Hello,
I need some help with a Austria/German trip we had planned about a year ago. This trip is planned for next week, and we had made hotel and car reservations some time back, but I am getting into the details and was hoping folks here could help me.

We are flying into FRA and flying out of VIE. Details of the plan:

Bacharach and the Rhine valley (2 days)
Berlin (3 days)
Prague (1 day - more of a stopover on the way)
Vienna (3 days)


Originally this was going to be a family of 4 (kids 10 and 7), but my 70-something parents really wanted to see Berlin, so they will be joining us. Hence the car reservation - they don't want to do trains due to recent knee surgery, and though my husband really hates the idea of driving a minivan on the autobahn - thats the way we are going.

There is a hotch-potch of nationalities among us - 2 US, 2 Canadians, 2 Indians with Schengen visa.

So the questions.

1. Are we likely to run into problems with the rental cars because we are going to Prague? I did not see anything in the guide books, but there are some reports online about being asked to sign something specific about not taking the rental car to the Czech Republic. Is this something we should follow up on?

2. The guidebooks said something about getting a sticker to take your car to the city center - but there were very little detail on this. Would the rental company give us these stickers? do we keep them on the dashboard?

3. How likely is the migrant crisis to affect us? We are brown-skinned, but do have legal papers (ha ha), and will likely only do touristy things. In particular, I am worried about getting stuck in border crossings between Germany/Prague/Vienna. I can't get a straight answer on if there is a border patrol stop now or not (but am guessing yes), and how long the likely wait is.

Everyone from my boss at work to most of our State-side family has advised us to cancel the trip (due to the State-dept warnings), or drive the other way to Munich and then Vienna.

Any help or advise will be most appreciated!
Thanks,
DG