The trip to Germany was supposed to happen earlier. Originally spring 2022, to visit my mom, who was living there with my sister. We postponed when my sister tested COVID-positive days before departure, then postponed again when our younger son tested positive the morning we were supposed to leave. Then in May, my mom died from an aneurysm, and the trip went on indefinite hold.
By the end of the year we decided to take it anyway, as a memorial trip for the kids’ Oma. Noona and Grandpa Charles — Jennifer’s parents — joined us. We landed in Frankfurt on March 31, 2023, and spent the next eight days driving a loop through southern Germany with two kids (then 11 and 10) and two grandparents.
Frankfurt to a VW van from Budget — rental pickup is right in the parking garage attached to the terminal, which is the kind of convenience you appreciate on zero sleep. Then south to Heidelberg, where we’d booked Hotel Goldener Falke. They let us check in early. The old town around the central church is the kind of place that works for everyone — kids could wander, grandparents weren’t getting wrecked by uphill cobblestones, and there was a café across from the church doing latte macchiatos when the sky opened up. A hailstorm rolled through and turned the street into a temporary winter wonderland while we sat inside watching it through the window.
The next day was Heidelberg Castle by way of the Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular up to Königstuhl, then a guided tour through the castle itself — booking ahead is worth it. The giant wine barrel and the apothecary museum were both better than they sound. Dinner that night was Kulterbrauerei Heidelberg, properly traditional German, properly heavy.
April 2 was checkout in Heidelberg and Stuttgart by midday. The Porsche Museum is engineering as art, even if you don’t care about cars. Stuttgart’s center is mostly rebuilt-after-WWII architecture, which somehow works rather than feels off. The TV Tower — Fernsehturm — was a last-minute add and turned out to be the best thing we did in the city. No wait, panoramic views, low expectations exceeded. Lunch at Schlossplatz. Then back on the road to the next hotel.
Hotel Schloss Leitheim is a literal castle. We arrived in the early evening, expecting to walk into something like a hotel, and instead found it completely dark and locked up tight. Panic for a beat. Then we noticed the buzzer next to the door, which apparently rings directly through to the manager’s phone. She hadn’t made it home yet. She came back to figure out what had happened.
What had happened: they’d emailed Jennifer a confirmation, in German, asking her to confirm the reservation or it would be cancelled. Jennifer, reasonably assuming a confirmation email confirmed a reservation, didn’t translate it. They’d cancelled. The manager re-sorted it on the spot and let us in.
We were the only guests in the entire castle. Have you seen The Shining? The hallway lights came on in sections as you walked into the dark ahead of you. Our wing was second floor; Noona and GPC were across the building on the fourth floor. Creepy is the word. Also: kind of cool.
Then, around midnight, one of the kids started complaining of severe testicular pain. A quick panicked Google said the words “testicular torsion,” which requires immediate surgery, so we were on the autobahn at 1 AM toward the nearest hospital. The GPS led us to what looked like a sketchy clinic — unmarked entrance, dim lighting, very un-hospital. Inside was a modern, well-equipped pediatric facility with excellent English-speaking doctors.
Verdict: not torsion. Twisted enough to be a real concern, but the doctors thought monitoring was the right call rather than operating immediately. The kid felt better by morning, earning the temporary family nickname “Twisty,” which the rest of the trip he carried with the dignity of a 10-year-old asked to carry it.
Total cost of the ER visit, ultrasound, and surgeon consultation: zero euros. In the US, it would have been thousands. That experience shifted something in how I think about healthcare systems. We came home with a story; in another country we’d have come home with a bill.
The next morning was supposed to be Neuschwanstein — Disney’s inspiration castle, an aggressive itinerary that had us doing the castle, then Garmisch-Partenkirchen for lunch, then the Zugspitze cable car, then Partnachklamm Gorge, then back. After a midnight hospital run, nobody had the energy. We skipped it. The castle hotel was now properly populated with other guests, the hallway lights stayed on, and we took naps and walked the grounds and went down to the village for dinner and bakery breakfast the next morning.
April 4 was Munich. BMW Museum first, more automotive history (apparently the southern Germany trip becomes a car museum trip when you’re not careful). Then Nymphenburg Palace, then Marienplatz, where we tried multiple times across two visits to catch the glockenspiel and failed every single time. Schedule in hand, on the square at the listed time, nothing. We never figured out what we were doing wrong. Bayern München store for soccer gear because the kids insisted. Dinner at Bratwurst Glöckl am Dom, packed with football fans.
April 5 was the Romantic Road drive north to Rothenburg — Donauwörth, Harburg (castle on the hill, charming village on the river below), Nördlingen (where we climbed the old clock tower, which the grandparents wisely declined, and looked out at stork nests on the rooftops), Wallerstein, Dinkelbühl (the cleanest version of the picture-postcard German timber-house village). Each one its own thing, none of them long stops.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a medieval walled city that has remained a medieval walled city, which means driving and parking inside it is a sport. Hotel Reichskuchenmeister sits inside the walls. After several laps trying to figure out the access, we squeezed in for check-in and the hotel pointed us to parking down the street, where I wedged the van into a slot that I will think about for the rest of my life.
The walls themselves are intact and walkable, which the kids loved. The town is the actual real version of what every Disney-style “European village” tries to be. We tried to do the ghost tour, which has glowing reviews — and we never found it. Three nights, multiple attempts, never located. It became the trip’s white whale.
The next day was Bad Windsheim and the Franconian Open Air Museum, which was less the point than the people we were meeting there. Holger and I met twenty-five years ago on a redesign project at ZDF, when I was doing broadcast design work in New York. We’ve stayed friends across continents and decades — he’s come to New York for work, I’ve met up with him in LA, Jennifer and I visited him and Barbara in Berlin pre-kids. They drove down from Berlin to meet us in Bad Windsheim. The museum is spread out and walkable, traditional Franconian buildings and lifestyle. We walked it for hours and caught up. The kids met them properly for the first time.
April 7 was the early-morning sprint to Frankfurt. Checkout was 5:30 AM. The hotel parking lot doesn’t open until 7-ish, so the van had spent the night in the public lot, which had a pay kiosk that took my money, refused to print a receipt, and made me pay twice. One last German adventure. Then the drive to Frankfurt, the rental return, the morning flights — Noona and GPC to Philly, us to JFK, then the JFK-to-Hudson Valley grind that I will never not complain about.
The trip didn’t fix what we were grieving. It wasn’t supposed to. But it gave the kids a version of Germany their Oma had wanted to show them, with the people who loved her standing in for her. We took the trip we were going to take, eight months late and with a different center of gravity.
In memory of Oma, who would have loved every chaotic minute of this adventure.
The Reference Version
The trip. March 30 – April 7, 2023. Eight days on the ground in southern Germany configured as a driving loop. Two adults, two kids (11 and 10), two grandparents. Delta Economy Comfort from JFK to Frankfurt; morning flights home into Philly and JFK.
Where we stayed. Hotel Goldener Falke, Heidelberg (old town, central, comfortable). Hotel Schloss Leitheim, near Donauwörth (literal castle, see narrative above for the experience). Hotel Reichskuchenmeister, Rothenburg ob der Tauber (inside the medieval walls; parking is its own problem).
The driving. Small VW van from Budget at Frankfurt Airport — rental pickup is in the terminal parking garage, easier than off-site shuttles. The autobahn is fast and smooth. The roads in and around the old walled cities are tight and require patience. We did roughly 1,500 km over the loop. Plan for parking to be the hardest part in places like Rothenburg.
Day 1. JFK to Frankfurt overnight (depart evening March 30, arrive morning March 31). Rental pickup. Drive to Heidelberg, ~80 minutes. Check in at Hotel Goldener Falke. Walk the old town.
Day 2 (April 1). Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular up to Königstuhl. Guided Heidelberg Castle tour (book ahead). Wine barrel, apothecary museum. Dinner at Kulterbrauerei Heidelberg.
Day 3 (April 2). Checkout in Heidelberg. Drive to Stuttgart. Porsche Museum. TV Tower (Fernsehturm) for the city view. Lunch at Schlossplatz. Drive to Hotel Schloss Leitheim.
Day 4 (April 3). Rest day at Schloss Leitheim. (Originally planned: Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Zugspitze, Partnachklamm — abandoned after the hospital run the previous night.)
Day 5 (April 4). Drive to Munich. BMW Museum. Nymphenburg Palace. Marienplatz (target the glockenspiel; expect to miss it). Bayern München store. Dinner at Bratwurst Glöckl am Dom.
Day 6 (April 5). Romantic Road drive north: Donauwörth, Harburg, Nördlingen, Wallerstein, Dinkelbühl. Arrive Rothenburg. Hotel Reichskuchenmeister, inside the walls.
Day 7 (April 6). Bad Windsheim and the Franconian Open Air Museum.
Day 8 (April 7). 5:30 AM checkout. Drive Rothenburg to Frankfurt Airport. Morning flights home.
What worked. Three home bases over eight days instead of constant relocation. Renting at Frankfurt Airport (terminal parking garage). Booking castle tours ahead. The Stuttgart TV Tower as a last-minute add. Off-season timing — most attractions open, no crowds, but plan around things that close for low season. Meeting Holger and Barbara at the museum, which was a destination because they were the destination.
What we’d do differently. Translate German hotel confirmation emails. Build in margin time the day you arrive in a walled medieval city, especially for parking. If you have any flexibility, don’t drive directly from a transatlantic red-eye on day one. Put Neuschwanstein back on the itinerary — we never got there, and the kids still ask about it.
Things to know. German healthcare is excellent and emergency care for visitors was free in our experience — bring travel insurance anyway, but don’t fear needing care. Most medical professionals speak excellent English. Many small businesses still prefer cash. Off-season has tradeoffs: fewer crowds, more closures, sometimes unpredictable hours at hotels and restaurants. The autobahn is fine; the old city centers are humbling. Translate confirmation emails.
Booking links recap. Hotel Goldener Falke (Heidelberg). Hotel Schloss Leitheim (near Donauwörth). Hotel Reichskuchenmeister (Rothenburg ob der Tauber). Heidelberg Castle and the Bergbahn. Porsche Museum. BMW Museum. Nymphenburg Palace. Franconian Open Air Museum (Bad Windsheim).
Even that's Odd 
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