Please sign in to post.

2 Weeks to Get from Cologne to Berlin

Hey!

I am loving these new forums! I am in the early planning stages of a trip. I have purchased Rick's Germany guidebook and will be referencing that a lot. However, I wanted to get your opinions/insights.

I am taking my mother on a dream retirement trip. We are spending 25 days split between Paris (more days here) and Amsterdam (and surrounds). From Amsterdam we're taking the train to Cologne where we will rent a car. We then have 14 days to get to Berlin where we will spend 4-5 days there before heading home.

It is those 14 days that I want to plan. We definitely want to visit Nuremberg, Rothenberg, and spend a few days in Munich (grandfather was kept in Dachau, so we want to visit there). Maybe a short cruise on the Rhine. Not sure whether we should make a side excursion to Prague as we travel from Munich to Berlin.

Not really interested in heading down to Trier since I've been there before.

Very interested in castles, churches, architecture, and art (although I may be tired of museums after our time in Paris and Amsterdam). We're not drinkers or looking for active things (like biking, rafting, sky diving, etc.).

Would appreciate any general suggestions for places to visit that you loved (and why) as well as suggestions for how much time to spend in those places.

Also, when traveling in Germany...is it common to stay in hotels or B&Bs? When we traveled in Ireland I LOVED our B&B stays and thought I could replicate that for mom in Germany.

Posted by
12040 posts

If you're trip goes between Köln and Berlin, I would recommend you supplement your research with other guidebooks besides Mr. Steves. There's a whole lot of territory in north and central Germany that he does not include in his book. Not because it isn't worth visiting, but probably because he hasn't gotten around to exploring it yet. For example, if you're headed through central Germany... there's no reason you need to go out of your way to visit Rothenburg. This area of Germany is simply PACKED with well preserved old towns, several of which also retain their city defensive wall.

Posted by
252 posts

Yes, Tom, is right. There is much more to Germany than what is in Rick Steve's book.

I can highly recommend Bamberg and Quedlingburg -- both UNESCO world heritage sites -- as well as the lovely towns of Wernigerode, Alsfeld and Hannoversch Muenden.

http://www.quedlinburg.de/en/culture__tourism.html
http://en.bamberg.info/
http://www.wernigerode.de/en/
http://www.deutsche-maerchenstrasse.com/en/your-journey/destinations/members-and-partners-at-the-german-fairy-tale-route/view/alsfeld
http://www.hann.muenden-tourismus.de/

Posted by
10 posts

Thank you for the links and suggestions.

We need to head from Cologne to Munich and then Munich to Berlin. So I know that excludes really spending time exploring Northern Germany. I was imagining we would be spending most of our time in central and southern germany.