5 Days in Germany

Hi,

If you pick Göttingen, the advantage it is on the main train route, a trunk line, direct to Berlin since that ICE train originates in Munich. I was in Göttingen once. That was in 1987, spent a few nights staying at the hostel. It is interesting depending on your interests, I liked it. If you want to visit a place in "central Germany" ie, a smaller place, I would recommend Minden, which to get to Berlin, you'll have to transfer in Hannover, depending on the train.

Bamberg is a beauty, and you'll find Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayreuth and Würzburg nearby in case you're in need for a day trip. It is 5 hours to Berlin though.

I would not recommend Bamberg, simply because it's Bavaria, which you have already seen, and I would not recommend Göttingen, which is nice, but with a single train change you can stay in much better places.
There are basically three touristically interesting regions you could visit: Thuringia, and what Rick Steves calls "Lutherland", Saxony, and the Harz mountains. I would either recommend Thuringia or the Harz mountains. The capital of Thuringia, and a good base, is Erfurt, AFAIK the city with the biggest preserved Altstadt (old town) in Germany. From there you can do day trips to Weimar, a World Heritage Site, Eisenach with Wartburg castle (also a World Heritage Site) and many cute little towns with huge castles, since they all were capitals of equally tiny duchies, or places related to Luther and the Protestant Reformation.
The Harz mountains are to the northeast of Göttingen, but it's difficult to get to the main sights from there. The area was the heart of medieval Germany, and the highlight today are several perfectly preserved towns with literally thousands of half-timbered houses. Two of them, Goslar and Quedlinburg, are Word Heritage Sites, and Goslar can be reached with a single train change. From there you can do day trips to cute towns like Quedlinburg, Wernigerode or Wolfenbüttel, see the Romanesque chruches of Hildesheim (World Heritage Site) or the Gothic cathedral of Halberstadt, or enjoy the largest steam train network of Germany (one route goes up to the highest mountain of Northern Germany).

The Harz mountains are nice, but Innsbruck to Quedlinberg (for example) by train takes almost ten hours. The problem with the Harz is that there are few international airports nearby.

"Our thought is to go to one destination in Central Germany for 2 or 3 full days and then fly out on the 27th after spending 1 or 2 full days in Berlin."

"We will have had our fill of large cities..."

So you're going to spend time in Berlin? Berlin is a 4-5-day sort of place. Avoid the big city and long train ride, see it another time. You've seen the touristy part of Bavaria previously. Bamberg is a good choice and would be new and different. Nearby Würzburg is worthwhile as well - and it's a better base town as well for mini-outings to towns that you missed by taking the Romantic Road... Marktbreit... the wine-town of Iphofen... Bad Windsheim. All these places are in Franconia too, and none of them are "Oompah-land." It's not like you're "re-doing" anything just because you are still technically in Bavaria.

I'd spend the full 5 days in Franconia. From a Würzburg base you can visit Bamberg (less than 1 hour) Marktbreit (25 min.) Iphofen (25 min.) and/or Bad Windsheim (1.25 hrs.) And when you fly to London, you're just 1.5 hours from FRA airport, about the same to Nuremberg airport.

The Harz mountains are nice, but Innsbruck to Quedlinberg (for
example) by train takes almost ten hours.

The OP wants to take the train to Berlin. There are two equally fast train routes from Munich to Berlin: one via "Lutherland", and one via Göttingen, which means he almost crosses the Harz mountains.

Hi,

Spend the extra time in Central Germany. Some good choices listed here already, I would add also Hameln and Celle for small places, a bigger place Braunschweig.

Thanks all for the great ideas. Staying all 5 days in Central Germany using Erfurt as a base for day trips, then flying out of FRA (zero connection ICE straight to the airport station, nice!) looks like the plan. We'll save Berlin for a future trip.