Dialing Within Germany and Austria
Smart travelers use the telephone to reserve or reconfirm rooms, get tourist information, reserve restaurants, confirm tour times, and phone home. For more information than what’s below, see www.ricksteves.com/phoning.
Germany and Austria, like much of the US, use an area-code dialing system. To make domestic calls within the same area code, just dial the local number to be connected; but if you’re calling outside your area code, you have to dial both the area code (which starts with a 0) and the local number. For example, Munich’s area code is 089 and the number of one of my recommended Munich hotels is 545-9940. To call the hotel within Munich, you’d dial 545-9940. To call it from Frankfurt, you’d dial 089/545-9940. If you’re calling a German or Austrian mobile phone, you must always dial the complete number.
Local phone numbers in Germany and Austria can have different numbers of digits within the same city or even the same hotel (for example, a hotel can have a 6-digit phone number and an 8-digit fax number). For directory assistance in Germany, dial 11833 for domestic numbers or 11834 for international numbers. For directory assistance in Austria, dial 16 for domestic numbers or 08 for international numbers.
Switzerland has a direct-dial phone system (no area codes). To call anywhere within Switzerland, just dial the number. All Swiss phone numbers are 10 digits, including the initial zero. For directory assistance, dial 111 for domestic numbers or 191 for international numbers.
If you want to make an international call, follow these steps:
• Dial the international access code (00 if you’re calling from Europe, 011 from the US or Canada). If you’re dialing from a mobile phone, you can replace the international access code with +, which works regardless of where you’re calling from. (On many mobile phones, you can insert a + by pressing and holding the 0 key.)
• Dial the country code (landesvorwahl) of the country you’re calling (for example, 49 for Germany, or 1 for the US or Canada).
• For countries that use an area code (vorwahl), first dial the area code, then the local number, keeping in mind that calling many countries requires dropping the initial zero of the phone number. The European calling chart in this chapter lists specifics per country.
Calling from the US to Germany: Dial 011 (the US international access code), 49 (Germany’s country code), then the area code (without its initial 0) and the local number. For example, if you’re calling the Munich hotel cited earlier, you’d dial 011-49-89-545-9940.
Calling from the US to Austria: Dial 011 (the US international access code), 43 (Austria’s country code), then the area code (without its initial 0) and the local number.
Calling from the US to Switzerland: Dial 011 (the US international access code), 41 (Switzerland’s country code), then the local number (without its initial 0).
Calling from any European country to the US: To call my office in Edmonds, Washington, from anywhere in Europe, I dial 00 (Europe’s international access code), 1 (the US country code), 425 (Edmonds’ area code), and 771-8303.
Austria (in Vienna)
Tel. 01/313-390; Boltzmanngasse 16; www.usembassy.at
Germany (in Berlin)
Tel. 030/83050; Pariser Platz 2; www.usembassy.de
Switzerland (in Bern)
Tel. 031-357-7011; Jubilaeumsstrasse 93; http://bern.usembassy.gov
• Europeans write a few of their numbers differently than we do. 1= 
, 4= 
, 7= 
. Learn the difference or miss your train.
• Europeans write the date in this order: day/month/year.
• Commas are decimal points, and decimals are commas. A dollar and a half is 1,50; one thousand is 1.000; and there are 5.280 feet in a mile.
• The European “first floor” isn’t the ground floor but the first floor up.
• When counting with your fingers, start with your thumb. If you hold up only your first finger, you’ll probably get two of something.
A kilogram is 2.2 pounds, and 1 liter is about a quart, or almost four to a gallon. A kilometer is six-tenths of a mile. I figure kilometers to miles by cutting the kilometers in half and adding back 10 percent of the original (120 km: 60 + 12 = 72 miles, 300 km: 150 + 30 = 180 miles).
For a rough conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit, double the number and add 30. For weather, remember that 28°C is 82°F—perfect. For health, 37°C is just right.
If you need to decipher paperwork or forms, the following will help.
| Herr / Frau | Mr. / Ms. |
| Vorname | first name |
| Name (Familienname / Nachname) | name (last name) |
| Adresse | address |
| Wohnort | address / city |
| Strasse | street |
| Stadt | city |
| Staat | state |
| Land | country |
| Nationalität | nationality |
| Herkunft / Reiseziel | origin / destination |
| Alter | age |
| Geburtsdatum | date of birth |
| Geburtsort | place of birth |
| Geschlecht | sex |
| männlich / weiblich | male / female |
| verheiratet / ledig | married / single |
| geschieden / verwitwet | divorced / widowed |
| Beruf | profession |
| Erwachsener | adult |
| Kind / Junge / Mädchen | child / boy / girl |
| Kinder | children |
| Familie | family |
| Unterschrift | signature |
| Datum | date |
When filling out dates, do it European-style: day/month/year.
Keep this sheet of German survival phrases in your pocket, handy to memorize or use if you’re caught without your phrase book.