So this is the current state of my trip planning for my wife and I upcoming Germany/Czechia/Austria trip. Since the majority of the time will be in Germany I thought I'd post it here.
Sunday August 25 arrive in Berlin in afternoon, spend night in Berlin.
Monday late morning off to Dresden (will be coming back to Berlin at the end). Monday afternoon spend time in Dresden's renovated historic area.
Tuesday, more Dresden activities, perhaps the military museum/ visiting Dresden Neustadt, or Loschwitz area.
Wednesday Aug 28, off to Prague, probably late morning train.
Either Sat or Sun Sept 1, IC bus from Prague to Nurnberg, Probably Sunday because Prague looks so darn beautiful, adult Disneyland notwithstanding.
So, call it Sun Sep 1, IC bus arrives around 1, spend the rest of the afternoon into evening visiting Nurnberg, where I spend two summers as a teenager.
Monday daytrip to Bamberg, using the VGN ticket
Tuesday, perhaps more Nurnberg activities or daytrip to Wurzburg.
Wed, Sep 3, off to Munich in the morning, probably take the RE train leaving just after 9 with a Bayernticket, but tempted to splurge on two 19.90 euro IC tickets and get to Munich in just over an hour. For that day, Munich altstadt wandering, probably go into the Residenz.
Thurs, one part of the day for beautiful architecture, so the Bogenhaus area north of Prinzregentenstrasse just on the east side of the Isar, then bus over to some of the Schwabing neighborhoods just to the west of the Englischer garten, following along on my art
noveau, jugenstil, Grunderzeit obsession. Second part of the day, maybe more altstadt area visiting, or trip to BMW welt, or the Transportation museum.
Friday, day trip time, perhaps Tegernsee, with stop in Bad Tolz on the way back, or somewhere else like Landshut, Augsburg etc.
Sat Sep 6, off to Salzburg in the morning. Rest of the day Salzburg, altstadt visiting, definitely trip up to the Monchsberg.
Sun Sep 7 some kind of Salzburg day trip, perhaps a bus out to one of the lakes, like to Fuschlsee with a nice walk around the lake, but I'm thinking no Halstatt.
Monday, off to Garmisch Partenkirchen, perhaps with this route. Buy OBB railjet tickets to Innsbruck (right now only about 20 euros each) spend some time in Innsbruck, then with the Regio Werdenfels +Innsbruck, go Innsbruck to GP. the bulk of this day is cut up by train travel, more than any other day on this trip, but it seems like a nice alpine train travel itinerary, plus some time in Innsbruck.
Tuesday morning the partnachklamm looks like a fun outing. Afternoon RVO bus to Linderhof, and after that maybe bus into Oberammergau, getting back on the later side that day.
Wednesday, depending on weather trip to Zugspitze, then on the way down walk around the Eibsee. If weather isn't cooperating, maybe just Eibsee.
Thursday Sep 11, from GP to either Erfurt or Leipzig. I'm leaning toward Erfurt, with a Munich IC connection we could leave around 10, get to Erfurt by 2 which seems really convenient, allowing some afternoon evening time in Erfurt.
Fri, spend part of day in Erfurt, part in Weimar.
Sat, leave Erfurt in morning, either straight back to Berlin, or stop off in Wittenberg. Stay in Berlin from Saturday night thru flight Wednesday morning. During our Berlin stay our relatives will probably give guidance, and if not I've got plenty of ideas.
I feel this itinerary has a nice mix of cities, towns, some alps mixed in as well. Definitely not "off the beaten path" but some of the more heavily touristed areas are pretty nice. Also, a fair amount of travel involved, but many of the trips are pretty short, like Erfurt to Weimar, or Nurnberg to Bamberg, or Munich to Landshut or Tegernsee, or for that matter GP to Linderhof. Would like to hear from people's thoughts about it. One of the most travel intensive days, Salzburg to GP I'm actually looking forward too, as a nice way to see some alpine scenery.