Holidays next week Here’s what you need to know about the long weekend
Bonn · Millions of people in Germany will be taking advantage of this coming weekend like no other. With two holidays coming up, many will make it a bridged weekend - meaning the roads will be full.
On Tuesday, October 31, it is Reformation Day all across Germany. In many regions, there is also All Saints Day on Wednesday. Normally, Reformation Day in memory of Martin Luther is a legal holiday in only five states - Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. But this year, the Protestant Church in Germany launched a nationwide holiday in conjunction with the 500th Reformation anniversary.
For those who people who also live in areas where the Catholic All Saints Day is a holiday on November 1, Wednesday, they can easily make it into an extended weekend if they take a bridge day on Monday. More than half of Germany has a public holiday on All Saints - including densely populated states like North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland. From Friday, October 27 until Wednesday, November 1, workers in these states will have off completely if they can get Monday as a vacation day.
Weekend gets longer with time change
The long Reformation weekend, also called Luther weekend, is long for a different reason as well. Since 1996, summer time in Europe has been standardized. Since then, Germany has been changing its clocks from the end of March to the end of October - instead of only until the end of September. This time change makes the last Saturday night in October the longest night of the year this year- with one hour extra.
The circumstances have many people entertaining thoughts of a mini-vacation. But drivers on the road might spend many hours stuck in traffic during the long holiday weekend. There are two areas especially that will be traffic magnets due to construction plans: From Friday, October 27 at 10pm until Monday morning at 5am, there will be a full closure of the A1 at the autobahn intersection with Köln-Nord (Cologne-North). Two temporary bridges are being installed there. Detour signs are posted.
Construction work around Bonn
On this coming Sunday from 9am until 1pm, the direct connections from the A560 (direction Bonn) to the A3 in the direction of Cologne/Oberhausen as well as in the direction to Frankfurt will be closed. From 11am to 4pm, direct connections will be blocked from the A560 (direction Hennef / Altenkirchen) to the A3 in both directions. The reason is resurfacing of the road. Again, detours will be posted.
Besides the regional construction sites, there are other well-known bottlenecks across Germany. Autoclubs ADAC and ACE warn about slowdowns on Autobahns 1, 3 and 4, especially around the Kölner Ring (Cologne Ring). In places like Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Rhein-Ruhr and Rhine-Main it will be especially full. If that’s not enough, Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are also beginning the school autumn holidays at the same time. And as it is with public holidays, expect most businesses to be closed.
(Orig. text: Gregor Tholl, Bernward Klein / Translation: ckloep)
