked us through a full flight of Bavarian beers, weissenbier, dunkelweissbier, pilsner, fest, and bock, including a dark bock finished with a red-hot iron to caramelize the sugars. We closed the night at the Christmas market inside the Thurn und Taxis Palace, snow falling while we sipped gluhwein among wood carvers, metalworkers, and stalls selling fresh pizza and potato pancakes.
Wurzburg: Wine, a Baroque Palace, and a Very Long Train Delay
Our original train was cancelled the next morning, so after a short wait we caught the next ICE service to Wurzburg. After checking into the Hotel Strauss, our local contact Jurgen took us straight to the Buergerspital vineyard estate for soup and a wine tasting. Wurzburg's south-facing vineyards produce a wonderful Sylvaner, and the region is just as well known for its music scene.
Our train delay ate into our time at the Wurzburg Residence, but even a short visit left an impression. It's one of the largest and most opulent Baroque palaces in Germany, built under the patronage of Prince-Bishops Lothar Franz and Friedrich Carl von Schonborn, with interiors by an international team that included the painter Tiepolo, all led by the architect Balthasar Neumann. The Residence still hosts concerts during festival season, including the well-known Mozart Festival.
We closed the afternoon back at Buergerspital for a proper cellar tour, massive wooden barrels on one side, gleaming stainless steel tanks on the other. Nearly everyone left with a bottle or two; the wine is excellent, and the bottle itself looks more like a cognac decanter than a typical wine bottle. Dinner was at Restaurant Backoefele, a showcase of Franconian and Bavarian classics, with more Sylvaner to wash it down. Walking back across the river bridge afterward, with the old town lit up ahead of us, was one of those quiet moments that sells a destination better than any brochure.
Heidelberg: A Castle Ruin, the World's Largest Wine Barrel, and a Cable Car
Another peaceful ICE ride brought us through snow-covered hills into Heidelberg, where we checked into the Hollander Hof, with a genuinely privileged view of the Karl-Theodor Bridge and easy walking distance to the cathedral and old town.
Lunch was at Hans Hirsch's Kurpfalzbraeu for Baden-Wurttemberg specialties like Maultaschen, local sausages, and, naturally, more local beer. Then we rode the cable car, easy to navigate, departing every fifteen minutes or so, up to what most people call Heidelberg Castle, though it's technically a ruin of one. History and semantics aside, the views over the city were spectacular.
Inside, we stood next to the Heidelberg Tun, the largest wine barrel ever built: a capacity of 221,726 liters, constructed from 130 oak trees, complete with a manual pump system the court jesters once used to send wine throughout the property. We wandered back down the hill and ended, as one does in Germany in December, in a sweets shop just outside another Christmas market. Dinner that night was at Zum Roten Ochsen, family-owned for over a hundred years, followed by one last round through the Christmas markets for a bit of shopping.
Koblenz: Fortresses, Chocolate, and a Send-off to Remember
Our final city was Koblenz, reached by another short ICE ride. We stayed at the new Ghotel, close to the train station and central bus system, easy for getting around. After some free time, we walked down to the Rhine and rode a cable car across the river to the fortress on the hill, where a Christmas market and interactive exhibits set among old fortifications and battle relics gave us a genuinely fun couple of hours over gluhwein and sweets.
With time left before departure, we toured the spot where the Rhine and Mosel rivers meet, known locally as Die Deutsche Ecke, wandered the old town, and, at my request, our local liaison Johannes tracked down genuinely excellent hot chocolate, some of the best I've had anywhere. We snacked on currywurst, fries, and pretzels with a local Koblenz guide before heading to Schwaab Winery for a tour of both the cellars and the vineyards themselves.
Our very last stop in Germany was dinner at Altes Brauhaus, established in 1689 and clearly still a local favorite. What started as a farewell dinner turned into our whole group, plus our suppliers, closing the restaurant down with dancing, drinking, and a lot of laughing. It was the perfect way to end a trip that had already given us so much.
Auf Wiedersehen
From a Christmas market inside an airport to a wine cellar carved into a hillside to an entire museum devoted to dachshunds, this trip was a reminder of why Germany deserves more attention on client itineraries than it usually gets. The trains ran (mostly) on time, the hotels ranged from solid to genuinely special, and every single day handed us something we didn't expect.
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