Hello. My husband and I are traveling the 1st week of October, flying into Frankfort (departing also). We would greatly appreciate any suggestions. We want to focus on the Black Forest area. We would like to visit the villages of Rotenfels and Nagold where my husbands parents were born. We'd like to do some hiking, stay in smaller cities, visit Nurnberg and other areas you may suggest. Thank you!
Posted by
2 posts
Highly recommend Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It has everything you would want to see in a small medieval village, and saved from WWII bombing. Stay overnight to avoid midday tour crowds and have the town both early and late to yourself. Very walkable and plenty to explore. Rick has this covered in all the guidebooks but I can't speak more highly of it - it's our favorite on the Romantic Road!
Posted by
Paradise
6639 posts
Rothenburg can be visited by train on a day trip from Nuremberg if you wish. But there are many other options from Nuremberg, an excellent base for outings. Bamberg, whose well-preserved old town sector has been designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO, is one of those. There's quite a bit more to see and do there as well. Information on Bamberg:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/624/
https://en.bamberg.info/sehenswertes/
Bamberg is much loved by Germans and Europeans as a center for Franconian culture, but much overlooked by Rick Steves.
For me, it's a major omission that Rick should have avoided.
Other day trip options from Nuremberg you should probably consider... these first two are also peppered with UNESCO WH sites:
Würzburg
Bayreuth
Iphofen
Bad Windsheim
In describing Rothenburg, Rick uses phrases like "best preserved medieval town" when it actually was nearly half destroyed in WW II as you see in this 1945 photo. Today's Rothenburg is well restored, a museum piece, actually, where tourism is the only industry. It's a small town where the ratio of visitors to native residents, who generally serve these visitors for a living, is enormous. Feels a bit like a medieval theme park.
Posted by
near San Francisco
4616 posts
If your trip extends beyond October 14th, Oktoberfest in Erfurt has a small town feel with a beer tent, a parade and a fair with rides and food.
Posted by
Paradise
6639 posts
Nagold can be reached from Karlsruhe, a major train hub, with a change of train in Pforzheim.
Rotenfels: If this is the town of Bad Rotenfels, there are direct trains from Karlsruhe.
Posted by
Green Bay
20087 posts
You could stay in Freudenstadt in the Black Forest, about half way between Bad Rotenfels and Nagold and connected to both by rail. Further, at a qualifying hotel, you would get a free KONUS Card for free train and bus travel in the Black Forest area. The travel from Freudenstadt to Nuremberg with a QdL ticket for 49 EUR for 2.
Posted by
7664 posts
Consider taking The Romantic Road fro Wurzburg to Fussen/Garmisch.
Many medieval walled cities that were not bombed in WWII or sustained little damage, contrary to large German cities.
https://www.romanticroadgermany.com
The first visitors were friends and families of the American soldiers stationed in the large bases in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg but the idea of the trail from Würzburg to Füssen soon became wildly popular.
It's not too hard to see the reason for the popularity - despite the modern roots of the idea, the tour combines the historic cities of Würzburg and Augsburg with the three medieval walled towns of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, and then finishes off with the tourist highlights of Neuschwanstein Castle and the Alps.
Rothenburg is a must see. Dinkelsbuhl is a smaller Rothenburg without all the tourists and Nordlingen was built in a meteor crater with the walls of the city on the edge of the crater. Augsburg is a 2000 year old city worth a day.