Report On United Flights And Trip To Germany

[MindytheOrganist]

Trip to Germany was great!  We stayed with daughter, son-in-law, and new grand-daughter, so eating out was not an issue.  The commissary on base had a lot of gluten-free grocery options, and the German drug store we went to had tons of Dr. Shar products.  There were some I had never seen before, especially in the variety of breads, cookies, and assorted sweets.  We even found some gluten-free beer in a shopping mall in Bayeruth (sp?)

 

We flew non-stop from Chicago O'Hare to Munich and back on United.  The gluten-free dinner on the flight out was very good according to hubby, but it went downhill from there.  The "breakfast" was a rice cake and applesauce.  The lunch and snack on the flight back were barely tolerable.  They seem to think rice is the only carbohydrate acceptable for gluten-free diets.

 

I wish I had more information on eating out in Germany, but with a 2-week old baby, getting out much was not an option.  We did make it to a street festival in Nuremburgh, and enjoyed brats and wine.  Among all the food and souvenier tents, there was a gluten-free tent with about the best cookies hubby ever had!

 

Since they will be there 3 years, we plan on going back in about a year or so.  Hopefully, we will be able to get out more.

 

So, I'd recommend bringing your own food on United Airlines - they tried, but came up a little short.

[love2travel]

Thanks for your report. Glad you found Schar products! Most flights I am on offer tasteless and very mediocre food so I always take along a lot of snacks. Interesting about the beer in Bayreuth. And a gluten-free free tent in Nuremburg? How awesome! I have not been to Germany since my dx but love it there.

Did you see any castles? I am a castle fanatic and Germany has some great ones.

[lpellegr]

On my trip to Birmingham, England last year, I had really surprisingly good gluten-free food on both flights, and not a rice cake in sight.  I wrote about it here at the time, so I'll have to check to see what airline it was.  I'll be heading to Heidelberg from Philadelphia in November on Lufthansa, so I'm hoping for a repeat.  Once I get there and am in a hotel and at a conference center for a meeting, that's when I have to worry about getting gluten-free food in Germany.  I'll be packing a lot of food just in case.  I would not have expected to find anything specifically gluten-free at a street festival - that's wonderful!  Or wunderbar.

[MindytheOrganist]

Thanks for your report. Glad you found Schar products! Most flights I am on offer tasteless and very mediocre food so I always take along a lot of snacks. Interesting about the beer in Bayreuth. And a gluten-free free tent in Nuremburg? How awesome! I have not been to Germany since my dx but love it there.

Did you see any castles? I am a castle fanatic and Germany has some great ones.

We saw a couple from far away.  We had planned to go, but none of the castles close by were "stroller-friendly."  We hope to do more sight-seeing on our next trip over.

[Celtic Queen]

We flew United/Lufthansa to Poland (through Germany) a couple of months ago.  The food was not great.  On the flight over they forgot my gluten-free entree.  The flight attendant was super sweet and tried to make up for it by giving me extra fruit.  Breakfast on the way over was not bad - eggs and a rice cake.  I was just glad I had packed a ton of snacks.  On the way back, they remembered my entree, but I really wished they hadn't because it was pretty bad.  Bland fish and super soggy vegetables.  Then they served everyone a sandwich for a snack.  Mine was inedible.   My husband thought I was kidding when I said that.  Then he tried it and even he wouldn't eat it and this is the man who'll eat everything.  Moral of my story - bring lots of food on the plane with you.

 

A friend of mine went to Germany and Austria for the Christmas market last year.  She brought me back some gluten free Lebkuchen.  It was divine.  Mindy, maybe your family will send you some for Christmas.  Glad to hear you had a good time.