Destination Duel: Best of Germany vs. Munich, Salzburg & Vienna

From maritime Hamburg to fairy-tale Rothenberg and from musical Salzburg to regal Vienna, Germany and Austria abound with not-to-be-missed travel destinations. To celebrate the launch of our 2025 Rick Steves’ Europe tours, the Monday Night Travel team hosts a special Destination Duel comparing two excellent-but-distinct tour itineraries: The Best of Germany in 13 Days versus Munich, Salzburg & Vienna in 8 Days. Join us for an evening of travel jousting and trip tips before casting your vote for which Teutonic tour reigns supreme! #ricksteves #mondaynighttravel

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[Music] on today’s Monday night travel the team steps back into the ring for a destination duel celebrating the launch of our 20125 tours Ben and Gabe will count the virtues of the best of Germany tour from Maritime Hamburg to fairy tale rodenberg to buzzing Berlin meanwhile Emily and Lisa will sing the Praises of the Munich Saltsburg and Vienna tour which features a Scenic danu River Cruise heaping helpings of hapsburg History warm apple strudles and much more get ready to vote for your favorite as we determine which tonic itinerary will reign supreme thanks for joining us good evening everyone and welcome to Monday night travel I’m Lisa friend and along with my co-hosts and cohorts Emily Burks Gabe gck and Ben green I’m delighted Ed to be here and share with you our return to the destination dual format we have a little twist this time because it’s our tour launch season here at Rick Steve’s headquarters we are going to do instead of a single destination we’re going to debate a tour itinerary Gabe and I will be supporting the 13-day best of Germany tour while Lisa and Emily will be arguing for the 8 day Munich salsburg and Vienna tour so please get ready to travel with us across these two itineraries in the heart of Europe now those of you who have joined for our past destination duels know that there is participation involved you all will be voting for your favorites across a few different categories um being the accomplished Debaters that we are will follow a very specific structure first each team is going to begin with an opening argument outlining why their tour is should reign supreme after that we are going to have structured arguments in four different categories itinerary layout tour activities free time and Cuisine you will vote in each of those categories for which tour you feel like is stronger and then at the end we will have an overall impression vote that will count for 40% the other categories will count for 15 and we will declare which tonic tour Reigns Supreme so we are excited to have your participation uh we’re excited to teach you about these Great Destinations and to kick things off I’m gonna throw it over to my friend and tonight adversary Lisa friend you’re not supposed to make me laugh and screen at the same time Gabe um in the manner of a proper debate like Gabe just outlined each of our teams will start with an opening statement so I will begin Emily and I are here to to inform and inspire you to dream about going on our best of Munich Saltsburg and Vienna tour in 8 Days our tour which is nicknamed msv is has a deliciously varied itinerary with flavors of Alpine Peaks elegant Imperial cities the legendary October Fest and 24 miles of the Blue danu River uh two of Europe’s Most livable cities book end this tour and in the middle is staggering Alpine Beauty so you can see on the screen we have two nights in Munich two nights in Saltsburg One Night in the beautiful vodka Valley on the danu river and ending with two nights in Vienna our tour begins in the Bavarian capital of Munich which was ruled by the vesbach family until Germany became a unified country in 1810 Munich has the Charming ni name of million andorf which means a village of a million people and I think that they do that by keeping a small town feel in the middle of the city center it’s pedestrian friendly has great public transportation bike friendly and has one of my f favorite farmers markets anywhere the victan mark which is right steps away from the main Square the Maran plots and so all of this is surrounded by um places where people can picnic so we could say beer garden but this is in the middle of the victu Alan Mark and people who are sitting at these tables without tablecloths um can just buy drinks and sit there but they could have brought their own food making it pretty egalitarian for everyone Munich also started uh a royal wedding tradition in 1810 with the uh Royal vesbach marriage in October and they started a festival that now hosts six million visitors annually so this is me with my tour group a few years ago and one of the secrets of October Fest is if you’re going during the daytime which is uh the more relaxed time to go if a table is reserved you always want to check the time and make sure that it’s reserved for later and then you can sit there until the reserved people show up so that’s a little trick for you then we go to Saltsburg a smaller City that’s more even even more charming and quaint rich with money from the nearby salt mines and special dispensations from the Vatican Saltsburg is a glory of Baroque architecture nestled on the salt sock River Sal um Saltsburg it’s a lot of saltes Saltsburg is overseen by its formidable Fortress hoen Saltsburg which was so uh good at keeping Invaders away that the city was never successfully attacked in the 947 years in late November and December because our tour stretches into the latter part of the year you can enjoy Christmas markets in Munich Saltsburg and Vienna so we think that’s a really great thing to take advantage of I mentioned the Vodka Valley which is nestled in between Saltsburg and Vienna it’s known for its Charming Vineyards and Villages and then we go to Vienna Austria’s capital city a cradle of classical music the home of rich Habsburg Heritage one of the world’s most livable cities no skyscrapers great pedestrian zones as well and beautiful buildings that were done in the 17th and 18th century when Vienna was at the Forefront of Arts and Sciences it’s also home to HOA which are these beautiful little uh Vineyard taverns in the Hills that Emily’s going to tell us all about later it’s home to Europe’s most romantic painting the climp by Gustaf the kiss the Kiss by Gustaf climp and you can also see prancing stallions nearby at the Spanish writing school and celebrate the cafe culture of Vienna and celebrate the birthplace of vener schnitzel next oh we they get to talk yes dang gentlemen it is time for your opening statement thank you very much Lisa and Emily I would like to begin our tour through the best of Germany which is roughly a u-shape starting with the sound of Seagulls in Hamburg Harbor we then venture to the beautiful underappreciated city of bunster a place off the tourist radar but with qu essential cobbled streets and lovely gabled buildings with a stop in Cologne famous for its Tower and Cathedral we venture then to the phenic Ry Valley and the our beloved town of bakarak for a river cruise medieval castle tour and a little German white wine next up is rotenberg abder talber Rick’s favorite small Bavarian Town known for its beautiful historic medieval walls and a famous night Watchman who still meanders through the streets after our time in the Ry Valley exploring medieval Germany we go to our southernmost point of the tour mun which is considered Germany’s most livable City next we Trek Back North up to airport to learn about the seismic religious shifts of the reformation and pop into Dresden for a tour of its Baroque Treasures before finishing in gritty and glorious Berlin to learn about the forces that tore it apart and stitched it back together then now that we know the it itinerary can you let our dear viewers know why our itinerary should reign supreme absolutely Gabe I would like to discuss with you the benefits of doing a full Country tour and that is exactly what the 13-day best of Germany tour is you get a comprehensive look at an entire country and there are many benefits to this you know Germany has 84 million people it’s the most populous country in the European Union and it as you can it literally is in the heart of Europe it’s an economic Powerhouse and a major player in European Politics as well it’s literally where East Meets West in Europe in many ways the single Country tour allows you to have a more cohesive and in-depth experience with German language culture history politics and more which vary greatly by region the best of Germany tour gives you more time to adapt and embrace German culture as a cultural chameleon we cover some 1,200 miles on this tour it’s hard to believe is Nick a now you certainly could simply visit Munich in Germany as they do on the Munich salsburg and Vienna tour but that is like traveling to the US and only going to New York right uh there’s so much more to see and experience the best of Germany tour gives you an excellent well-rounded full picture of Germany past and present so many Travelers to Europe Hopscotch between country capitals and household names entirely skimming over second cities and small towns but a rewarding trip to Europe should include a variety of destinations only visiting one type of place is like eating a five course meal of only soups as Ben said the best of Germany tour offers a comprehensive understanding of an important country but don’t think that means it’s one note quite the opposite to get a full sense of Germany you need to experience its variety and the best of Germany tour offers a variety of varieties it offers a variety of places from Port Towns to medieval towns to Urban metropolises it offers a variety of history from Reformation sites to important World War I landmarks to signs of the Cold War and it offers a variety of culture it offers medieval castles it offers communist architecture and it offers high-tech modern art and architecture with all this variety The Best of Germany amounts to a full and delicious meal cohesive comprehensive and complete and over the next hour Ben and I are eager to serve you course after course of what makes this tour Sumptuous to get us started we are now going to go to our first category itinerary when you’re planning a trip the most important thing to do is or rather the first thing that you do is you structure your itinerary which places are you going how many nights are you staying there how are you getting between them um we would like to begin the same way by looking at the way that these tour itineraries are structured because I think that you’ll find that there are some important differences between them first um I want to talk about the variety that you are going to see on this tour while the Munich salsburg Vienna tour may include two countries don’t let that fool you the best of Germany tour has twice the variety and I have the numbers to prove it Munich salsburg and Vienna only visits four different states while the best of Germany has stops in seven you cover more distance with the best of Germany tour the two furthest points on the best of Germany tour are 380 mil apart which give you that little extra bit of cultural distinctness whereas the Munich salsburg and Vienna uh the two furthest points are only 220 miles apart also there is a larger discrepancy between the tiniest towns and the most bustling cities on the trip on the best of Germany tour Berlin is almost 1,800 times the size of the Tiny Town of bakarak where you stay whereas that difference is a little less between Vienna and it smallest town on that tour so this creates more contrast between the Charming small towns and the bustling capitals finally uh culturally while all of the regions in Munich salsburg and Vienna’s tour are very Catholic the best of Germany tour straddles the Catholic and Protestant worlds and educates you about the split quite simply the best of Germany takes you further connects you with more cultures and offers a broader Spectrum of experiences beautiful quantitative analysis Gabe I’m going to make a more qualitative point but I an important one nevertheless I think and that’s regarding bus time now the best of Germany tour has a pleasant amount of bus time more than Munich salsburg and Vienna which I firmly believe and I think you do as well is in fact a plus now why there are several points to this we on Rick Steve’s tours use roomy private coaches that see around 50 people but we cap our tours at 24 to 28 tour members so there’s a lot of extra room as you can see here the bus time on our tours is a wonderful opportunity for the tour guide to shine right they have your undivided attention so to speak this is Carlos here leading a Germany tour he’s one of our wonderful guides this is an opportunity for them to share their stories provide information and have a Q&A as well so this is a really special moment there’s also the opportunity to meet another European that’s your bus drive who can potentially be a very fun addition to your tour they have their own stories their own background and they’re providing such an important service to your travel experience the bus is sometimes like your second home and you know young and old enjoy bus time there’s no doubt about that there are also great views from the tour bus and I think this is really important in fact some of our tour members wrote To Us in reviews for this Germany best of Germany sure that the bus time was one of their wow moments that the German Countryside was just so beautiful it stunned them and finally I would say that bus time is an opportunity to journal check in on friends and family via phone or you could nap as well and you can even plan as this gentleman is doing for your next stop I certainly really treasure Bus Time on every Rick Steve’s itinerary it is a time for learning for conversation for relaxation and more and the best of German perfectly weaves time on your feet exploring the country with a little bit of time on the bus seat which is wonderful as well I’m personally a bus Napper my son um One goal of our tours is to equip you with the skills and confidence to do some travel on your own some of our tours even offer free days that allow you to practice these new travel skills and the best of Germany is one of those tours our tours are fun and fast-paced but it can be nice to have a vacation from your vacation so that you don’t turn into Rick in this photo plus it’s hard to beat a free day in unich you can relax in the englisher garden enjoy your Bavarian beer hall or go on one of the many iconic side trips from the city that will’ll discuss later you can even go surfing on the permanent wave in the ibach river whatever you choose a free day at the midpoint of your tour gives you a chance to reset to make sure that you have the energy to enjoy the final days of your adventure well said Gabe I would like to make a simple Point uh you’ve touched on this earlier the Germany tour is significantly longer in fact more than 1.5 times longer than the Munich salsburg Vienna tour and I believe the longer you spend in Europe the better and the better value you have in general now it takes time to get over jet lag at least a few days wouldn’t you say and if you’re only going to Europe for eight or nine days the length of Munich salsburg and Vienna that means a longer portion of your trip was spent getting over jet lag um so choosing to go for longer such as closer to two weeks with the best of Germany tour allows you to spend more of your trip jet lag free another point is flight cost your flight is going to cost the same whether you go to Europe for one week or two weeks generally speaking and that means the per day price of your trip is likely going to be lower the longer you stay because that flight cost is set and now adding more time to your trip also allows you to get a bit beyond the most popular places right of course we visit Munich and Berlin on the best of Germany tour but we have the time for two weeks to visit some lesser known destinations particularly for Americans an example here is the city of airort it’s a medieval town with quaint architecture a huge main square and a large Fortress with excellent views it is truly a time capsule surprises visitors and finally even if Gabe and I can see that the Munich salsburg Vienna tour the best of Germany tour are equal in quality why wouldn’t you want more of a good thing the Germany tour gives you five more experienced Field Days in Europe than the Munich salberg and Vienna Tour all right with that we pass it back over to you team msv did you just feel like they just their opening Salvo is just like shot acoss feel a little attacked yeah we must defend ourselves Emily it’s up to you w as G and Ben mentioned an obvious highlight of our tour is the fact that you’re going to explore two different countries in just one week and for me I think it’s so exciting to cross a border and see the landscape change right before my eyes whether that’s physical cultural or in our case both will start in Munich and get a taste of of that industrious spirit and social efficiency that Germany’s known for and I love this photo because I think it captures that attitude so well with the uh Town Hall in the center of Munich’s Old Town in the back and the uh sign for the subway in the foreground did you know that they’re so good that during October Fest they make those Subways run every two minutes it’s just Zim Zim Zim Zim Zim always going wonderful it’s an Advan society and speaking of dry again there you go speaking of beer um we also will have the opportunity to sample the uh iconic logger of Bavaria at one of Munich’s many beer gardens and beer Halls crossing over into Austria we may find the people are a little more laidback and content to bask in Austria’s Elegance um we’ll also see see many uh examples of Baro architecture through the Palaces and the castles reminding us that Austria was once the head of one of Europe’s grandest Empires and we’ll also see a lot more white local wines on the menu um additionally as we move further into Austria we’ll find The M the landscape becomes more mountainous in fact approximately can I go back Thank you Lisa you’re welc um approximately 60% of Austrian territory is mountainous and that has definitely created an outdoor Centric culture in Austria and that’s another thing I love about this tour is all of the opportunities to get outside as well as the opportunities to enjoy worldclass museums in a single destination and here are just a few ways that you can do that on our itinerary starting in Munich you could visit the residence Palace which was the seat of the uh vesbach family Dynasty for 500 years then in the afternoon you could go to the English Garden in Munich and go surfing in salsburg you could trace the footsteps of Mozart starting at the apartment where he was born and where he learned to play piano and violin and then heading across the river you could visit the Mozart residence and this is the lavish home that his family moved into after years of touring when he was 17 and they were very comfortably flush with money um in the afternoon you could go for a hike without ever leaving the city there is a mountain that rises up right behind salsburg Oldtown called the mburg there’s about a miles worth of hiking trails on the Monsur and from the top of the mountain you’ll get these panoramic views of the city and the mountains in the distance on day six of our tour we will wake up in The Vow Valley and go for a cruise on the Dano River from the boat we’ll see Lush Vineyards Rolling Hills we’ll see old castles and lots of abies perched above the river and of course we’ll see lots of very quaint Villages um some of which have very fascinating histories like durstein here in 1193 um Richard the lionhart was actually imprisoned here on the way home from his third crusade and if you can see the ruined Castle right above the town that is uh the castle where he was imprisoned and continuing on after our cruise we will head into Vienna later that day where if you so chose you could cap your day with a concert at the state Opera now this tour is definitely on the shorter side but we are able to fit in so many unique experiences and activities and that is in part thanks to the fact that our bus rides are so short the longest bus ride on this tour is just 3 and 1 half hours long on day five and that’s broken up by a visit to the Kaiser Villa just outside of salsburg so you’re spending the majority of your time actually exploring these amazing cities and Charming towns rather than in trans Transit however when you are on the bus you are driving through the Bavarian and Austrian Alps so you are getting Mountain Vistas and views of beautiful Alpine Villages like this one this is actually a picture that somebody took from the bus right yes it’s from the road right out side of salsburg nice a little too far all right um another benefit of having a shorter tour is the fact that this tour isn’t going to eat up all of your precious vacation time so you could easily arrive to Munich a day or so before your tour starts and do some independent traveling Munich is very conveniently a super Transportation Hub where you’ll find very easy connections to most Bavarian destinations for example you could make the day trip to no fonstein and hon fonga also known as The Mad King’s castles this is just a two-hour train ride from Munich and at the and if you’re there on a sunny day I would highly recommend taking a swim in the lake just below the castles um like I did nice you did that yes and there was swans swimming right by me it was was amazing all right so so um you also could continue your travels at the end of your tour Vienna is a great jumping off point for the rest of Central Europe Budapest is just a 2 and a half hour train ride from Vienna and prag is Just 4 hours by train from Vienna so with just a couple extra days at the end of your tour you could see two more of Europe’s greatest cities all right so so I believe it is time for our first vote it is time to vote all right time to move on to our next category people have been heard so now that the votes yep are in it is time to move on to our next category which is tour activities and just a clarification all of these activities that we are discussing are group sightseeing activities that will be included with the cost of your tour okay so I’m going to start off for Munich Saltsburg and Vienna and we start with one of my favorite activities on any Rick Steve’s tour I love a good walking tour you know we hire the best local guides I think in the industry and we get them to show us around so here is our local guide in Saltsburg Saltsburg is made for walking stretched along the river with quaint buildings and interesting historical stories about them we meet our local guide who takes us through the Mirabel gu Mirabel Palace Gardens the pictures gasa which is on the left hand side of your screen and into some of the main squares where this wonderful Cafe tomaselli is and one of the things that’s great about Saltsburg is especially on gasa but other streets is they have these wonderful uh signs above the businesses this is a hold over for when people were more illiterate so the signs tell you what they sell and so they’ve kept that tradition going we also check out some back lanes and end up at the Saltsburg Cathedral or Dome doom and that is one of the most beautiful Baroque churches north of the Alps I mentioned already that um this part of the world because it was so staunchly Catholic during the time of the religious wars the Vatican quite a bit of uh religious artifacts to Saltsburg and Munich and quite a bit of financial support so you have these beautiful churches um including these lovely domes and one of the things that having a guide is great for is the guide will tell you even you know when does the choir practice so you can come in and hear the fabulous Acoustics and for the best Acoustics sit underneath this Dome as this man is pointing out right now one of the other things that I absolutely love on the Munich salsburg and Vienna tour is the world class Museum the korish museum and one of the things that is amazing about that is the uh variety of painters that you would see because the hapsburg families ruled such an enormous swath of Europe um they collected paintings from all over so normally you would have to go to Italy to see this Raphael you would have to go to Amsterdam to see this um painting by Johannes verir you would have to go back to Amsterdam to see this um self-portrait of rembrand and you would have to go all the way to Spain to see this masterpiece by Diego Velasquez and I just wanted to point out one of the things that I thought was really cool um these four paintings you can tell that the subjects are different and the they mean something different to the painter because Raphael all of his lighting is even he this is the this is the mother Mary and baby Jesus and St John the Baptist but everything is beautifully lit everything is equal in importance but when you talk about Dutch art you will notice that always with Dutch art you can tell where the light is coming from maybe because Amsterdam is so far north maybe because it’s dark part of the time but but Dutch artists uh during this period would always show you where the light was coming from so you can see that the light is coming directly from the window onto the subject of the painting where everything else is in Shadow and you’ll see the same thing here with Rembrandt the light is coming from one side of his face and the rest of it is in Shadow and then to end with this wonderful painting by Velasquez this is a portrait painted by the court painter of the Spanish royal family this man is getting p to show the family so of course the boy who was uh at this point about 3 years old uh and he was the heir to the throne and he was very much wanted he was very much protected because he was born quite sickly so you can see in his dress he has amulets and bells so the amulets were supposed to ward off evil spirits and keep him safe and the bells were so people could hear him coming so he sadly didn’t make it to his fourth birthday um but he was very much wished for and appreciated while he was alive so this is some of the things that you would see in the art museum of Vienna and again you’d have to travel to all the corners of Europe but they’ve brought it all together these hapsburgs and put it in a museum just for you to see all right well obviously this tour takes a lot of care to really embrace the Region’s history and culture but it also makes room room for good oldfashioned fun so right after our salsburg walking tour on day four we will have an apple stre cooking class and this is not a demonstration so you this is a hands-on experience so you are the ones who are going to marinate the apples you will stretch the pastry dough and you will roll out the strudel um another fun thing is one of the school’s uh cook one of the school’s is also a student at Mozart University and they have been known to break out into song in the middle of class so if you get lucky and they are working your class um you might get a performance of Mozart or the sound of music while you’re enjoying your strudel you know right after this strudel making class they have a schnaps tasting and it’s these kinds of fun things that happen when people drink schnaps in my opinion and we’ll talk a little bit more about my love of schnaps later but as we’re speaking about experiences on tour the other thing we’d like to point out is the trumer brewery so the trumer brewery has been brewing beer since 1601 it is a private familyowned Brewery this is just outside of Saltsburg and they’re on their eighth generation of Brewers now and we get to try some of their awardwinning um beers they’ve like in the last 20 years they’ve won four best in ger Germany awards for beer so I think that that’s something super fun that we do as well so educational andle quen your thirst all right and now I’d like to close out our on tour activities with a spotlight on the milk Abbey in The Vow Valley so before our river cruise on the danu on day six of our tour we’ll have a guided tour of the milk Abbey and this Benedictine Abbey is one of Europe’s greatest sites and it is a baroque Masterpiece the abbey church is the centerpiece of this complex and you can see the church from the exterior um from the two symmetrical towers as well as the 200t tall Dome so the church really does dominate The Complex and that was very intentional as it serves to emphasize that the purpose of the Abbey is sacred is 1996 the church was actually restored in celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of the first reference to a country um called Austria the library is the second most important room in the Abbey for Benedictine monks in the Middle Ages when most everyone was illiterate monks were the educated Elite in Europe and they controlled information and hoarded it in libraries like these so they really had the power to dictate what’s true and what isn’t and with that I’ll turn it over to Ben and Gabe thank you very much Emily and Lisa well back to the best of Germany tour I would like to continue the theme that Gabe and I started which is a discussion of the variety and the diversity that exists throughout Germany and therefore on the best of Germany Europe and one of these is the tremendous Geographic variety that exists in the country from the Waterfront Port of hurg that you see here which feels practically Nordic there not too far from Denmark to the flat lands of Northern Germany the Rines luscious green Rolling Hills to Eastern Germany’s terrain and Wetland south of Berlin you’ll experience a wide variety of terrain on the Germany tour and the differences between east and west Germany are but one type of variation from hamburg’s Harbor boat cruise where we learn about Europe’s largest container one of Europe’s largest container ports and a symbol of Germanic trade and power to the Rin Hills and Vineyards where we walk up to medieval reinfeld castle in the green Vine Valley both in Western Germany this is one of my favorite places of all time by the way to Berlin’s Checkpoint Charlie the famous Berlin Wall crossing point this tour Bridges East and West Germany and symbolizes how well Geographic variation Remains the country has melded together okay Additionally the best of Germany tour offers historical variety many Americans are familiar with Germany’s dark 20th century but on this tour you get to witness the good bad ugly and Beautiful from the Middle Ages to the modern age one of my favorite things on this tour is along the rine when you get to see the world through a medieval lens by following the iconic night Watchman on a tour of rotenberg Ober tabber together you’ll follow his Lantern and step into the shadows of medieval rotenberg to learn about the town’s history and to find out find out what went bump in the night centuries ago in air Fort you’ll learn about Europe’s uh you’ll learn about the Europe altering Reformation by touring the wartberg castle where a sympathetic Prince provided Refuge to Martin Luther after he made enemies with the Pope and the emperor World War II is never more palpable than at doow the harrowing memorials and lessons about life in the camp can be devastating but it’s by engaging sites like this that we broaden our perspectives and support the Memorial’s goal never again finally sites like hamburg’s elb Phil harmonic and the rich Stog building in Berlin show that today Germany is a world leader in art architecture and democracy the best of Germany tour also has a lot of cultural Variety in fact you are going to be transported to different worlds you’re going to be transported to the small town worlds of bakaro and rotenberg and the big bustling worlds of cities like Berlin hborg and Munich and you will get walking tours of all of these different places with your guides you can step into a Serene world of monastic peace at the augustinian monastery and air Fort where we will also learn about Martin Luther and how he crashed the catholic’s party and you’ll experience uh both the worlds of East and West Berlin and how one wall can make such a big difference finally with over 14 million first generation immigrants Germany is filled with a mosaic of people and perspectives to get to know so whether you want to experience a brother Grim a Brother’s Grim fairy tale Serene monastic life or forward-thinking Urban wonderlands the best of Germany has what you’re looking for and what you didn’t even know you need it very nice Gabe I completely agree now the best of Germany tour has many impressive and memorable wow moments one of them is a visit to and a tour of the huge neogothic colog Cathedral this started in the 13th century but it was not finished until 1880 most of it was constructed according to the original plans from the 13th and 14th centuy so it is a Gothic or neogothic cathedral in the 19th century in the Years leading up to its finish it took 700 workers nearly 40 years to complete the building in World War II 14 bombs actually struck the building but it miraculously held up very well I remember the first time that I stepped out of cologne’s main train station which is right next door and looked up at this Cathedral I was completely awe struck and it was certainly a wild moment for me and it’s really an example of Germany this interesting uh combination of modern Germany with historic Germany the train station right next to this historic and impressive Cathedral another wild moment is the Ry cruise that we take on the best of Germany tour the Ry is just incredibly gorgeous this important river was uh extremely important historically as well because it was a common border ground and war zone between France and Germany now of course it’s formerly it’s it’s completely part of Germany and today a major transportation cargo route waking up each morning to the charm of Germany is another W moment like you see here in bakarak just outside one of the hotels that we use on the best of Germany tour this is Hotel on marked and working at Rick Steves Europe I have had the pleasure to read hundreds if not thousands of tour reviews I just wanted to share a couple examples with you from Travelers who have joined us on the best of Germany ZD was on the best of Germany tour that started October 3rd and they wrote to us the views of the German Countryside both from the Vantage points of the bus and the Rin River Cruise the landscape in general The Villages the castles just the whole of it and someone just pinched me thank you gab I needed that and Matt on the best of Germany tour starting May 16th wrote 13 days of wow and I don’t say that lightly we have been on a number of Rick Steve’s tours and the level of accommodations and provided breakfast were without exception topnotch as were the included dinners I must mention the Ry Valley Rin feld’s castle and the cruise down to bakarak I think that certainly symbolizes so many of the wonderful wild moments that we have on the best of Germany tour and it also shows that different people have different W moments so I encourage all of you who have not yet joined us for the 13-day best of Germany to come along for the ride and find out what your German wild moment is all right now it is time for the tour activities vote please join us in voting for the tour activities C category and don’t forget about the great variety of tour activities on the best of Germany tour right Gabe exactly so we are pulling up that vote now so make your voice heard are you which uh tour activities most pequ your interest Munich salsburg in Vienna or best of Germany okay I have the great pleasure of introducing the next category free time this is a very important category I think because free time is valuable and it’s important on every Rick Steve’s tour we want to empower travelers to have experiences on their own as well as with the tour group and we will start with best of Germany tour for a free time category the best of Germany tour has quite a bit of free time starting with in hul of course where the tour begins this is the miniature Wonderland Museum it’s a miniature world with the largest model Railway covering 16,000 square fet a model airport with planes taking flight and many parts of the world in miniature I went there probably close to 10 years ago it was pretty amazing I was there last year and it’s ground really has it there’s also as Gabe mentioned earlier the El philarmonic uh we do visit this on the Germany tour but you have the opportunity to buy concert tickets and attend a performance in the evening Now My Backdoor suggestion to you all and daab knows that I’m very passionate about this city one hour on the regional train from hurg so you could do it before you arrive ahead of the Rick Steves tour is the small city of Lubec this is the headquarters of the former htic League a medieval Germanic trading League that’s spread across northern Europe it’s known as the queen of the hza and uh you know the old Center of Luc is is small it’s contained on an island it has excellent shops historic old architecture like you see here and an excellent Museum of the hand itic Le and it’s not too far from the beaches of Northern Germany as well which I quite like so I really love this city it’s certainly worth a look another Charming Town not too far away is Sharin this houses a not so small Blockbuster site you can see it there in the distance this is the Sharin Castle from about 1850 and it was the home of the Dukes of mecklinburg who controlled these lands before Germany became a unified country some decades later the beautiful gardens surrounding the castle and a decadent interior make it a worthwhile stop and I would say in general folks Northern Germany is underappreciated it’s a beautiful part of the country and you should consider spending more time there if you can all right moving on with our free time to the Rind one of our next overnights there are new numerous hiking trails that extend out from bakarak you see here along the way along with with great views you might find little stalls with locally made wine right around the corner and if you don’t want to hike you can also experience wine in the town of course there are many tasting options and this area is known for its white wine varieties and you can even find recing flavored ice cream one of my favorite activities in this region is biking because the roads and trails along the Rind not on the Hills there but along the rine are quite flat so you can rent a bike and cover a lot of ground on a nice day it’s something very special and in rotenberg OB there talber you can walk the town wall from 1400 visit the German Christmas Museum climb the town hall tower for a panoramic view or visit the above average Crime and Punishment Museum which Rick says is one of his favorite Crime and Punishment museums in all of Europe gab as I mentioned before uh on this tour you get an entire free day in Munich which is good because you have an entire week’s worth of things that you could try to pack into that day but you have some great options and probably the most iconic one is the King’s castles there’s the more historic hoen schwangau Castle but more people are familiar with this one the fairy tale neomedieval New schwanstein Castle built by the Mad King ludig King ludvig actually had the New schwanstein Castle designed by a theater set design designer before passing along those plans to an architect and that is obvious in the Castle’s Throne Room its personal chapel and my favorite the faux grot other great s trips from Munich include the BMW velt the BMW world and museum for car lovers you can pop over to salsburg for music enthusiasts and Hitler’s Eagle Nest or history bus also at the right times of year you can stop by October Fest for a Stein in September or October as I had the privilege of doing a few years ago or you can take just a one-hour train train ride to nurburg in November and December to visit the granddaddy of all Christmas markets the Chris Kindle Market finally if you just want to spend your free day relaxing in the English Garden or listening to an Ooma band at the Hof grout house it’s your free day so you should use it however you wish we then in Berlin and while your guide will give you a tour of Berlin there are far more things to see in your free time or if you want to add a days on at the end of the tour first if you haven’t learned enough um Berlin has an entire Museum Island where you can see everything from great Babylonian Gates and busts of Egyptian queens to works by French imp Impressionists and an exhibit of Berlin smells which at least sounds unique um my favorite thing to do in Berlin is to Simply dissolve into the city’s culture I enjoy blending in with locals at a beer garden walking through the interconnected Courtyards or hofa in the Jewish quarter or touring a bizarre Ultra Modern Art Museum usually more for the cultural experience than the art itself and outside of Berlin there is pot Stam which is a popular bedroom community featuring a Pleasant pedestrianized area and some castles of Frederick the great that are not to be missed so from harrowing history to Modern marbles you would have to try hard to get poor in Berlin msv back to you thank you so much gentlemen I just wanted to make a small correction for our audience the best of Germany tours season does not go long enough for anyone to visit a Christmas Market in Norberg or Munich their last tour ends in the middle of October well you just need to stay for an extra month then all right you got stay for extra month they have time come on the Munich salsburg Vienna tour okay well I just had to be fair because the Alps and Christmas markets are ours but you do have a lot of really interesting things gentlemen that we uh that we love and agree with we want to talk about free time now and um some of the things that we would do um with our free time on the mun Saltsburg in Vienna tour um the first thing is in the morning we have a fantastic walking tour with either Michael or Bridget Boro who are just the most Charming brother sister Duo ever and will really tell you everything that you need to know about Munich’s history but for people wanting to explore World War II history deeper there are two good options the Nazi Documentation Center in Munich and the first concentration camp built by Nazis in the nearby small town of DACA the NDC was built over the rubble of the Nazi headquarters in Munich known as the brown house for the brown shirts that the Nazis wore this Museum documents the rise and fall of Nazism with a focus on the role that Munich the city itself played this is a very informative companion Museum to visiting Dao and I highly recommend seeing it first before you go out to Dao um Doo is very easy to get to you can uh get there in about 45 minutes Dao was a sobering and informed modern-day pilgrimage visiting DACA is not on everyone’s vacation itinerary but it truly is walking in the footsteps of History learning about the Holocaust is so important to German citizens that all German high schoolers must visit a concentration camp during their schooling and because DACA was so close to the major city of Munich it’s probably the most popular one if you’re there in May or June you will often see school groups um it’s very easy to uh put yourself like I said in the footsteps of History what I want you to know is somebody who guides here is that the jewer house that we just saw the day house is original but all of the barracks are not so even though this is a very evocative picture and an evocative site this is this is a a replica because the original buildings were in too much disre disrepair to be saved um like I said it’s very easy to get to dock out and it’s very easy to tour it’s completely free and open 7 days a week um your choices are you can get the audio guide from the information center for a small fee you can use the information in Rick Steve’s guide book he has a self-guided tour written out there or you can go with a tour group um usually leaving from Munich rodus tours is a good choice um I don’t think that there is a right or wrong answer to that it’s very dependent on your personal preference some people want to have a conversation with a guide and want to get their questions answered and some people really feel the need to see um the memorial in peace on their own so again I would highly recommend if you um have the capability to visit both the Nazi Documentation Center and Doc out concentration camp so to change gears a little bit one of the things that you can do with your free time is a sound Sound of Music Tour do you need a little D me in your vacation welcome to the home of the sound of music that classic movie from Rogers and Hammerstein that was filmed on location in Saltsburg and has become a beloved classic it’s easy to book a tour online and several company do similar tours visiting places such as here the Mirabel Garden where I actually managed to catch uh a nun walking through maybe she was humming how do you solve a problem like Maria under her breath um you can also go to St Peter’s Cemetery where the vont Trap family in the movie hid from the Nazis as they were making their escape and over to Leopold’s Crone Leopold’s Crone Palace which is a beautiful manor house sitting on a lake that was used in the movie as um as their house although they the V traps were a real family they did live in Saltsburg but this was not their house but again you see the beautiful Alpine Hills Saltsburg is really nestled in the hills of the Alps and it just gets better from there and then of course you must see on a Sound of Music Tour the Gazebo where leisel and Ralph as teenagers 16 going on 17 canoodled in the Gazebo all right well another great free time activity that demands our attention is biking in The Vow Valley The Vow Valley is really a Psy cing Mecca and cyclists do rule this region so if you’d like to take a bike ride during your free time uh while we’re there all the biking amenities you could possibly need um will be all around you so there’s plenty of bike shops which offer rentals and some hotels even provide bikes for free hit it one more time there you go all right so on your bike ride you can zip through Vineyards and from Village to Village on either side of the river the north side of the river has slightly more interesting Villages however the south side does have a continuous clearly marked bike path which is a little more rural but you’ll never have to ride on the road if that’s something you would like to avoid there you go good job technical difficulties all right so I actually went um biking in the vco valley with my family about 5 years ago and this is a picture of us on the south side of the river so we were on the bike path and right behind us you can see durstein again where Richard the lionhardt was imprisoned and to the right of us you may notice a little fairy dock so during your ride uh there are three different points in the vaco valley where you could cross cross the river by ferry with your bike if you would like to change things up you know what they grow in that Valley lots of grapes lots of wines we’re drinking some Austrian wine tonight we are having some gruner veltliner veltliner my German is not so good I should drink more wine um but I wanted to point out that um while Germany has many great uh white wine grapes uh they grow the reasing and it’s adorable in Austria we have not only the white wine but we have awardwinning red wines so zelt from crem is one of my favorite red wines and the New York Times actually did an article about the best Austrian wines under $20 so uh if we could have gotten one of those for tonight we would have but we want you to understand that in Austria you drink red wine and white wine mhm Thank you Lisa and um continue on one more must do for your free time is a concert between Vienna the birthplace of what we call classical music in salsburg AKA Mozart’s Hometown there are no shortage of opportunities to hear live classical music during your free time in salsburg there are daily concerts all over the city in historic settings like hoen salsburg the Mirabel Palace or you could attend mass in in the salsburg cathedral to listen to worship music or pop in for one of the church’s free organ concerts moart who was the church’s organist for two years would recommend sitting in the pews directly beneath the dome for the best Acoustics oh that advice you gave me was from Mozart our close personal friend all right and Vienna of course still thrives as Europe’s musical capital on any given evening you’ll have your choice of Opera Strauss waltz’s Mozart chamber concerts and light-hearted musicals the Vienna Bo choir does live up to its worldwide reputation but beware that concerts book up so you’ll definitely want to get your tickets in advance so now it is time to have you vote thank you viewers to have you vote on your free time choices so give me just a second and I’m going to launch this poll all right ready yep thank you all for voting okay so it is my turn to uh talk about our next topic and that is hold on to your hats kids this is the most important topic this is Cuisine so we are going to talk about about all of the things that you’re going to eat and drink when you are in in Austria Germany on the Munich Saltsburg Vienna tour or the Germany tour let’s be fair so I’m gonna start with asking Emily to talk to us about Cafe culture I would love to Lisa thank you for the introduction so Vienna has a strong Cafe culture that goes back to the 18th century when coffee first became popular with the Aristo y by the 20th century the Vienna coffee scene had become so REI so refined that waiters would bring around a sheet with various shades of brown so they were uh kind of functioned like paint samples and customers would be able to make exactly clear how much milk they wanted in their coffee and um while they’ve done away with uh that method of ordering um cafes are still an integral part of daily life for the vianes for many the neighborhood Cafe is their living room and um throughout the centuries they have maintained this uh traditional dignified Persona um here you can see it’s standard practice for your coffee to be served on a silver tray with a glass of tap water and sometimes a little piece of chocolate on the side and if you need a pickme up um do as the austrians do and have some afternoon coffee and cake so once you arrive at your Cafe of choice you’ll claim a sofa or a table and head to the display window um and check out the pastries and cakes of the day and all you really need to do is just point at whichever piece of cake you’d like and if you’d like to try a local specialty uh definitely order the soccer Tor this is a dense chocolate cake with a dark chocolate glaze and apricot jam between the layers and it is usually served with whipped cream and it is an important uh cake that was just one of many Cakes and Pastries that were done if I could jump on that for just a second I would say you also uh get Linder tort while you’re in Austria from the city of Lind and if you happen to be in Copenhagen you might be at a bakery and you might order some Viner broad which means the bread from Vienna because the vienes paker Bakers are so good so prolific that when there was a strike of Bakers in Copenhagen they brought them all in from Austria and the austrians invented the Danish too God bless them I could not be more grateful so when we talk about Austrian Cuisine we are talking about the five s’s um and the first one is soccer tort as Emily introduced us to and the second one is schnitzel as in vener schnitzel so vener from Vienna so really from Vienna the Schnitzel and uh this is a personal favorite of mine if any of you guys saw the Vienna show that Rick did earlier he was eating vener schnitzel that I made and brought to him and I taught my daughter to make the Schnitzel and this is the most important part of making a schnitzel the Schnitzel the ve cutlet um must must be so thin that you can almost read the newspaper through it right at the cafe in the newspaper so I taught her to bang the heck out of this cutlet with I’m using some G terer there wine so that’s really important um the Schnitzel um like I said from Vienna is made with ve and that is not something that I would eat in America ve because of the way it’s raised but in Europe it’s just a designation of the age of the cow so it’s perfectly fine from from that kind of standpoint there is also uh Jagger schnitzel or ROM schnitzel so Jer schnitzel always has a gravy a brown gravy with mushrooms and then ROM schnitzel is also schnitzel but with a cream sauce um so this is a a lovely one these are these rum schnitzel and Jer schnitzel um more often come maybe with a a noodle or potatoes the vener Schnitzel almost always comes with either uh French rice or potato salad and then the third s is strudel so Appel strudel is an Austrian delicacy um that they’re very proud of you see it served everywhere we go to an apple strudel making class on the tour so we can’t deny its import and deliciousness and then you’re going to take it away for our next thing and I’ll get back to the last of the five s’s of Austrian cuisine in just a moment yes well you do need something to drink with all of that delicious Austrian food and um it is definitely important to highlight the wine in Austria so Austria specializes in Boutique wines and that means most of their wine makers um most of their wines come from small family-owned Estates and their wines are generally not exported therefore not well known however when locals order Austrian wine they are expecting a quality that is equal to that of a French or Italian wine and The Vow Valley is one of the country’s best wine regions and we will have a wine tasting uh during our time there but Vienna is a very large producer as well it actually is the only capital in the world that has a significant wine industry within City Limits and the best way to enjoy vienes wine is definitely at a Hoyer and a Hoyer is a rustic Wine Garden or Tavern in Vienna’s rural neighborhoods and these are easily accessible by public transit from downtown they’re most famous for serving new wine which means wine from the most recent vintage and a glass of new wine typically costs about2 to3 so it’s really affordable Hoy rers also have something of a it’ be similar to a full service deli counter that you’d see at a grocery store in the United States they offer lots of roasted meats and tasty side dishes and these are just really great places to have a casual dinner after a day of sightseeing you’ll often see kids frolicking in the vineyard uh this family over here even has their dog so everyone is welcome at Hoy riger really you couldn’t you couldn’t overestimate how Charming a Hoy rigger is okay fourth of the five s’s this is spatel or spla this is uh usually a rustic shaped hand dumpling kind of like AI the one that you’re looking at right now is a KES spatel but you can get spatel nure which is plain um great for dipping in those sauces from the rum schnitzel but quesa spatel is kind of like the best macaroni and cheese you maybe ever had and one of the things that is um I think just really cool about this if you look at this picture you can see the ker sprad so you can see that they’re using um very thin wooden utensils but if you look at the bowl that bowl is made of the same material that ice cream cones are made from so like the wafer so that bowl is edible although honestly it’s not very delicious but it is compostable and good for the environment so ker spritzel fourth of the five s’s for Austria and then the last one is schnaps so austrians love their schnaps we actually do schnaps tasting at the Apple strud which I think we already mentioned um you know we’ve talked about a lot of the food in Austrian it’s a little bit heavy and one of the things that austrians do for their digestion is they have some schnaps and the alcohol will help break everything down in your tummy um so you don’t get a tummy ache and that’s uh very important they come in a range of flavors so I think the one that we’re looking at here is a plum brandy from the zkin brand that’s from the t- roller region I have a particularly favorite type of schnaps which is I’m a little embarrassed about it because it it’s like the weakest schnaps they make and it’s a little sugary but it’s made from pine sap so I the Pacific Northwestern eny just goes crazy you make something out of pine sap and I think that’s fantastic um but you’ll also want to try some of the more traditional flavors like apricot uh and Cherry is probably one of the most popular but the schnaps will break down all that rich food in your tummy and you’ll be happier for having had it so they’re healthy you could say you yes they for you can absolutely say they’re healthy gentlemen over to you thank you very much Lisa and Emily delicious I think we will present some German cuisine that is equally if not more so delicious but we’ll see about that I would like to start with the great classic beer and beer gardens so uh here we have actually one of our tour guides retired Pat OK Conor enjoying some fantastic beer in Munich and beer gardens are Lively fun places filled with rivers of beer naturally cheap food and excellent music they are found across Germany not just in Bavaria and their long history actually dates back to when monks sold beer centuries ago now you can get a liter or a half liter you can get dark beer light beer or even a rler uh a rler by the way is half beer half lemonade and it’s my personal favorite choice I think it was actually uh made and popularized by bicyclists because they would drink it and not get drunk so they could still ride their bicycle that’s my understanding anyway beer Halls beer gardens are classic German gimlick which is a term related to coziness with a knack for savoring the moment and actually Gabe and I are sipping some delicious German beer we couldn’t just stay away Rose R Ro everyone very refreshing goes down absolutely quite easily the end of a long duel need something refreshing so German beer excellent of course but then there’s wine of course and uh as Lisa mentioned white wine is the specialty but it’s done particularly well this is just behind the town of bakarak so you can find white wine from the ryin valley the bosel valley the specialty here among the varieties specialized are GT tramer which has an aromatic intense spicy note and reesling which is more fruity and fragrant might even visit this area when there are wine festivals which is one town really be comes alive I was actually in the mosal valley for a wine festival and it seems like every other shop was a wine shop it was a good time now you see The Vineyards along the line Germans take great pride in their bread as well there are 35,000 bakeries in Germany and the oldest one in Bavaria is more than 450 years old there are more than 3,000 types of German bread among the most famous and my favorite is pumper nickel which is a wonderfully dense slightly sweet rye bread you know I’m fortunate to have a number of German friends and one of the things that I find between all of them is in the morning they always have their dense pumper nickel bread with some tomato or cheese on top it’s very nice and of course the pretzel or in German bretzel with a be the perfect perfect accompanyment to a glass of beer which Gabe and I are taking advantage of tonight this comes from Southern Germany and it’s been prepared and baked for centuries nothing like a good pretzel now I would like to take a moment alone as Rick would say with my Schwarz valder here T Lisa and Emily talked about the wonderful cakes of Austria but in my opinion this cake tops them all I actually grew up with this cake I requested this cake for my birthday for many years it is a chocolate cake with a cream filling with cherries and there’s even some cherry leor used to spice it up a bit this combination is truly spectacular and an example of classic German desserts and I actually ate this entire piece now there is of course sausage or verst it’s extremely important in German cuisine and there are numerous varieties I actually have a brat burst here and bratv is simply means sausage for frying or grilling they’re also frankfurters which is sort of the ancestor of the hot dog and that’s what you see here I believe there’s also Curry verst a grilled pork sausage with curry flavored ketchup vegetarian sausage is on the rise as well it’s become increasingly popular I think nothing says Germany quite like a good burst and upon that my German thre said to me in English is Germany really does have the best of the verst all right well while we as Travelers enjoy learning about the L held Traditions food being one of those like pretzels and burst it’s important to remember that Europe is always changing and today’s Germany is a multicultural Nation with Cuisine that reflects that 19 million people in Germany that’s almost a quarter of their population are either immigrants or the children of immigrants the largest immigrant population is from turkey and I got to enjoy this Heritage on my last trip to Germany last summer with a sensational Turkish meal at the restaurant pukal which is in Hamburg and listed in our Germany guide book similarly you have restaurants like Babel which offers Lebanese fair and der Blau fuks which serves up Georgian Specialties like grilled eggplant filled with Walnut paste and kapori cheese bread those two restaurants are in Berlin and and beyond that in the Rick Steve’s Germany guide book which you would get as a tour member um you’ll see that it’s filled with restaurants offering French Italian and polish Specialties reflecting the Rich Blend of cultures that Germany enjoys by being the economic Powerhouse of the EU so especially for my my fellow vegetarians all that kind of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food is a great option to complement the more traditional offerings and along with this array of International Food offerings there’s also plenty of opportunity to enjoy German grown fair at Germany’s plentiful markets in Berlin there are at least four farmers markets offering a mix of farm fresh produce and Chic eateries the most famous Market Hall Market Hall 9ine offers three farmers markets per week and hosts street food Thursdays it’s a great place to also pick up spre walled cucumbers and the resulting gerkens of course in Hamburg uh the Famous Fish Market is a place where early birds and night owls Collide the market assembles from 5: to 900 am on Sunday mornings and it brings together Partiers having one last beer at the end of a long night out as well as shopkeepers shouting out deals for the freshest cches and finally below a towering Maple Munich boasts the iconic victan Market I cannot say it as well as Lisa can um how do you say it Lisa victan M victan M see your German has gotten better with that wine um where Shoppers can enjoy full meals pick out local produce or buy sausages from butcheries that have stood on the same spot for 700 years so uh you can experience both the old and new food traditions that Germany has to offer so while Ben and I dig into our pretzel and our verse we are going to call another vote we would like to know which tour you think would connect you with the best quisine all right so we are going to end that poll and that brings us to our our closing arguments um so we are going to wrap up this debate and then we are going to give you one last chance to vote for which tonic itinerary you think should re Supreme give me just a moment priorities mom I should not have I took a a very large bite of pretzel literally bit off more than I could chew all right well speaking of delicious food I promised you that Ben and I were going to tell you about the incredible variety that you will experience on the best of Germany tour and bring you cour course after course of um delicious sits and experiences that you can expect so tonight we started with an appetizer of fragrant fish in Maritime history in Hamburg we had a little Amo bu with a world-renowned cathedral in Cologne we had a heaping helping of medieval Germany and natural beauty along the rine we had a platter of iconic side trips from fairy tale castles to historic sites in Munich we got a taste of religious history in airport and we finished with a great dessert in Berlin where we enjoyed colorful Courtyards and decadent history from many interesting decades so Ben and I hope that um that the the variety contained within the best of Germany tour will convince you that it is the next itinerary to put on your lists absolutely Gabe you know Germany in so many ways represents both Europe’s tumultuous history and its more prosperous present it’s AC Crossroads of east and west north and south and as the continent’s most populous and economically strong country with a storied past and varied culture we truly believe that Germany deserves its own Rick Steve’s tour together on the 13-day best of Germany tour we Traverse this country’s major highlights like Berlin and Munich but we also provide the time to visit lesser known places that truly surprise like air Fort hurg uh monster so please join us to dive into Germany head first don’t just stick your toe in Munich with our best of Germany in 13 days tour that is uh wonderful and the gentlemen have made some good points but we still feel that our tours blend of experiences like strudel making schnaps tasting visiting the masterpieces of the K to stor show Museum in Vienna the Charming Christmas markets in the land of gingerbread and glue Vine make the Munich Saltsburg and Vienna tour a better choice we also love the length of our tour because it allows for tour members with shorter vacation times to join us just like my friend Jen shoy who has been on over 75 Rick Steve’s tours as an employee she went on this tour with her mom and she said and I quote or review may be the most important the Munich Saltsburg Vienna tour was just magical since great things can come in small packages let us open the jewel box of the Munich Saltsburg Vienna tour for you and with that I believe we’ve come to our final vote so let’s see which tour Reigns Supreme after all all right Ben’s getting the calculator ready we’ll be crunching the numbers all right this this is exciting I know it’s been actually pretty it’s been pretty close oh boy tight one come on Germany go German Germany and a have it both yeah we should um yeah the we should uh do the Germany Austria Switzerland tour we should have done that one as a compromise for everybody oh that’s they would they would choose that because then they would get I just wanted to point out that I am wearing the colors of the Austrian flag today in in uh support of uh the country that most of our tour takes place in uh would this be a good time for me to do a word from our sponsor this would be a great time to do a word from our sponsor Thank you Lisa sure so we just released our 2025 tour dates that’s why we’re having this show tonight we’re so excited our motto at Rick Steves is small group Big Bus no Grumps we take 24 to 28 people on a 50- seat bus so there’s plenty of room to spread out and enjoy the scenery as it rolls by the window on the majority of our tours we stay in towns for two nights so we can settle into a place we also have as I mentioned earlier about a third of your time free for your own Explorations Rick Steve’s tours are Physically Active educational and experiential you will save time by skipping the lines when you’re with the group and you don’t have to worry about buying extra excursions tipping the guide or the driver or the hotel staff we take care of all of that for you we’d love to have you join us on any tour of your choice please check out all our itineraries on our website all right so without further Ado uh we would like to unveil that the winner of this edition of the destination duels series is Munich salsburg and the nice preserved we can look at at um what people voted within the various categories so we can see that Germany was off to a strong start with a slight Edge in terms of itinerary and tour activities but msv punched back with a strong performance in both free time and Cuisine and then it was a razor thin margin for the over impression 51 to 49 but in the end congratulations Munich salsburg and Vienna you emerged Victorious thank you so much and um again as a reminder to everybody you could just do the Germany Austria and Switzerland tour and um get Germany Austria and some more um all right well thank you to all of you for joining us uh we very much appreciate you taking time out of your evening to cast your vote make your voice heard and learn a bit about these itineraries as we celebrate the launch of our 2025 tours I would like to remind you that next week I will be back as your host and we are going to be discussing how to use a mobile phone abroad um it can be a tool that is extremely helpful but also one that causes a lot of headaches so we are going to try to um focus on how to use those savy this cannot be enough verb savy I’m using it all right so thank you everybody and I look forward to seeing you next [Music] week all right good night everybody good night good night [Music]