Trying to identify a good base town for a few days

Nuremberg is the obvious choice given you list.

DJ

I should note that we will be travelling by train.

Where will you be staying in Berlin?

Zehlendorf in Berlin, but I don't see how that has anything to do with our time in Bavaria...

I agree that Nürnberg is the best choice. It is a rail hub with good connections. There is plenty to see while you are in town. There are lots of hotels and restaurants. The only holdback might be the timing if you are trying to go in a heavy trade fair season. Nürnberg is a prominent trade fair town and the rooms fill up quickly. Check HRS.com or other hotel booking sight to see if there are rooms available at a reasonable price.

Zehlendorf...a very nice area, plush too. I saw parts of it once in 1999.

You need to go to the German Railways itinerary page and find travel times there.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Try Ansbach as a base. Other towns may work well too. I previously used Neustadt-an-der-Aisch as a travel base for Bamberg, R'burg, Bad Windsheim and Nuremberg. Worked great (though not sure about your outlying Noerdlingen from there.)

Note that R'burg, BW, and Bamberg all lie within the VGN zone, which offers unusually inexpensive day passes for getting around, day passes with no after-9 am restriction on weekdays. The Tagesticket Plus day pass is 19 Euros per day for 2 adults.

http://www.vgn.de/en/dayticket?Edition=en&p=tagesticket-plus

And if you buy it on Saturday it can be used on Sunday as well! So finding a base town within this zone that allows you to stay within the zone en route to your destinations makes a lot of sense. Neustadt does that. Bad Windsheim might work as well. VGN zone map:

http://www.vgn.de/liniennetze/schienennetz_gesamtraum/

Yes, we realized that Noerdlingen would be better suited to a Munich trip. In that case I would add Iphofen as a stop from this home base.

New question: Is it a reasonable day from Neustadt an der Aisch, to combine Bad Windsheim for the open air museum during the day and Rothenberg ob der Touber for the evening - to do the night watchman tour and return to Neustadt an der Aisch for the hotel?

During late September/early October we'll be based in Iphofen for a while in one of the Ilmbacher Hof apartments. You can combine Iphofen with Kitzingen for a good day trip (I've never been to Iphofen before but it reads like my kind of place). Wurzburg is worth visiting, as is Wertheim - I don't know about rail travel times if Neustadt is your intended base. Bamberg is a highlight for me, right up there with Tubingen for a fabulous large town.

Your Bad Windsheim and Rothenburg combo looks doable to me, if not a tad on the long side for my liking: Rothenburg is worth a long day on it's own. As an aside, I corresponded with George the Nightwatchman about his apartment rental but by the time my flight details were finalised it was too late.

Nordlingen does throw a spanner into the works.

Is it a reasonable day from Neustadt an der Aisch, to combine Bad
Windsheim for the open air museum during the day and Rothenberg ob der
Touber for the evening - to do the night watchman tour and return to
Neustadt an der Aisch for the hotel?

Last train of the day out of R'burg is typically 22:06, arriving Neustadt (Aisch) 23:35. Check the DB site for your date. I have not combined the two myself in one day but I think it's doable with a full day.

The Nightwatchman tour was mildly entertaining but a tad hokey IMO, not worth staying late if you don't wish to, and watchable on youtube. That said, I could tell some of the other participants were quite engaged.

Note that Neustadt(Aisch) has 2 stations - "Bahnhof" and "Mitte" - so on the DB site, check the schedules for the station that is nearest your accommodations.

Bad Windsheim is only 20 train minutes away from N'stadt so it probably would work OK as a base for your outings - check the schedules - and of course the Freilandmuseum would not require an outing at all if you stay in Bad Windsheim.

Bad Windsheim is only 20 train minutes away from N'stadt so it probably would work OK as a base for your outings

As somebody who has lived for a couple of years in that region, I'd say that Windsheim is more charming than Neustadt. W. was an Imperial City and the traces of that great (well, within certain limits) past are still visible - an impressive baroque town hall, which swallowed the last penny that the poor city was able to raise, a good gothic town church (besides two other churces - older but more modest). Besides the open air museum mentioned by Russ, there is another »attraction«, viz. the little Döbler brewery. Some of their beers are among the best Franconia has to offer (try the »Reichstadtbier« and the »Dunkles«; I'd skip the Helles and the Weizen. It's easy to find: facing the town hall take the alley to the left and you will see it at once). And W. has a better selection of accomodation (I can recommend Hotel Storchen, while in Neustadt my choice would be Brewery and Gasthof Kohlenmühle). A disadvantage of Windsheim is its situation on a branch rail line; both to Nuremberg and Wuerzburg you would have to add appr. 25 min train travel time compared to Neustadt. However, if you want to add Bamberg to your day excursions (I'd say you should), Neustadt isn't the first choice either - you would have to go through Nürnberg. From the viewpoint of accessibility of your day trip destinations, Nürnberg would be the best choice anyway: just over 1 hour to Rothenburg or Würzburg, just over 40 min to either Bamberg or Ansbach / Weißenburg / Amberg (usually overlooked by travellers, but well worth a visit). Moreover, there is little to do in Windsheim and Neustadt after dinner, while Nuremberg is a vibrant city but far from the nervousness of Munich.