Visit to Solms

[WeinschelA]

My wife and I are making a pilgrimage to Solms this summer for the factory tour. We need to get from our hotel in Frankfurt to Solms for the 10 am tour and then back to the Frankfurt airport. Can anyone recommend a car service that could at reasonable cost pick us up in Frankfurt, take us to Solsm, wait and then take us to the airport? We'll have all our luggage so we would prefer not to have to take public transport -- hopefully we can leave the bags in the car. Any info on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[storybrown]

While venerable ones are pondering how to best answer this query, I would like to piggyback on it & ask how one might best make this same visit while attending the Frankfurt bookfair.

Maybe the answer is the same, or only a little variation. Thanks!

[erg]

You can try the following company, located in Giessen which is near to Solms. You can book them online. I've worked with them a few times and they are reliable. Their business class service has a very good for the price and is still much more favorable than the airport taxi in Frankfurt.

Best,

E.

"http://www.taxi-blitz.de"

[marknorton]

Frankfurt to Solms is an easy journey, I'd just pick up a rental car.

[bindrar]

Ahh, but if they get a rental car, they will also need a GPS ... which one would you recommend? I hate NeverLost from Avis!

[andybarton]

Or a map

Which is what I intend to use when I go.

[bill]

Originally Posted by andybarton

Or a map

Which is what I intend to use when I go.

I just take a boy scout*. They are also useful for tying knots and whittling anything you want, er, tied or whittled.

Regards,

Bill

*Caveat - make sure they have their navigation badge.

[rob_x2004]

Lonely Planet?

[andybarton]

Originally Posted by bill

I just take a boy scout*. They are also useful for tying knots and whittling anything you want, er, tied or whittled.

Regards,

Bill

*Caveat - make sure they have their navigation badge.

You'd need a very small one if you were to avoid having to buy an extra seat on the plane.

I wonder if the German Scouting movement have English speaking Scouts to hire at the airport?

Alternatively, someone could be gainfully employed painting logos and directions to Solms from Frankfurt Airport on all the roadsigns.

Or, just follow the directions from Frankfurt Airport to Solms, Germany

[rickp13]

there is a PDF file with maps and directions at this part of the leica camera site. hope it's useful.

greetings from hamburg

rick

Leica Camera AG - Leica Plant Germany

[marknorton]

Anyone would think that driving in Germany is like going to the Amazon jungle. A5 north from Frankfurt, A45 to Dortmund, Come off at Wetzlar, E44 to Solms, then follow the street signs to Leica.

Driving in Germany is easy, though I don't think Andy (who I have in mind as a bit of a tree hugger) would like the speed I drive at...

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[andybarton]

Originally Posted by marknorton

Driving in Germany is easy, though I don't think Andy (who I have in mind as a bit of a tree hugger) would like the speed I drive at...

LOL! Never hugged a tree in my life, your Honour. I've had my moments (and have the 6 points to prove it ), although I don't drive excessively fast here any more.

I have no problem with driving fast. I was a passenger in the back of a VW camperwagon bus thing last Spring, on the autobahn between Munich and somewhere past the BMW factory, on the way to Austria. We were doing well over 100mph and the really incredible bit was that I could hear the overtaking Maseratis approaching even over the noise of the VW.

I spoke with the driver, who regularly drives in the UK, about the dangers of driving at such speed. He said that they rarely have accidents, but when they do, they are really BIG ones

It also seems much safer on the autobahn, because everyone knows that there will be cars closing on them at twice thier speed, if they are doing 70mph. In the UK, of course, people overtaking on the motorway could be sticking to the speed limit, or breaking it by 5, 10, 50 mph - it's a bit of a lottery.

Give me the autobahn or the autoroute in France any day.

[stunsworth]

Andy, the only problem I've had with the Autobahns is the fact that many of them are only two lanes. So if you get stuck behind a lorry you can be there for ages while the maniacs in Porsches (hi Mark <grin>) scream past. Then again I was driving a BMW 520 with zero acceleration.

French autoroutes are fantastic compared to British motorways. Outside of Paris you can actually expect to average 70-80 MPH rather than the 30-40 MPH in the UK.

[veraikon]

Germany is like going to the Amazon jungle. A5 north from Frankfurt, A45 to Dortmund, Come off at Wetzlar, E44 to Solms, then follow the street signs to Leica.

Might be confusing but E[uropastrasse] 44 is more often numbered local as B[undesstrasse]49.
Also: A[utobahn]5 north from Frankfurt -> Cross X Gambach -> A45 (=E41) direction Siegen/Dortmund ->Exit Wetzlar (not Wetzlar-Süd) -> B[undesstrasse] 49 till exit Burgsolms than follow the signs (see pics above)


Hope you won´t be disappointed from the solms plant . The Leica factory is in my eyes a little bit "nüchtern" as every producing factory.

[WeinschelA]

Originally Posted by veraikon

Might be confusing but E[uropastrasse] 44 is more often numbered local as B[undesstrasse]49.
Also: A[utobahn]5 north from Frankfurt -> Cross X Gambach -> A45 (=E41) direction Siegen/Dortmund ->Exit Wetzlar (not Wetzlar-Süd) -> B[undesstrasse] 49 till exit Burgsolms than follow the signs (see pics above)


Hope you won´t be disappointed from the solms plant . The Leica factory is in my eyes a little bit "nüchtern" as every producing factory.

Thanks for all the help from everyone. I have a little Garmin GPS that has Europe maps in it so I may consider renting a car in Frankfurt and then just returning it at the airport. But can you please translate "nüchtern" for me.

[marknorton]

"nuechtern" means (say) "unexciting".

If you want to be amazed, go to the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen. Just fantastic, the level of automation making a new car every 48 seconds. You walk around the body plant on an overhead gantry and get a birds-eye view of robots working in teams making car bodies in white.

Same with the BMW factory in Munich. As you walk around, it's now just what is happening around you which is fascinating but what you see overhead, the parts delivery systems delivering parts to the line and the right engine to the right car for the right export market at the right time. Simply unbelievable.

Or else you can go to Morgan factory in the UK and see them making cars out of old trees...

[marknorton]

BTW, on my picture above, notice the Leica logo on the yellow sign as well.

[andybarton]

Originally Posted by stunsworth

Andy, the only problem I've had with the Autobahns is the fact that many of them are only two lanes. So if you get stuck behind a lorry you can be there for ages while the maniacs in Porsches (hi Mark <grin>) scream past. Then again I was driving a BMW 520 with zero acceleration.

Apparently, German drivers use their mirrors.

Maybe we could learn from them

[marknorton]

Originally Posted by stunsworth

French autoroutes are fantastic compared to British motorways. Outside of Paris you can actually expect to average 70-80 MPH rather than the 30-40 MPH in the UK.

Aren't they just, the A4 east from south of Riems to Metz on my way to Saarbruecken - fantastic road, fantastically maintained surface and almost deserted. Apart from me, about the only car I saw was the police one which stopped me for speeding and relieved me of a few hundred euros...

[stunsworth]

They've got to pay for those fantastic surfaces somehow.

I'll be near Saarbrucken next month - I'm meeting a friend in Speyer, but I'm planning to spend a day near Saarbrucken first. There's a huge old disused iron and steel plant that's now open as a museum nearby. Absolutely full of photographs waiting to be taken.