Germany May 2020

Welcome to the forum.

You will probably get better, more focused tips if you give us an idea of what you want out of a trip to Germany - and why you have chosen these particular destinations. And we'll need to know more about "we" (how many, ages, interests, etc.)

But first, if you haven't done so already, have a look at Rick Steves' articles, which address what there is to see/do in Germany:

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles

Here's one for Frankfurt: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/exploring-frankfurt-germanys-hub

And to get a more complete picture, pick up a different guidebook as well.

Then you will probably have a few ideas in place that you could ask about. Right now, your request is very general, too open-ended.

Our first piece of advice is almost always: get a guidebook. Your local public library will have several. And Russ is right about checking books other than Rick's; Rick's books are good, but limited in scope.

You can also view episodes of Rick's TV shows on this website, as well. Here's a link: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show

There is so much more to Frankfurt than that tiny snippet from Rick. He ignores the early history, the medieval churches, the fact that this is the city chosen to elect and then later crown the Holy Roman Emperors, that this is the city where German democracy was born, the city where the Berlin Airlift took place, the city responsible for 2 different currency changes, home of the Rothschilds as well as Anne Frank, the center of Jewish culture in Germany for centuries, the site of the first enclosed Jewish Ghetto in Europe. The many farmer's markets, over 40 museums, and the beautiful residential neighborhoods (that were not bombed) have also been left out of his book.
Some day, Rick will actually come and spend some a bit more time here and discover what he has been missing all these years.

He's spent some time in Frankfurt - here's his fairly recent and mostly flattering video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dqRyrfA1Kw

The same video covers Nuremberg (a great choice for many reasons, btw.)

He doesn't cover everything, but I think his content is mostly helpful. That said... not sure that we need him back in Germany for more taping. Inside the first 15 seconds of this video, we're treated to "Donka Shane" and his extremely Americanized pronunciations of Frankfurt and Nuremberg. In his other videos, he's always in this church or that church - "Kirche" (two syllables) in German. But Rick's "Kirche" is only one syllable that rhymes with with "perk." It's as though he's never heard the word spoken. That grates. No one expects him to speak fluent German. But it really would be only the tiniest bother to learn and reproduce more authentically the handful of local place names and phrases he chooses to use. And his culture lessons would go down more easily with this small effort. Language is a big part of the culture, of course.

I was very disappointed in that video as I spent the entire day with Rick here in Frankfurt and spent a good portion of another day with just his film crew. He ignored almost all of the cool stuff I showed him and had no time to go see the rest.
He leaves out all the unique, historic, fascinating parts of Frankfurt as though nothing was here but banks and skyscrapers, thus the many people on this forum that say they want to head out of town as soon as they land because they believe him that there is nothing interesting here to see.

There is a train route that goes from Berlin to Munich that provides a good axis to plan around. Nuremberg is on that route that makes a convenient place from which to go to Frankfurt.

Give us an indication of what you expect to get out of the trip and we can provide more help.

I prefer to stay in smaller towns in either small inns, private rooms, or apartments.

It looks to me like you have a well planned itinerary. I am not sure how Frankfurt became part of this discussion.

Regensburg is one of my favorite towns in Germany. Wikipedia and the town website both have good descriptions of what to see and the history (myths included). I love just walking about the old inner core of the city. It’s alleys and plazas are a pleasure to see. The cathedral is massive and interesting. Both it and the nearby stone pedestrian bridge were built in 1140’s. There is a gate to the former Roman fortress “Castra Regina”near both. There is a nice small museum of Regensburg history at the town end of the stone bridge.

I like visiting the church at the former St. Emmeram Abbey. The mythical history regarding St. Emmeram in Wikipedia is worth reading to my taste.

If you enjoy art you might visit the Ostdeutsche Galerie just outside the old town. I like Käthe Kollwitz and her work is featured there.

If you like straight forward Bavarian Food in a friendly atmosphere, try the Regensburg Hofbräuhaus. Kneitinger Bräuerei (sp?) has good food and Bier.

I would suggest that many town websites have valuable tourist and history information. If you have a data plan, the information is nicely portable.

To Gary - thank you for this info, very helpful. We originally thought we'd do a route through Frankfurt.... that's no longer in the mix for this trip. Appreciate your time replying!