Which route should we take (Germany)

You'll see the southern Black Forest anyway before Basel. It's already built into your itinerary. The southern portion is the most impressive part anyway. Don't go out of your way to drive the Romantic Road. Visit towns along the route that interest you, but the road itself and the scenery along it are nothing special. By "Rhine", I assume you mean the Mittlerhein, and not the upper Rhine between Wiesbaden and Basel. I think you can fit in all of your wishlist, but it won't necessarily represent the best use of your vacation time, because you'll spend a lot of time driving. But here's an idea that more or less gives you what you want. Day 1: Munich- Spend the night either here, or in Füssen/Schwangau. Day 2: Visit the castles first thing in the morning. Drive on A7 north, stop at perhaps one RR town and spend the night at another. I think Rothenburg is a little over-rated, but worth a visit if you're going in the general direction. Also consider Nordlingen, Dinkelsbühl or Würzburg. You don't have time to drive the RR itself if you want to fit in the Mittelrhein. Day3: Continue driving north, change to A3 north around Würzburg, head towards Frankfurt. From Frankfurt, either head towards Mainz or Wiesbaden, give yourself a scenic drive of the Mittelrhein, and spend the night somewhere in the middle (St. Goar, St. Goarhausen, Boppard, Oberwesel, Bacharach, Koblenz, Rüdesheim, etc.) Day4: If you spent the nigth on the west bank of the Rhine, head south on A61, consider a visit to one Deutsch Weinstraße town (Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt, Landau, etc) or Speyer or or one southern Black Forest Town (cont)

(cont) Cross the Rhine at Karlsruhe and continue towards Basel on A5. Traffic on this road can be murderous, so don't plan on more than one stopover the entire day. If you spend the night on the east back of the Rhine, head south on A5. Consider a stopover at Heidelberg. Continue towards Basel. The Black Forest is the mountain chain you see to your left starting at around Karlsruhe. On a clear day, you can also see the Vosges mountains on the other side of the Rhine in France.

"The 1st day is touring Munich, the 4th day we have to off our rental car in Lourrach... we really want to go to the Neuschwanstein Castle and also go to Rothenburg... my husband thinks he wants to take the Romanic Rd. and we would like to see some of the Black Forest and Rhine." You can't start on the morning of Day 2 and expect to see all that before the evening of day 4. Unless you want to spend day and night in the car, I would what you have in mind and suggest a much more direct route from Munich than Tom has suggested, moving west toward the Black Forest via Ulm (cathedral, nice city) and Tübingen (an especially handsome old-world city.) Head west from there to Dornstetten, Schiltach, and Haslach along the Half-timbered-house Road for some great scenery and villages. SCHILTACH http://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/uk/index.php?s=9&c=sbesch Visit the Vogtsbauernhof open-air museum: www.black-forest-travel.com/places-of-interest/vogtsbauernhof.html Then continue via Triberg, Furtwangen, St. Märgen, Titisee, and on to Lörrach. Neuschwanstein is not a castle at all but a fanciful late 19th-century mock-up of a castle created by a theatrical set-designer. Really. Not worth the detour for the 30-minute tour just to rub shoulders with international tourists. Check out the moated castle/palace Glatt in Sulz, between Tübingen and Schiltach: Wasserburg Glatt Other palaces and castles in the Black Forest area: www.black-forest-travel.com/places-of-interest/castles.html Hohenzollern Castle might interest you as well.

Russ, thank you for all your help. We are definitely going to check out the route you suggested.