Amsterdam to Kiel
 

We are going to be driving from Amsterdam to Kiel. what is your advise for stops along the route? it does not mater how late we arrive to Kiel - our cruise is next day. Thank you!

I would absolutely give Hamburg a visit. Especially the center with the beautiful lake. After you will enjoy the peace in Kiel a lit more .

Innenalster is the lake in the center called.

what about Bremen?

Amsterdam - Untrecht - Groningen - Bremen - Hamburg - Lubeck - Kiel

Utrecht - sorry

@Aramis: Good luck with that. Driving time of that route: 7 hours (not counting stops and the endless Baustelle on the German Autobahn around Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck). If anything I would vote Bremen. It has some historic medieval buildings and a good atmosphere.

Lübeck is a unesco site, but a bit out of the route.

Hamburg was bombed to ruins in WW2, there's not much left from times before than.

It's actually about 8 hours driving,

They were suggestions of places worth stopping along a general route to stop, not a defined route. I guess I could have left Amsterdam off to avoid confusion, but nobody stops in 5 cities in one day on an 8 hour drive, do they?

Lubeck adds about an hour from a direct Hamburg Kiel route but since you are dismissing Bremen and Hamburg it's probably very doable if Utrecht and or Groningen don't excite.

I didn't know it was a pre WW II history trip the OP was undertaking.