In the planning stages and have a few questions.

My first thought is that you're taking a car into the two least auto-friendly cities in the German-speaking world. Munich and Vienna are very difficult to navigate by car, and inner city parking in both is almost as expensive as it is scarce.

Picking up with Tom's thoughts ... Having a daughter in law, German national from a small village in the Palatinate, we have traveled a good deal in both rural / small town and urban environments within Germany. I would much rather be on the road with an average German driver than a good American driver, first of all. Next, for the most part, main highways and general thoroughfares are excellent to very good. In my opinion there are two classes of driving in Germany; "rural / small town" and "urban / high density" coupled with the famous Autobahn system. Common to all is the issue of the lack of convenient, inexpensive parking. As a first timer driving in Gernamy, If your emphasis on touring is "rural", I'd say give it a go. If you have a heavy emphasis on the dense urban aspect consider the first rate trains between locations and locally Ubahns, buses, etc. Mixing the two modes, for a first timer, might get somewhat problematic. Therefore I'm suggesting to tune your trip to be either a strong emphasis one way or the other, or to start and end high destiny auto pickup and drop off with easier stops between.

Robert, how many nights do you have in Europe?

Are you flying in from the US or Canada? If so, your first day is likely to be very hazy due to jetlag. If you're flying into Frankfurt because you got a good deal on the airfare and plan to start driving right away toward Bavaria, I'd encourage you to rethink that, because exhausted drivers and the autobahn are not a great combination. (If there are things you want to see in Frankfurt and you plan to spend at least one night there, never mind.) I don't know your exact travel date, but a spot check of the rail fares on the Deutsche Bahn website indicates that if you are prepared to lock in a precise train departure right now, you can get one-way tickets from the Frankfurt Airport to Munich for 29 euros. I assume there are similarly good prices for other Bavarian cities where you might prefer to pick up a car and begin your explorations (the next day). Those super-low fares will disappear rapidly as other riders snap up the cheap tickets. The regular fare is many times higher (over 100 euros).

I feel as if four major cities (discounting Frankfurt, but assuming the Czech Republic includes Prague) is really too many for the time you have. In aggregate, driving between the large cities will not be faster than the train (not considering time to get yourself to and from train stations), and parking is likely to be difficult, inconvenient and quite costly. When you're actually in the cities, you won't be using the car at all. I understand that a car could be helpful in small-town Bavaria, but do you really have time for small-town Bavaria?

Given your interests, I wonder whether you'd enjoy yourself more if you substituted smaller cities for one or two of the biggies. Smaller cities can often be seen fairly well in one day of walking around. That is not the case with Munich, Vienna, Prague or Berlin.

Also, keep in mind that Berlin is really, really heavy on museums and World War II/Cold War historical sites. Fascinating place, but not full of Old World charm.

For people to give better advice: have you already bought airline tickets, or could you fly into other cities?

Munich, other Bavarian destinations, Vienna, Czech Republic, and Berlin is A LOT to cram into 12 days, even if they are 12 full days (not counting flying days). You'll spend a lot of time in a car; if you use trains, you'll still spend a lot of time, although less, because you won't have to park and because high speed trains will be faster than driving on some routes.

Multiple people (not just Tom) have warned that driving in Munich is not fun; this includes people who have no problem driving in other German cities.

If you're not interested in art museums, you may want less time in Berlin and Vienna and more time in other places. that said, they have far more than just "art" in museums. For instance, the German History Museum in Berlin is fantastic and could take all day to see. And Munich's Deutches Museum is one of the best science museums anywhere.

Thank you all for your thoughtful advice, it's really appreciated.

A little background as to why we were thinking about driving rather than trains, which we're not totally opposed to. My wife has a prosthetic leg that doesn't really keep her down, but does limit the amount of walking she does. We were thinking that rather than having to deal with lugging bags (I have a RS softbackpack on my back and I pull her RS roller with one hand and keep my left available to offer her an assist when needed) everywhere, we could stash bags in the trunk, park and go on our way. If she is having a rough day, having a car allows us to easily modify our schedule to suit her needs.

Munich and Vienna sound as if they do present a challenge. Are there park and ride locations on the outskirts of the city that would allow us to hop on local light rail or trains for easier access to the city centers? I was even contemplating staying in place near the airport where we might have access to parking at a bigger hotel as a base of operation for those places, and again, using public transport to get around when in congested places.

We have not purchased our flights yet, but plan on doing so by the 11th (there are some really great deals going through then.) From Seattle, Frankfurt offers us a some direct options, which is why we thought about starting there.

acraven: yes, we plan on staying the first night in Frankfurt to rest first for exactly that reason. It worked well for us in Barcelona last spring. We should be in Frankfurt on May 4th and will look to fly back out (from somewhere) on May 16th.

Harold: It's not that we plan on avoiding all museums, but we saw plenty of art in Florence and Rome last year, so we thought we'd focus on other things (such as Mozarts Geburtshaus in Salzberg or say the The Hofburg Palace in Vienna) this time around.

I am headed up to the RS Travel Center tomorrow (a benefit of living in Seattle) to pick up the Germany, Austria and Czech books, which will also give us a better idea on where to firm our plans.

Again, thank you all for your insights and suggestions. We're certainly going to take all them into consideration to help make our trip the best it can be.

-Robert

As someone who struggles with luggage (being short and neither young or muscular), I see the problem. But where I have difficulties is getting my things on/off the train and up/down an occasional flight of stairs. You can handle that. There are always taxis at the station to take you to your hotel and can and will block traffic for the short time it takes to drop you off or pick you up. If you stay in a central location, you can grab a taxi if you hit a wall. Staying centrally also means you can pop back to your room for a rest before dinner, and no long commute at the end of the day.

Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich Vienna, Prague. These are major cities with lots to see and do and good rail connections. With 12 days and 5 cities, you won't have time for small towns along the way. Frankly, I think you have too many places for 12 days and a car only slow you down.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to use a car if you want to see big cities. It's nothing but a expensive hindrance in this case. A car is great if you want to see the countryside, small towns, castles etc..
And 12 days for Munich, Vienna, Prague and Berlin? It's a huge detour, and most people recommend 3-4 full days for Munich, 3-5 days for Vienna, 2-4 days for Prague and 4-6 days for Berlin. You always lose half a day between these cities, and you would need to pass all the beautiful places between them that I would want to visit on a road trip, like Rothenburg/Dinkelsbühl/Nördlingen, the Wachau and the Salzkammergut, Mikulov, Telc, Saxon/Bohemian Switzerland, Görlitz, Bautzen or the Spreewald. To me that's a tour of 21 days.

Frankly, with a car I would take the more or less direct route from Frankfurt to Berlin, either via the Middle Rhine and the Harz mountains or via Saxony. First "Old Germany", i.e. old towns, castles and nature, and at the end the big city.

I wonder about a combo trip--rented car from Frankfurt to Munich (or to Berlin as Martin suggests), then dump the car and use the train to hit whatever other large cities you have time for. I'd consider dropping Vienna to allow more time for small towns in Germany.

One route from Frankfurt to Berlin takes you right past Erfurt and pretty near Quedlinburg. They are both really lovely.

About Berlin: Plan on a lot of taxis there, I'm afraid. It sprawls, and the top sights are scattered all over, though there is a concentration of major museums on Museuminseln. The public transportation system is good (though no U-Bahn or S-Bahn right at Museuminseln), but I think depending on that would prove to be too much walking for your wife. I noticed that when I needed to transfer between the S-Bahn and U-Bahn there was often quite a hike involved.
I've never even been tempted to use a hop-on/hop-off bus, but that might be worth your consideration in Berlin. One other thing: the footing at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is intentionally uneven.

acraven,

I've been digging through the RS Germany 2017 book and believe that we'll take your suggestion in doing a bit of a combo. Using a car to work our way to Munich, then dumping it there and going via train to Berlin (and dropping Vienna and Prague this time around.)

Thanks again for all of your suggestions, they're really appreciated.
-R

Yes I agree, I was going to say drop Vienna for sure, if you aren't into museums and palaces.

Prague was beautiful, but it sounds more like a car trip through small German towns is more up your alley!

Kim