Hamburg to Vienna or Prague - Wachau Valley - Thoughts?

What are your interests?

Hamburg is in general an interesting destination with nice day trips around. It has also a direct train connection to Prague. Or you travel smaller destinations directly from Stocksee, e. g. Lübeck, then Schwerin, then Potsdam, Dresden and to Prague.

Berlin Marathon will be on Sept. 27, so either book early or avoid it. Highest hotel prices of the year in Berlin.

Very doable Hamburg to Vienna and it is direct too, ie, a direct connection by night train.

I've done this night train option numerous time in both directions. Always satisfactory, plus it adds another travel day.

If I am doing this route either way, it is done by the night train . The night train option eliminates transferring.

Wachau Valley is on my list, for sure. And early October (if I'm calculating correctly) seems like the ideal to time to visit. I don't think it's early for booking accommodation there. Indeed, I would be looking now (and adjusting my dates as needed) to make sure I get the type of place that I want (I'm an AirBnBer, and I would want some kind of view, plus the parking). Enjoy!

What is fun is to remember that we have flexibility - a weird feeling.

OK, so, if we are visiting friends in Stocksee (an hour by car north of Hamburg) - which is a bit out of the way for hopping trains and then trying to get to Wien in one day (we like the overnight concept of saving a day, but we would miss seeing Germany) ... lots of great little and bigger towns to to stop overnight after 4 hours or so - arrive around 3 pm, walk to B&B or hotel, and restart the next day for Wien?

Recommendations of somewhere about half way from Hamburg to Wien?

Re: roughly half way between Hamburg and Wien. I've done this day or night numerous times, especially by night train. Which route do you want to take, crossing over in Nürnberg or going the distance to Munich and then changing to proceed to Wien. Advantages are to be found in both in the way you want to tailor your route. One of the advantages of traveling in the summer re: German travel.

Somewhere in the middle? How about Goettingen? Better than Kassel

If doing this route by day, good travel advantages to be gained by that too, I suggest seeing the following:

Soest/Westfalen, Münster/Westfalen, Minden an der Weser, Hameln, Celle, Lüneburg, Einbeck, if you want to try the local brewery, likewise in Lüneburg, Hildesheim.

Numerous small places and towns worth seeing in Westfalen and Lower Saxony since you're not pressed for time

Well, as I got further into this ...

We will probably fly between HAM and VIE ... just too long for one day of training and we would rather have the time in Vienna for day trips and hopefully some classical music concerts.

Would love to hear recommendations of where to stay and what to do in Vienna - have spent a few hours there on a tour a couple years ago, but this time we want to stay close to sites, cafes, and concert venues, etc ...

Then - train or drive to Wachau area - we looked at various locations on the Danube and like a the little town of Dürnstein - a hotel right on the Danube seemed perfect, so have tentative reservations there for three nights ... should have an afternoon, two full days, and a morning there. Is this enough to enjoy some wineries? Would need to drive from Wien if we wanted to have some flexibility for wineries? Train from Wien does go to Krems, but another five miles to Dürnstein by bus if don't have a car.

Krems looks larger and with lots of activities - made a reservation there, just in case.

Any thoughts would be great - and, thanks!