Chapter 13

Planning a Trip

In This Chapter

Booking a trip

Naming specific dates

Gathering passports, visas, and other travel necessities

Would you like to go hiking in the Alps or head to the sea? How about a one-day Ausflug (ous-floohk) (excursion), perhaps from Munich to the pristine Bavarian lake of Königsee (ker-nig-zee)? Or what about a weeklong vacation Pauschalreise (pou-shahl-ray-ze) (package) to Turkey? No matter what destination you decide on, every trip requires some preparation. You need to check your calendar and set the dates, make sure your passport is valid for six months past the length of your trip (especially if you’re traveling across borders), make reservations, and so on. Whether you prefer gathering information online or having human interaction while planning a trip, you’ll find the information in this chapter useful.

Getting Help from a Travel Agent

Booking your trip online is fast and convenient, yet you may find that a travel agent can better serve your needs when you’re already in Europe and want to plan a short trip from there. After all, you don’t want to get stuck spending five nights at a hotel that blasts ear-splitting music 24/7 from its poolside disco!

When you contact the travel agency, das Reisebüro (dâs ray-ze-bue-roh), tell the employee the following:

Ich möchte gern . . . (iH merH-te gêrn . . .) (I would like to . . .)

At the end of this phrase, you can say any of the following to specify what you want them to do for you:

. . . einen Flug nach . . . buchen. (ayn-en floohk nahH . . . boohH-en.) (book a flight to. . . .)

. . . am . . . abfliegen. (âm . . . âp-fleeg-en.) (depart [fly] on the. . . .)

. . . am . . . zurückfliegen. (âm . . . tsoo-ruek-fleeg-en.) (return [fly back] on the . . . .)

. . . eine Pauschalreise nach . . . buchen. (ayn-e pou-shahl-ray-ze nahH . . . boohH-en.) (book a vacation package to. . . .)

. . . einen Ausflug nach . . . buchen. (ayn-en ous-floohk nahH . . . boohH-en.) (book an excursion to. . . .)

. . . ein Hotelzimmer reservieren. (ayn hoh-têl-tsi-mer rê-zêr-vee-ren.) (reserve a hotel room.)

Talkin’ the Talk

Planning Ahead: Using the Future Tense

When talking about things that will take place in the future, you use the future tense. In English, you create the future tense by adding the word “will” to the verb. Forming the future tense in German is pretty similar to English except that you need to conjugate the German equivalent of the verb “will.” You take the appropriate form of the verb werden (veyr-den) (will) and add the infinitive form of another verb. The conjugated form of werden goes in the usual second place for the verb, and the infinitive goes at the very end of the sentence. In this case, werden is used as an auxiliary verb meaning “will” (when used on its own, the verb werden means “to become”).

The proper conjugation of the verb werden looks like this:

The following sentences show examples of the future tense. Note how the infinitives always go at the end of the sentences and that you create the negative (will not) by placing nicht directly after werden:

Wirst du nächstes Jahr nach Kroatien fahren? (virst dooh naiH-stes yahr nahH kroh-ahts-ee-en fahr-en?) (Will you go/Are you going to Croatia next year?)

Wir werden nicht zum Fest kommen. (veer veyr-den niHt tsoom fêst kom-en.) (We will not come/we’re not coming to the party.)

Frau Meier wird heute Abend zurückfliegen. (frou may-er virt hoy-te ah-bent tsoo-ruek-fleeg-en.) (Ms. Meier will fly/is flying back this evening.)

German speakers are pretty lackadaisical about the future tense; they use it much less frequently than English speakers. Even more important, unlike English, with its various ways of expressing a future meaning, such as “I’m going to visit my parents for Thanksgiving” or “We’re taking a trip to Niagara Falls in August,” German expresses the future tense only with werden. Very often, German speakers prefer to talk about the future using the present tense. Expressions like morgen (mor-gen) (tomorrow) or nächstes Jahr (naiH-stes yahr) (next year) serve to indicate future meaning. The following statements all refer to events that will take place in the future, although the verb in each one of them is in the present tense:

Morgen gehe ich wandern. (mor-gen gey-e iH vân-dêrn.) (Tomorrow I’ll go hiking.) Literally, Tomorrow I go hiking.

Fährst du nächstes Jahr wieder zum Filmfest Hamburg? (fairst dooh naiH-stes yahr vee-der tsoom film-fêst hâm-boorg?) (Are you going to go to the Hamburg film festival next year?) Roughly translated: Do you go to the Hamburg film festival next year?

Susanne geht übermorgen zum Konsulat. (soo-zân-e geyt ue-ber-mor-gen tsoom kon-zoo-laht.) (Susanne is going to the consulate the day after tomorrow.) Literally, Susanne goes to the consulate the day after tomorrow.

Describing events in specific months

If something takes place in a particular month, you combine the name of the month with the preposition im (im) (in):

Ich fliege im Januar nach Zürich. (iH fleeg-e im yân-oo-ahr nahH tsuer-iH.) (I’m flying to Zurich in January.)

Ich fliege im Februar zurück. (iH fleeg-e im fey-broo-ahr tsoo-ruek.) (I’m flying back in February.)

Im März werde ich zu Hause sein. (im mêrts veyr-de iH tsooh houz-e zayn.) (In March, I’ll be home.)

Naming specific times in the months

If you need to be more specific about a particular time of the month, the following phrases help narrow down the field:

Anfang Januar (ân-fâng yân-oo-ahr) (in the beginning of January)

Mitte Februar (mit-e fey-broo-ahr) (in the middle of February)

Ende März (ên-de mêrts) (at the end of March)

Of course, you can substitute the name of any month after Anfang, Mitte, and Ende:

Anfang April fliegen wir nach Berlin. (ân-fâng â-pril fleeg-en veer nahH bêr-leen.) (In the beginning of April we’re flying to Berlin.)

Ich werde Ende Mai verreisen. (iH vêr-de ên-de may fêr-ray-zen.) (I’ll go traveling at the end of May.)

Herr Behr wird Mitte Februar in den Skiurlaub fahren. (hêr beyr virt mit-e fey-broo-ahr in deyn shee-oor-loup fahr-en.) (Mr. Behr is going on a skiing trip in the middle of February.)

Rethinking Dates

When talking about the date — das Datum (dâs dah-toom) — you need to adjust your way of thinking a little bit. In German (and many other languages, for that matter), the day always comes first, and the month comes second. In addition, the day of the month is an ordinal number, and a period is placed after the number, for example: 15. Juni 2011 (fuenf-tseyn-ter yooh-nee tsvay-tou-zênt-êlf) (June 15th, 2011). (Chapter 7 has more info on ordinal numbers.)

That was the long version. You often see or hear a shorter version. For example, you would write 14.10.2000, and you would say vierzehnter zehnter zweitausend (veer-tseyn-ter tseyn-ter tsvay-tou-zênt) ([the] 14th of October, 2000). Again, note the periods after the numerals (both the day and month are ordinals).

If you want to find out what today’s date is, ask this way:

Welches Datum ist heute? (vêlH-es dah-toom ist hoy-te?) (What’s today’s date?)

The answer will be one of the following:

Heute ist der. . . . (hoy-te ist dêr. . . .) (Today is the. . . .)

Heute haben wir den. . . . (hoy-te hah-ben veer deyn. . . .) (Today we have the. . . .)

You may hear the name of a year integrated into a sentence in one of two ways. The first, longer way uses the preposition im to create the phrase im Jahr . . . (im yahr) (in the year). The second, shorter way omits this phrase. The following sentences show you examples of both ways of talking about the year in which an event takes place:

Im Jahr 2010 arbeitete Herr Diebold in den USA. (im yahr tsvay-tou-zênt tseyn âr-bay-te-te hêr dee-bolt in deyn ooh-ês-ah.) (In the year 2010, Mr. Diebold worked in the United States.)

2008 war er in Kanada. (tsvay-tou-zênt-âHt vâr êr in kâ-nâ-dâ.) (In 2008 he was in Canada.)

Dealing with Passports and Visas

Although the world seems to be shrinking faster and faster thanks to the Internet, you still need paperwork to go places. Specifically, you need a passport (you know, that handy little booklet with the embarrassing picture that you always seem to misplace or let expire just before you’re about to leave on a trip?) And then there’s the issue of visas.

The all-important passport

Before you leave on a trip, you want to check to make sure that your passport is valid for the entire length of your stay and then some (many countries allow you to stay for between three and six months total). After all, you don’t want to spend your time away from home trying to find an American consulate in order to renew your passport. If you forget to take care of this very important task, you’ll hear the following when you show your passport at the airline ticket counter, or worse yet, at the border:

Ihr Pass ist abgelaufen! (eer pâs ist âp-ge-louf-en!) (Your passport has expired!)

At that point, you’ll be directed to the nearest American consulate — das amerikanische Konsulat (dâs â-mê-ree-kah-ni-she kon-zoo-laht) — in order to take care of the necessary paperwork.

In the event that you notice your passport is missing, head straight to the American consulate to report it. If necessary, you can stop a policeman or file a report at a police station and say the following in order to get help:

Ich habe meinen Pass verloren. (iH hah-be mayn-en pâs fêr-lohr-en.) (I lost my passport.)

Inquiring about visas

Most countries in Europe don’t require you to have a visa if you’re traveling on vacation and are planning to stay a few weeks or a couple of months. But just in case you like your destination so much that you want to stay longer, or you decide to continue on to a place where you’re required to have a visa, the following phrases can come in handy when you apply for one:

Braucht man ein Visum für Reisen nach. . . ? (brouHt mân ayn vee-zoom fuer ray-zen nahH. . . ?) (Does one need a visa for trips to. . . ?)

Wie lange ist das Visum gültig? (vee lâng-e ist dâs vee-zoom guel-tiH?) (For how long is the visa valid?)

Ich möchte ein Visum beantragen. (iH merH-te ayn vee-zoom bê-ân-trah-gen.) (I would like to apply for a visa.)

Talkin’ the Talk

Fun & Games

The following statements all describe events that take place in the future. Your job is to put the verb werden into the appropriate form.

1. Wir _____ ans Meer fahren.

2. _____ du mit deiner Familie in die USA fliegen?

3. Ich _____ meinen Urlaub im Reisebüro buchen.

4. _____ ihr mit dem Zug nach Dänemark fahren?

5. Kai _____ ein Visum für Kanada beantragen.

6. Claudia und Bärbel _____ dieses Jahr nach Polen reisen.