Yet another follow-up post on our recent trip, covering only Berlin and Rothenburg:
If you're already planning for next year, I have to suggest the Meistertrunk festival at the end of May in Rothenburg. It is a great show of medieval pageantry mixed with Rothenburgers partying in the biergarten at night. It made Rothenburg somehow more kitschy and more real all at the same time.
If you can't stay inside the old town of Rothenburg, the Best Western near the train station is a good choice. (I know, this goes completely against the RS ethos!) Their breakfast buffet was just amazing -- by far the best of our trip.
For Berlin, we found the lack of centrally located hotels in RS kind of frusrating. There aren't a lot of affordable options in the center, but the Winter's Hotel Gendarmenmarkt was a sleek, quiet place two blocks from the Gendarmenmarkt square and within walking distance of Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Brandenburg Gate. If you can get a good deal there, it's nice not having to take the metro to sights.
The Reichstag lines are long pretty much anytime. Get there by 9 a.m. at the latest. Even at 9, there was a 30-minute wait. But you can't really complain when it's free and is such a great experience. They now offer a free audioguide of your visit to the top, and it beats all other audioguides hands-down. You can tell the Germans really want people to appreciate the significance of this building.
The Pergamon, like the rest of the state museums of Berlin, is usually free from 6-10 p.m. on Thursdays, but for the duration of their current special exhibit, regular admission fees apply (I believe until sometime in July).