[Travel] Places to visit and stay in Germany

[South Stand Bonfire]

Dear font of all knowledge, the Mrs and I have decided we are going to do a drive holiday down to Annecy / French alps regional (have a week there) then instead of heading straight back we’d drive into Germany and have 3 or 4 nights in a couple of places on the way back to the channel. So I’m looking for advice on which areas the great people of NSC have been and stayed. Otherwise it’s me and google as none of our friends have gone beyond Berlin, Munich or Hamburg

We are driving over for a week from 10 May. I didn’t want to drive too much but we are spending 2 nights in Reims (Mrs SSB’s birthday weekend) and then about a 3 hour drive to Bernkastle in the Mosel valley for 4 nights which looks very picturesque ( wine tasting and exploring my late grandmothers birth place which I have never visited before).

On the way back we are doing an overnight stay in Lille.

 

[Skuller]

I’d support those proposing Cologne and Nürnberg and Hanover but would put a vote in for Dresden. The bigger the city the more likely it was visited by the RAF or USAF, so the smaller places have more original features. Germany is very good with the “free” walking tours (in English) where you tip at the end what you think it was worth. I usually pay between 10 and 20 Euros depending on the quality.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Another vote for Freiburg, lovely place. If you’re feeling flush, you could also pop down into Switzerland from there.

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

its not too far from Annecy but somewhere I would highly recommend is Interlaken in Switzerland. The scenery is spectacular and although it is expensive, there is a train from Interlaken that takes you through (literally) the mountain to the top of the Jungfrau and you can see unspoilt mountain scenery from miles at the top.

 

[Professor Plum]

Most of the suggestions I’ve seen (not read all the thread) —Cologne, Hamburg, Bavaria etc are way off a likely route unless you plan to make a serious detour into northern Germany. Great cities but too out of the way.

If you don’t want to stray too far I would drive up from Annecy through western Switzerland (Bern, Basel both lovely cities) and onto Freiburg which is a glorious medieval town in the Black Forest. Rather Brighton-like in its reputation for being green and a bit anti-establishment.

Just back across the French border you have the splendid Alsace region with wonderful villages to pass through. Some excellent white wines too.

Just north (in France) is Strasbourg, also well worth a visit.

 

[Professor Plum]

Come on, surely it's not just me

No, it isn’t. For several years I used to park my car at Titisee every fortnight and get the train to Freiburg for the football. Despite being so familiar with the place I still couldn’t help having a little smirk every time I was there. There’s a fabulous cake shop at the railway station.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Some excellent recommendations here already: can only second the Middle Rhine Valley: start in Cologne; climb up the cathedral, eat Jaegerschnitzel in the Walfisch, wander along the Rhine. Then head south: below Koblenz is where the whole vineyards and castles World Heritage Site thing really gets going, it’s a lovely part of the world. The Marksburg and Greifenstein castles are great but there are hundreds more, as there are pretty little towns to stay: Bacharach and Rüdesheim are just two of many that stand out, definitely do the cable car(s) over the vineyards in the latter. Good boat trips everywhere with lovely beer, wine and grub. If you’re driving check out the Lorelei, a huge cliff sticking out into the river with great views. That’s the proper Germany, around there, if you ask me. I bloody love it.

Further afield a few years back we once did the southern part of the Romantic Road driving route starting in the Alps. Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg are all really nice ancient walled towns quite near each other which were like getting a time machine back to the Middle Ages if you could airbrush the cars away: hardly any buildings more recent than about 1600 in the town centres.

As for the bigger cities, well, Bomber Harris was no town planner. Hamburg is rich, stylish, very Anglophile with naughty St Pauli. Just don’t take the kids to Herbertstrasse. Berlin of course pretty crazy and endlessly fascinating, Cologne had 95% of its buildings destroyed during you-know-when but it was very nicely rebuilt and I love its vibe: friendly with good shopping and Kölsch. The Roman museum there is good but if it’s that you’re after then def head for Trier, taking in Burg Eltz on the way.

The Nürburgring is quite near there too which you can pay to drive around: I cautiously nudged my humble Polo around the Green Hell while lunatic petrolheads in chavved up bling-mobiles blasted past my earhole before disappearing in a nanosecond. Great fun.

 

[saafend_seagull]

We go to Saarburg sometimes, it’s lovely. They’ve got a wine festival on 7th September which is good fun. Germany is great.

That’s only 15 mins from me.

There is in grevenmacher very close in lux a better one called grape festival sometimes on the same weekend over 3 days, sometimes the weekend after.

 

[saafend_seagull]

We are driving over for a week from 10 May. I didn’t want to drive too much but we are spending 2 nights in Reims (Mrs SSB’s birthday weekend) and then about a 3 hour drive to Bernkastle in the Mosel valley for 4 nights which looks very picturesque ( wine tasting and exploring my late grandmothers birth place which I have never visited before).

On the way back we are doing an overnight stay in Lille.

You only need one night max in bernkastel.

Go to saarburg, trier (oldest town in DE) on the way and cochem which is a bit nicer than bernkastel, you can also take the boat from there.

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

You only need one night max in bernkastel.

Go to saarburg, trier (oldest town in DE) on the way and cochem which is a bit nicer than bernkastel, you can also take the boat from there.

We are going to use Bernkastle as a base and visit the villages along the river. Aunty SSB has sent me 50 pages worth of family tree history as my grandmother was born there. I need 4 days just to read it all!

 

[Me and my Monkey]

Not quite on your way back, but would absolutely recommend driving the Romantische Straße in the state of Bayern. Either Fussen (location of two fairytale castles), or Rothenburg ob der Tauber would be ideal stopping places.
An alternative area is the Deutsche Weinstraße.

I spent 2 very happy summers living and working in Hohenschwangau when i was younger (back in the day when we could travel and work freely and easily in europe). It's spectacularly beautiful, I'd also highly recommend.

 

[Vicar!]

Can thoroughly recommend Bamberg in Bavaria. A bit off the beaten track and not many foreign tourists. Nice place and friendly people.

Eleven breweries among 80000 people I recall. Though memory hazy.

 

[Vicar!]

The former East is great. Harz has already been mentioned and it is a lovely place to visit. Erfurt is delightful, and the Baltic Coast has great destinations like Rugen. Getting back into the Ruhr, where I spend far too much time, Dusseldorf is a bonkers party town.

 

[Nightfall]

Eleven breweries among 80000 people I recall. Though memory hazy.

https://brewver.com/breweries/breweries-by-city/4091/Bamberg

The real deal is this one : https://maps.app.goo.gl/dq25NJiVgtatVBxq8
historical, great beers great food and you can actually stay there

and Schlenkerla for the beers and the brewery tour (food used to be better in the past, but they are very busy): https://maps.app.goo.gl/BG83f9yqTtMVrkoFA

 

[albionalex]

Another vote for Cologne but it would be a bit of trek from where you're coming from.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I can strongly recommend Berchtesgaden, with Hitler's Eagle's nest, the salt mines, Lake Konigsee and Salzburg all close, and Munich a modest train ride away.

 

[Pinkie Brown]

I live next to Mosel (working in Luxembourg) and been in and around the area for 15 years in a town on what would be your route home in trier (oldest town in Germany).

Would go >>konstanz (optional as limited time) > Freiburg > Strasbourg > cochem (day trip) > saarburg (day trip), you could even chuck remich in Luxembourg in > trier (bitburg also close if want some beer tasting) > Lille > Calais

Depends time of year too as lots of wine tasting places.

Driving through Switzerland is about 50e for toll I think from memory.

Someone said Dortmund lol, probably the biggest dump in Germany after schalke and Essen.

Describing Dortmund as beautiful is quite the stretch of imagination.

The corridor from Dortmund, through Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Essen to Duisburg. Imagine Stoke, Middlesbrough, Slough, Basildon & Luton all joined together - that.

 

[ofco8]

As said Annecy is very nice, you will enjoy, plus seeing Mont Blanc.

In Germany, Cologne is a must. I would also recommend Rudesheim on the Rhine, which is on the way from Annecy to Cologne. As a wild card would suggest a trip to Wuppertal, just above Cologne and take a ride on the hanging railway. It is a long city and the train/tram covers the full length by hanging from track over the river below. Wherever you end up, enjoy.

 

[Official Old Man]

On the way back we are doing an overnight stay in Lille.

Stayed in Lille a couple of times. Easy walking in the centre, look for the cannon balls in the building.
Found a street full of bars for students at cheap prices, I'll see if I can locate it on maps.

 

[Lethargic]

You only need one night max in bernkastel.

Go to saarburg, trier (oldest town in DE) on the way and cochem which is a bit nicer than bernkastel, you can also take the boat from there.

A group of about 10 of us stayed at the camp site on the hill overlooking Saarburg one Easter in the 80s. The weather was so bad it started snowing, we had spent rather a lot of time in the pub at the top of the chairlift, if fact we got to know the owner so well that they offered us to stay in the pub for the night. Not only that they were happy to let us help ourselves to beer and settle up in the morning, great time I love Germany.