hey there this is the Travel Guide or your world war 2 tour across parts of
Europe I'm going to give you our 7-day itinerary for our travel to the World
War 2 areas including Normandy Berlin Munich and Brussels I will tell you our
hotels and give you some restaurants that you can eat at after a day of
touring this is a very thorough guide for places to see for the World War 2
tour across Europe so I will link all of these in the description box below for
you grab a cup of coffee or a German beer and let's take notes
since 2019 is the 75th anniversary of d-day and our son loves World War 2
history we decided to make this trip we started our World War two tour in Munich
since that's where Hitler's reign began and we stayed in the Sheraton Munich and
it was a little far out like near office buildings and I don't recommend it to
stay if you need to pop into a restaurant or you like to walk around at
night after you've gotten back to your hotel so I'm going to link one to living
hotel it's near the virtual and marked and it's a lot more walking friendly for
you when you travel to Munich we suggest starting out at the Marion Platz and
going to see the new Town Hall there's usually a demonstration there or some
group singing there are lots of touristy things you can do there and there's also
a church if you go under this little entrance new in the Marion Platz that
you can ride up the elevator and then you look out over this very narrow
balcony and just see gorgeous views from Munich at the new town halls clock tower
you can see at 11:00 a.m. and noon this little cuckoo clock kind of thing with
little bit Varian themed movement of things inside the clock it's just cute
to see after you have done the touristy thing and walked around you can go to
the Hofbrau Haus to have a famous beer there it's not my favorite personally
but it's a touristy place to go and you kind of have to check it off your box
for having seen the inside of it Hitler did parade through the Marion
Platz years ago and there is all over the internet that you can
have for that we highly recommend a sweet treat or a warm coffee on a cold
day at the cafe Frisehhut Schmalnoodle the snack is a schmallnoodle and it's
got lots of sugar on top with just a hint of cinnamon
it's just perfect the line was out the door when we went to get this sweet
treat and it is a local favorite so that's why it was so crowded on the
inside as well the next day we decided to go to Dachau outside of Munich and
you have to take the s2 train to get there it's probably about a thirty
minute train ride and then you get on a little bus once you get once you get out
of that little train station when you do get off at the train stop and you're
waiting for the bus there is a little bitty really cheap five-and-dime store
across the street I don't think there is like a 7-eleven like my husband needed a
little sock hat because it was so windy and cold that day and we were able to
get it really cheap in that little store it's just a little bus be prepared for
lives of tourists to get on the little buses that take you about a 10 minute
drive to Dachau when you get off the bus into cow you will see the little park
entrance and it has like two stalls of very clean bathrooms and then they have
a tiny cafe if you have to eat something there I would give it about two and a
half hours at least because it is the most well preserved prison camp but you
get to guide yourself around so many cool areas and it's a vast park and then
there's also a little indoor l-shaped building Museum that will take you quite
a while to go through it if you like to read most of the things you may want to
look into a dark history tour and I will link that below also in the description
box it will talk more about the Third Reicht and World War 2 with Hitler and
those kind of things that afternoon we hopped on a train and road to Berlin and
it's about a four hour train ride and it is beautiful scenery this was the most
beautiful scenery out of all the train rides we took and this train had the
best amenities we had our own little waitress who came and this is the type
of regional train that I am going to be talking about for the rest of the time
it is the deutsche bahn the regional train system you will pass by the
Volkswagen factory my husband loves those kind of cars and it is the largest
factory in the world for Volkswagen we highly recommend the tour company with
locals you get to choose your own guide based on their bio that you look out
look at online we chose Dave he was a cool looking guy and we had two
teenagers traveling with us so we thought that would be perfect and he was
an excellent tour guide he was friendly he was informational he gave us enough
pauses so we could process everything we did about five miles of walking just in
the morning history tour we had a history tour like four four hours and we
did stop for coffee and sit for about thirty minutes on that tour we went to
the Check Point Charlie we did the Brandenburg Gate the Berlin Wall and
there's a monument area that you walk through it's amazing he tells you all
these behind the scenes stories and lets you touch where bullet holes are still
in some of the buildings they're great monuments around Berlin it's a more
modern city than Munich but just as beautiful and just as perfect he also
took us to Hitler's old headquarters and then we took a three-hour break went
back to our hotel and then met back up with him for a food tour at night
here's a travel tip for food tours you get so much local fare local food local
history as well as years and generations ago of history if you take a lude tour
know that in some food tours you are going to have to pay at each little
restaurant where you go like in Italy we paid in advance for the food tour and
never pay for it along the way but in at this boot or you have to pay along the
way for each sampler that you get and then also we had to pay our tour guide
in cash well we didn't realize that we were gonna have to pay for the food so
we ran out of our cash really fast and it was a Sunday night when we were
looking for an ATM they were everywhere but they were also all empty and it was
freezing cold and it even started snowing on us while we were looking for
an ATM after it poured down rain on us as well so be prepared have a jacket
with a hoodie the next morning at 6 a.m. we took a seven-hour train ride to
Brussels and know that you might need to look at the train station or the metro
stations map the night beforehand so you know which train to take to get you to
the major train station you always want to take the deutsche bahn for the
regional trains ok that took me forever to get it through my head that's why I'm
trying to help you out before you go a travel tip for travelling on a train in
Europe know that if you are making a connection like you have to go to a
certain city and then hop on another train to get to Brussels or any other
city for that matter know that there are delays along the way just like airlines
have you might miss your connection so give yourself time or know that if it's
the last connection at night you might be in that city and need to find a hotel
last minute but the train systems do have free Wi-Fi on most of them and I'll
talk about that later as well we were very delayed trying to make our
connection to get us to Brussels and so like we had already missed the time but
when we got to the station they were holding the train for us as well as for
everybody else in the station and everyone was so crowded trying to run
just be prepared if you have kids hold on in that suitcase hold onto your hand
and push it's ok I have a video about picking out the best carry-on suitcase
those are the kind of suitcases we always travel with the reason why is
because we travel to Europe a lot and to get from a train station to your hotel
you have to walk several blocks when we get to Brussels we had to walk several
blocks to get to the Grand Place and we were very thankful for the wheels on our
suitcases the Grand Place is iconic Brussels it's beautiful and there is one
hotel on the four sides of that Grand Place and we got to stay in it it's a
very minimalist boutique hotel I will link it below and it was very affordable
we heard from a local about a French front place for Brussels french fries
called freaked land and i will link it below very walkable from the grand place
there's a Starbucks right there on the grand place we also had a beer at the
Guinness Book of World Record most beers on tap restaurant down below these
little steps I will try to find that to link it for you as well we also did a
chocolate making class we wanted so badly to go to best stone where the
Battle of the Bulge took place but we just did not have time so we just did
the touristy things there's the ad ammonium add ammonium I believe it's
called I will link all those below to for you so the next day we took the
train to Paris and then switch trains which took like almost an hour for us to
go down the level to actually read the sign and figure out which train to
actually take but we took the train from Paris to buy you there are people who
will get on a bus first thing in the morning in Paris and drive on that bus
to Normandy and then spend just a few hours in Normandy and come back to Paris
do not do it staying by you stay in Normandy the Normandy beaches remind me
of like Cape Cod or Kennebunkport just beautiful you can ride bikes all along
there it's very open and spacious and tourist friendly our tour guide loved
history he started talking at 8 in the morning and did not stop until 5 o'clock
at night but I would let you know the company that we used for our tour guide
in Normandy ok so we stopped from Paris to buy you and then our tour guide took
us picked us up in by you so we got to buy you late afternoon and at night and
our we stayed at an Airbnb that had a washer and dryer
if I was going again I would have taken like a laundry detergent packet that I
now know about and wash some clothes to get us through the rest of the trip but
anyway our Airbnb guy told us about a pizza place but it was closed so we went
to this one restaurant called the butchery or love it was a meat place it
was decked out in cow heíd cow stuff everywhere it they serve
steak there were tons of people there like the restaurant was full at nine
o'clock at night a lot of the pizza places closed at 9:00 p.m. at night so
the next day we went to the pizza place it's called pizzeria Fredo Bayou is a
very very walkable town like not even a mile I don't think within the square
area from our steak restaurant to where our Airbnb was to where the pizzeria
freddo place was highly recommend this city there was a little cafe it was like
boulangerie st. something it was right by our Airbnb my fingers were greasy
after eating the croissant that's when you know you will have a real fresh
croissant in France and then at la Boucherie or the steak restaurant that
I'll list below for you the steaks were great I would go up two levels of
doneness when you order beef in Europe I have butternut squash soup it was
fantastic and then of course red wine in France I had to have some of that
it was delicious prior to visiting Normandy I had no idea of the
catastrophes that happen on d-day in 1944 it makes me so proud of all the
people from different countries who fought for this - freeing the people
over there and for our freedom I just I feel like this generation and younger do
not have a clue about what y'all went through or what anyone has gone through
of loss I definitely want to go back there I want people to stay on the beach
in Normandy there is the d-day restaurant it's a yellow building
awesome food when you visit Normandy you'll probably go to Utah Beach and
Omaha Beach but don't stop there go to the Memorial Cemetery and make sure
you're there near 4 o'clock when they play taps and they lower the flags it is
such a beautiful Cemetery this is where the beginning of Saving Private Ryan
took place and it's on a cliff almost overlooking the ocean
gorgeous views and amazing we highly recommend the tour company that I will
list below I've mentioned before y'all there are museums on every corner almost
there are sites there are bunkers that you can walk into when you visit
normally do not miss the Pont du Hoc Ranger Museum or monument this is a vast
monument of the battlefield all these bunkers that are very well preserved you
can walk inside the bunkers amazing amazing history there great place for
kids to just run our teenagers just left us and we never saw them it was so large
of a place until it was time to go it almost looks like the surface of the
Moon from where the bombs and the craters of the bombs were and there's
one bunker on the cliff that looks like a scene from Star Wars and it has like a
dagger the monument has like a dagger through a book I'm not quite sure about
the history of that I could not find any pictures of that if you have a picture
our tour guide had a picture I can't find any picture of it on Google so if
you have a picture please let me know so that I can put it in here sometime I
will definitely go back to Normandy please don't ride the bus get a private
tour guide while you were there it is worth it oh my goodness because of all
the museums you do need that whole day and the next day to really see all of
Normandy and go into an antique store here or there we just did not have time
because we were only there during our child's spring break so we had to hit
the road but let me tell you about the trains we bought you're a rail passes
and they were three hundred thirty dollars each now we did buy the
first-class ticket and that's just twenty one dollars extra per person but
we on some of the trains we did not reserved seats but on the first train
route or the second train ride we got our own little room with a door and a
table it was very quiet but the trains are very quiet when you buy a Eurail
pass the Eurorail pass is good for five legs and you have to use it within 31
days or something like that and then also
you will go to Eurorail no Eurorail calm or rail Europe calm and either one one
you go and do the research for the legs you need and then it will spit you out
to buy tickets on the other website its kind of confusing but they're the same
thing it's just different links they're like sister companies ok and if you buy
the first-class ones in some of the train stations the regional deutsche
bahn train stations you will get to go to the first-class lounge if you get
there early and it's just like free drinks and a little snack that you can
eat on but it's quiet it's not in the train station per se clean bathrooms we
have had success with all bathrooms in the train stations in Europe they're all
clean just know that you might need some coins
because on some of them you have to pay to use the restroom because there's a
person could be a man who is gonna clean your area when you leave the stall ok I
hope this was a good starting point for you to know where to hit along the way
as you travel across Europe visiting World War 2 sites or museums and
different cities let me know if there's something you thought of that I did not
list below and I will list that link if I can find it thanks for visiting