This episode the German Genealogy Girl has a guest sitting next to her: Ute Brandenburg from German Script Experts. They talk about the many aspects of ancestral travel. Here are some important things to know before you start your trip to Germany.

· Start in good time, if research needs to be done it’s best to start about 1 year in advance.

· You need to have at least one German record that gives the exact place of birth, otherwise you might go to the wrong place!

· Germany has great public transportation and you can really get around by using the train. However, if you need to go to the small villages on the countryside, you will have to rent a car to get there. For the train connections see www.bahn.de.

·  Accommodations: there often are really nice hotels on the country side. They won’t have WiFi or air condition but are nice and cozy and often the owners are from this area and give you lots of advice where to go and whom to talk to. And maybe you even are related! For the renovated estate houses of Mecklenburg see http://www.gutshaeuser.de/en/content/view/full/77

· Do not miss the many Open Air Museums. These are some of them

http://www.moormuseum-moordorf.de/, http://www.kommern.lvr.de/de/startseite/startseite.html, https://www.hessenpark.de/, http://www.schloss-gottorf.de/molfsee; http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Kultur/LWL-Freilichtmuseum-Detmold/; http://freilandmuseum.de/startseite.html; https://www.glentleiten.de/; https://www.freilichtmuseum-rlp.de/

· Also the Auswanderhaus in Bremerhaven is a must! http://dah-bremerhaven.de/

And don’t forget: Always carry cash with you, Germans love cash and there are a lot of places that don’t accept credit cards!