City in Germany-suggestions please

I would suggest the Harz (Mountains) Nat. Park (Harz.de, Harzinfo.de, Harz-online.de, Nationalpark-harz.de.
It's not a city, but I don't particularly want to see cities. Interesting and pretty areas are more to my liking. The Harz is an island of pine covered mountains in the otherwise flat plain of No. Germany and has been made into a national park. It straddles the old East/West German border. The Brocken, the highest mountain in No. Germany at about 3800 ft is there. It's not that high, but because of the latitude, it's above the timberline on the top. Ancient residents thought this made it enchanted and the area is steeped in witch lore. It was the site for the Walpurgisnacht scene in Göthe's Faust. During the cold war, the Stazi had a tower on top of the mountain to intercept radio signals to Berlin from the West. Today, you can ride a narrow gauge steam train to the top. I stayed in Braunlage in the Harz for five nights in 2008. One day I took the bus and train to Wernigerode, an old East German town full of Fachwerk buildings. You can also go to similar Quedlinburg. Another day I rode the train to the top of the Brocken and visited the museum there.

My suggestion that would be a good fit for your itinerary is Hamburg. A great mixture of dignified elegance and low down sleaze. It has a completely different feel from Southern Germany. BTW, I'm waiting for the poster who writes :
"What we really don't like: history, especially WWII, architecture, culture, and good food and drinks."

I also recommend northern Germany - the Harz mountains, Hamburg, Hannover, Braunschweig, Hildesheim. These cities have WWII memorials, beautiful and interesting architecture, great museums, and of course medieval churches.

Liked Hamburg and Koln, but Dresden blows them out of the water.

Suzann, I agree on Hamburg...it's the culture center of North Germany. I like going to Hamburg...very different. Other cities to recommend which I liked are Lübeck, Magdeburg, Bremen, Dresden, Leipzig. If you want to see smaller cities (Kleinstädte), then I suggest Minden an der Weser, Hameln, Meißen, Jena, Celle, Lutherstadt Wittenberg.

Thank you all for your responses so far. It looks like my husband is also interested in Trier and possibly Luxembourg City, now he tells me. Any thoughts on these 2 places compared with Hamburg since that is where I am leaning.

WE spent two days in Trier in 2009 and enjoyed it. It is in the running for Germany's oldest city. It does have roman ruins and an attractive cathedral. It was worth 2 days to us. The Mosel is quite nice in that area. We did not get to Luxembourg. Regards, Gary

Luxembourg and Trier are both far out of your way for what you have proposed so far... several hours out of the way. Luxembourg City is pleasant enough, but not worth more than a few hours. Trier underwhelmed me, mainly because it looks similar to hundreds of other small German cities, with the exception of a few Roman ruins.

If you are going between Amsterdam and Copenhagen, I'd probably spend a a couple days in Cologne (possibly see Bonn as a side trip) and another day and night in Hamburg.

Don't bother with Luxembourg City - it isn't that interesting. I liked Trier but as others have said, it's pretty far out of your way. There's so much more to see and do in Hamburg than in Trier and Luxembourg City, anyway.

Suzann, Prima!.... you can't go wrong in choosing Köln and Hamburg if both are new to you. You can get to either easily, they're connected by ICE on a trunk line. Look in Rough Guide: Germany to get a good overview of both places and their immediate surroundings, which are accessible by the S-Bahn.

Thank you all so much for your recommendations. It really is hard to tell sometimes if a place is worhwhile by reading a book or visiting a travel Web site. We decided on Hamburg and Koln as I managed an extra day for vaction. Is it worthwhile to get Rick's book for these two places (are they even in his book)? Any hotel recomendations are appreciated too!

Hamburg is not in the Blue Book and the section on Köln is a little slim.