Itinerary and site recommendations for Germany

Don't miss the Mittel Mosel Weinfest, 9/3 to 9/7 in Bernkastel-Kues. These are super fun events in the region. https://www.bernkastel.de/weinfest-der-mittelmosel

Welcome to the forum, Brad.

I am hoping that our community can suggest places to visit that may be
of interest.

Of course, happy to help. But the list of interesting things to see and do along your route is infinite - honestly. Rick's book is the tip of the iceberg. So that we can narrow things down a little bit... your answer to a couple of questions would be helpful...

Which places/areas have you previously visited? (No sense in sending you back there, probably.)

What kinds of things/activities/sights/events do you find most interesting when you travel? (Whatever comes to mind.)

Our itinerary is flexible and I feel that our home bases will allow us to keep our driving to a
minimum.

The Cochem > Freiburg > G-P part raises my fuzzy eyebrows... I consider these journeys the opposite of minimal, especially considering the volume of interesting places and things to see/do along this route... nearly 3.5 hours raw driving time for the first journey and nearly 4 hours for the second under good circumstances. I would probably suggest changing a base town or two but I've no idea which of those 7 are absolute musts.

You'll be in Erfurt during its Oktoberfest, which happens on the main square of the city, Domplatz. It's a quite nice experience with only one (large) beer tent but tons of rides, food, etc.

An interesting museum in Erfurt is Erinnerungsort Topf und Söhne. Topf und Söhne was a massive conglomerate that engaged in the production of many things before and during WWII... including crematorium ovens... that were installed at Auschwitz and other death camps. The museum looks at how a "normal" company with "normal" owners and "normal" employees became involved in genocide. It's a quite good museum in the building where the designers for the ovens worked.

The Rick Steves walk for Erfurt in the Germany guide book is excellent.

Willy Brandt Platz is an interesting place to visit just to stan where history happened. Willy Brandt was the first West German chancellor to visit East Berlin (the DDR). Erfurt was the site of his visit. Throngs of East Germans arrived on what would eventually become Willy Brandt Platz to cheer for the West German leader, much to the chagrin of the DDR leaders. Brandt, standing at the window of a building on the platz, gave a small little wave to the crowd to acknowledge them subtly without embarrassing DDR officials.

The commercial development Anger 1 is a mall in a large building that was once a Jewish-owned department store that was "Aryanized" during Nazi rule.

Erfurt is a UNESCO world heritage site for its Jewish-Medieval Heritage. Here is info form the Erfurt TI on this: https://www.erfurt-tourismus.de/en/unesco/

Luther sites... Cold War sites... Merchant's Bridge... stunning half-timbered houses (the city largely escaped bombing during WWII)... so much to see! The city is a treasure that most US itineraries do not include... strong work on including it on yours!

Salzburg...

Consider a day trip to Eisriesenwelt in Werfen. It is a rather remarkable experience -- an enormous ice cave that is other-worldly.

Berchtesgaden can also be a worthwhile day trip -- Eagle's Nest, salt mine, and/or Königssee (but certainly not all three). You will get much nature in G-P and probably in Freiburg, but one of my favorite hikes is at Königssee. Take the boat across the lake to the Salet stop, walk to the Instagram-worthy Obersee (where the Instagrammers will be taking selfies), hike along the right side of Obersee to its opposite side, hike up an incline to arrive at a gorgeous alpine meadow with Germany's tallest waterfall (Röthbach Waterfall) at its far end.

Marionette Theater, Fortress, music, gardens. I love Salzburg.

Freiburg...

Gengenbach is a lovely little Black Forest town.

The international tourists go to Titisee; the German tourists go to Schluchsee. The latter is much larger and more oriented toward nature activities and less toward... uhh... commercial kitsch. Don't get me wrong... Titisee is worth seeing, but as our B&B owner told us, "First go to Titisee to see the international tourists, then go to Schluchsee to hang out with the Germans."

G-P...

Partnachklam (Partnach Gorge) is gorgeous.

In the Mosel Valley, I liked Burg Landshut. Had a great meal at this restaurant: https://waldschenke-bernkastel.de

Erfurt with side trips

to Goethe town Weimar 30 minutes east by car or train
and when interested in Nazi History the Concentration Camp Buchenwald above Weimar
Also used by the Soviets after the war as special camp for political prisoners

and to Eisenach 1hour west by car or train
with Wartburg where Martin Luther translated the bible into German
and the Bach House in town
See Gotha on the way with Palace and old town

Thanks for the suggestions on sites that interest you. My wife and I enjoy visiting historical sites as well as the architecture. We had also scheduled in our itinerary time to spend in nature with hikes and or relaxing locations and also have an opportunity to celebrate community events like Octoberfest. We did spread out our stop off points to get a good feel for the areas we were interested in.

ARCHITECTURE: One reason visitors are impressed with Germany is the old-world architecture that has survived over the centuries in certain places. Maybe you've already driven some of the German Half-timbered House Routes (Deutsche Fachwerkstrasse) - we still don't know where you've been before - but if not, the I'd recommend you consider a couple of days exploring the Neckar - Schwarzwald - Bodensee quadrant by car - it's depicted in RED on the map you will find at the link below.

https://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/en/Homepage.html

This next link has a long list of truly outstanding towns and villages along this route where these buildings are in abundance. The links to each town take you to a German-language page - but some independent research on your part into these towns would surely pay off. Rick does not cover these places all that well - but other resources do. Suggest you check out Tripadvisor for further info in English.

https://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/Regionalstrecken_Staedte/Vom-Neckar-zum-Schwarzwald-und-Bodensee.html

(Rick tends to focus heavily on Munich, Southern Bavaria, Salzburg, where you have a lot of time allocated - but this type of architecture is relatively scarce in these places.)

Freiburg itself is a nice city but with nearly a quarter million inhabitants does not really represent the Black Forest and is not a good jumping off point for most of the towns on the Half-Timbered-House route. If you think you'd like to explore this route, I would consider a different base town instead, one located closer to the center. Perhaps Tübingen or Herrenberg, both of which are highlighted towns on the route, would work well. Burg Hohenzollern would be a good option and near both of these towns.

From Bamberg I would go to the Franken Wein Region. Center on Volkach. A trip to Coburg. The Veste Coburg has a fantastic collection of middle age weapons. Good Bratwurst too. A trip into the Fränkische Schweiz, Gößweinstein Pottenstein etc. The Altmühltal to Kelheim and the Donaudurchbruchn. Eat a Schäufele and drink some beer.

Thanks for the additional suggestions. We had visited Frankfurt, as well as the Rhine region staying in Bacharach. We had also visited Fussen and some points along the romantic road including Rothenburg, Wurzburg.

Another vote for the ice caves in Werfen. If you decide to go, take some gloves and a warm hat,or beanie !

Near Salzburg I like the salt mine tour at Hallein (3 times). There are others in B’gaden amd Hallstatt ( 1 time )

There are many wonderful places to visit between Bamberg and Erfurt. Coburg and its fortress (Veste Coburg) are beautiful and interesting. The Veste has a nice collection of Medieval art, a room where Luther stayed, etc. The nearby small village of Sesslach is a restored Medieval town with town wall and great fachwerk and is on the Fachwerkstrasse website previously mentioned. In fairness, many villages in this region contain great fachwerk. I haven't been Schmalkalden but have heard it's very nice. I've found the websites below helpful in planning visits to this area and contain details on many towns:
https://www.frankentourismus.de/
https://www.thueringen.info/tourismus/
https://www.coburgmarketing.de/en/ (this one refers to marketing but is the town's tourism website)
Have fun!

Thank you for your suggestions. I will review the websites and work a plan to visit some of these locations.