Germany

A Bayern-Ticket is a great way to save, but unless the other people are your minor children, a Bayern-Ticket is valid for up to only five people, not six.

Both towns have websites (www.nagold.de and www.roding.de). Roding has an English side; Nagold is only in German.

I know nothing about Roding, but I have spent some time in the northern Black Forest and seen Bad Herrenalb (www.bad-herrenalb.de), Bad Wildbad (www.bad-wildbad.de), Freudenstadt (www.freudenstadt.de), and Alpirsbach (www.alpirsbach.de). It is a beautiful area. Herman Hesse's hometown of Calw is close to Nagold.

Stephanie, if you're not finding much out there then there probably isn't much to see. Munich itself should give you several days worth of stuff to see. Make sure to check out Dallmayer Chocolatier if you're a chocolate fanatic. It's just off of the main square near the rathaus.

If you want to go somewhere else that is a reasonable distance away then buy a Bayern Pass at the Munich train station and head to Salzburg for a few days. You'll be glad you did. It's a surprisingly short ride from Munich. And you may find some university students who will buddy-buddy up with you and split the cost of the already cheap ticket. You can get up to 6 people on one ticket. The university students know this and will probably approach you (in German if you've done a good job of trying to blend in) in the train station before the train leaves.

Take a chance and visit Roding and Nagold with your husband. We lived in Germany for some years with the army and were often amazed that the pleasant places that we would find that attracted no mention in American travel literature.

I noticed on the websites which Lee referenced that there were several hotels at each town. Someone visits these towns.

Americans can be too easily be herded into a few must-sees. There are rewards in visiting places not primarily frequented by other Americans. It is immersion travel.

Visit Nagold and Roding, come back and educate the rest of us. Regards.

"Americans can be too easily be herded into a few must-sees. There are rewards in visiting places not primarily frequented by other Americans. It is immersion travel."

Gary, I endorse that philosophy completely. I think that the problem is that people are too lazy to do their own research, so they just let the guide books do it for them.

I have stayed in Bad Herrenalb, Fruedenstadt, and Alpirsbach. I have spent about two weeks in Bad Herrenalb in four places; the best was in a Privat Zimmer at Ziegelbronnen.

While in Bad Herrenalb, I took the bus to Bad Wildbad for a day. It is a very charming village. But watch out, the spa there is typical German, coed and textilefrei (as is Bad Herrenalb and Freudenstadt).

I spent three nights in Freudenstadt in Hotel Ochsen, and two nights in Alpirsbach, one night in Schwanen-Post (www.schwanen-post.de)