This week, we'll continue our work on travel vocabulary. The last lesson looked at words related to booking and traveling to a destination, so let's pick up there, and continue with types of accommodation.

When you book a trip, there's the question of both die Hinreise (the outward journey) and die Rückreise (the return journey). Depending on your mode of travel, you may instead talk about die Hinfahrt and die Rückfahrt for bus or train travel, or der Hinflug and der Rückflug for a flight. You can also say die einfache Fahrt for a single ticket, and der Gabelflug for a trip with multiple stops. Most of the time, however, you will be booking a round trip ticket:

Hin- und Rückfahrt kosten fünfzig Euro, und du musst nicht umsteigen.

A round trip costs fifty euros, and you don't have to change trains.

Caption 22, Nicos Weg: Bahnreisen

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Part of planning your trip is selecting accommodation (die Unterkunft), which is generally based on your chosen destination and budget:

Mit Hotel, Jugendherberge und Kapelle ist das achthundert Jahre alte Hospiz heute das Tor ins Innergschlöß.

With a hotel, youth hostel, and chapel, the eight-hundred-year-old former hospice is today the gateway to Innergschlöß.

Captions 26-27, Die letzten Paradiese: Die Schönheit der Alpen 2

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...und vor allen Dingen mit dem Komfort einer Ferienwohnung.

...and, above all else, with the comfort of a vacation home.

Caption 11, Glamping: Camping mit Stil

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Hierzulande hat zwar noch nicht jeder Campingplatz den Glamping-Faktor, aber schon im kommenden Jahr soll es in Deutschland soweit sein.

Here in Germany, admittedly, not every campground has this "glamping" factor, but it should already be available in Germany in the coming year.

Captions 34-35, Glamping: Camping mit Stil

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You will have to choose whether you require ein Einzelzimmer, ein Doppelzimmer, or ein Mehrbettzimmer, which is more often found at youth hostels and may involve bunk beds. At some types of accommodation, you can choose between die Halbpension, which includes breakfast and dinner, and die Vollpension, which includes all meals. More common, however, is a simple Übernachtung mit Frühstück. 

Für ein Einzelzimmer zahlt man siebzig Euro die Nacht.

For a single room you pay seventy euros a night.

Caption 32, Berlin: Indoor-Camping im „Hüttenpalast“

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Inklusive Halbpension, die Ihre Frau selber kocht.

Including half board, which your wife cooks herself.

Caption 54, heute-show Schule, Geschäfte, Urlaub: Leben in Zeiten von Corona

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In Germany, you may also find consider die Pension or das Gästehaus, which are generally smaller and less formal than a hotel. Of course, there is at least one mode of travel that eliminates the question of where to stay:

Mit dem Wohnmobil durch Luxemburg zu fahren bedeutet inzwischen, sich entscheiden zu müssen.

Driving through Luxembourg in a motorhome means having to make decisions these days.

Captions 31-32, Reisebericht: Luxemburg

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Further Learning

In addition to watching travel videos on Yabla German, go to a German booking website and do a casual search for flights and hotels in order to see the vocabulary above used in context. For an even more advanced exercise, have a look at this article on unusual places to stay in Germany. 

You're probably familiar with the saying "But there's a catch..." According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, it means that there is a "concealed difficulty or complication" in a situation. There is a similar saying in German, but instead of the noun for "catch," it uses the German word for the noun "hook": der Haken. 

First, let's take a look at the pronunciation. You want to really open your mouth wide with an "ah" sound when pronouncing this word:

Im Wort „Haken“ ist das „A“ lang.

In the word “hook,” the “A” is long.

Caption 32, Deutsch mit Eylin: Das Alphabet

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Now let's take a look at how  der Haken  is used idiomatically in the form einen Haken haben:

Dieses Kompliment seiner Frau ist schön, hat allerdings auch einen Haken.

This compliment by his wife is nice, however, it also has a catch.

Caption 19, Theater: Mörderische Phantasien

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Die Sache hat einen Haken.

In this matter, there's a catch.

Caption 24, Küss mich, Frosch: Die Zeiten haben sich geändert

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You can also use the form ein Haken an etwas sein:

Ein Haken an der Sache ist der Preis: In der Hauptsaison zahlt eine vierköpfige Familie für die Lodgesuite am Gardasee pro Woche 1.400 Euro.

One catch with the whole thing is the price: During the peak season, a family of four pays 1,400 euros per week for the lodge suite on Lake Garda.

Captions 36-38, Glamping: Camping mit Stil

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Of course, ein Haken is also used in the literal sense to mean "a hook":

Unten am Fluss hängte er zuerst einen Wurm an den Haken und dann die Angel ins Wasser.

Down by the river, he first hung a worm on the hook and then cast the line into the water.

Captions 14-15, Janoschs Traumstunde: Post für den Tiger

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Ein solcher Fall ereignete sich, als sich ein Delfin in den Gewässern von Kona, Hawaii, einem Taucher näherte, weil ein Haken an seiner Flosse hing.

One such case occurred when a dolphin approached a diver in the waters of Kona, Hawaii, because a hook was attached to its fin.

Captions 14-16, Die 12 freundlichsten Meerestiere der Welt

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Der Delfin positionierte sich so vor dem Taucher, dass dieser den Haken entfernen konnte.

The dolphin positioned itself in front of the diver so that he could remove the hook.

Captions 17-18, Die 12 freundlichsten Meerestiere der Welt

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You'll note that "hook" is related to fishing. One easy way to remember this idiom is that "catch" is related to catching fish, which can be done with a hook. And that, dear Yabla readers, is der Haken!

Further Learning
Go to Yabla German and see the above examples in context. You can also make up some sentences of the saying using the forms einen Haken haben and ein Haken an etwas sein and have your teacher check them.

While watching Yabla videos, especially interviews, you may well have noticed that German speakers love using the word eben. Used as an adjective, eben means “even” or “flat or level”; as an adverb it means “evenly.”

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But there’s more to it. Let’s take a closer look! 

Der kultivierte Camper ist eben anspruchsvoller geworden.

The cultivated camper has just become more discriminating.

Caption 5, Glamping - Camping mit Stil

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Eben is used in this video to emphasize the fact that there are some people who are used to high standards and will not be satisfied spending their holidays in a simple tent made of four poles and a piece of cloth (whereas others surely will!). People are different. Das ist eben so!  (That’s just the way it is!) So the example of eben in this video is used in the sense of "just" or "simply."

In Unser Universum - Der tiefste Blick ins All, we learn that eben also means "exactly" or "precisely":

Was wir oder unsere Teleskope sehen, ist das Licht,

What we or our telescopes are seeing is the light

das von eben diesem Himmelskörper ausgeht.

that radiates exactly from this heavenly body.

Captions 35-36, Unser Universum - Der tiefste Blick ins All

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Eben can also describe something that has happened just now:

Marco du hast eben schon aufgelegt.

Marco you just DJed.

Caption 2, Big City Beats - DJ Marco Petralia

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Further Learning

Sicher ist es nicht eben einfach (of course it’s not exactly easy) to implement eben correctly in your conversation right away, but as with everything: Übung macht eben den Meister! (practice just makes perfect!). So why not start right now and create three sentences in which eben is used as “exactly,” another three in which it is used as “just,” and three more in which it has the meaning of “just now.”

Examples:

Das ist eben der Film, den wir gestern in der Vorschau gesehen haben.

That’s exactly the movie we saw yesterday in the preview. 

Ich esse eben gerne mein Frühstück im Bett.

I just love having my breakfast in bed.

Ich bin eben am Flughafen angekommen.

I have just arrived at the airport. 

Viel Spaß! (Have fun!)