I have been Rick Steves' tour books for more than a decade and a half dozen self guided tours, but not to Germany. We also took a 3 week tour of Italy with his guides. His material is very helpful to those who want "to become temporary Europeans" as he suggests. His books and video emphasize ease of getting around and stress the "doable" rather than all that's "possible"; thus I have found them to be much more useful than any of the others on the market. Not everyone would agree, of course. His programs air on Public Television Stations and can give a flavor of his approach. Traveling by car vs by public transportation: much depends on where you plan to go-- major cities, villages, out of the way sites, etc. To me this better determines which method of transport is the better rather than cost, per se. Generally I don't drive in the major cities, but use busses or trams. If we want to spend time in smaller villages and surroundings, a car is often a must. Train travel in Europe, as I'm sure many others will tell you, has nothing in common with the snippet that available to but very few of us in the States. For many Europeans it is THE method of getting around. There are a lot of sites that offer combination rail pass/auto rental packages. Sometimes that's the more useful. Rick Steves provides this service as well as other travel advice and resources including a very helpful message board. Write me directly if you want more info. Jerry Lock Haven, Pa On Feb 5, 2010, at 11:15 AM, <jeffreywhelan@hotmail.com> <jeffreywhelan@hotmail.com > wrote: Dori - You might want to look into this web site: http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/ . It is a guy local to me here in Seattle and he's been traveling to Europe for decades. Hopefully that gives you some help, it looks like there's a message board there you could post to as well. - Jeff ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLANDBORDERSURNAMES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message