Hello Everyone.
Hoping to find some direction on what to see and where to go in Germany. We have one week to see Germany and we need to be in Paris on our 7th night. We are debating on flying into Munich and traveling towards the Rhine. Not sure if we have time for that. Or we might fly into Frankfurt. We are interested in a little history, culture, beer and wine. We will be traveling by train. I would love to here about the top places to see. We love to relax and do a few tours. Thanks

OK I'll be bold: 2 nights Munich, 2-hour train to Bamberg for 2 nights (with daytrip to Regensburg or Wuerzburg), 4-hour train to Berlin for 2 nights for 59 Euro, then $113 one-way flight on Easyjet to Paris.

but from the Frankfurt area you can hop French TGV and German ICE high-speed trains to speed at nearly 200 mph to Paris, seeing the lay of the land in between and all told timewise be about the same perhaps as you end up in the city centre in Paris not some remote airport and you also do the environment a favor by taking the train - anyway trains in Germany are fantastic and France too - check out these Wunderbar sites IMO for lots on German trains - www.bahn.de (official site of German railways for fares and schedules and online discounted tickets, sold in limited numbers so should be booked weeks in advance if possible to get and cannot be changed from the specific train you want, etc - full flexible fares like you buy at stations can be very expensive and if going this route a vew few trips at full fare could be more expensive even than the German Twin Railpass, whicvh lets you hop any train anytime - other great sites - www.seat61.com (good info on discounted online tickets); www.budgteteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com (latter two lots of railpasses and sample itineraries).

Depending on the year and wine festivals
Frankfurt
Pop down the Rhine drinking at Pfalz etc until you are almost in France (go on if Alsace is calling you) then head back to Ida-Oberstein and along the mountain trails to Konstanz, The Rheingau, Nahe, Ahr and then Bamburg (have a smoked beer), go south to the Mosel and trudge along to Trier then up to Luxembourg city and across to Givet and Reims and Epernay.

That covers about 5% of European wine ACs

Before you start look at the dates and check the German Tourist web site and see if anything coincides with a wine festival.

What were the other things you liked

Thank you for your responses. Forgot to let you know we will be there Sept 13th thru the 20th of 2012. Love to here more. We are not sure what to do or see.

You are going in the harvest period with vines beginning to go brown, you can go to http://www.duerkheimer-wurstmarkt.de/

I was there from Sept. 14-29. 2011 and the vines were not turning brown at all. They were beautiful. I have such amazing photos I took with my point and shoot camera, that people are amazed. This year the weather was beautiful on those days in September, but this is not always so. Some years it has been quite cold and rainy.

the wurst markt is a real fun 2 week party, drinks start at 9am and finish at 2am, well behaved public but every major politician has to turn up and talk to people (luckily in German). You can stay in the hotel right in the middle which is tripple glazed so not a hint of the sound gets in

"...we might fly into Frankfurt. We are interested in a little history, culture, beer and wine. We will be traveling by train. I would love to here about the top places to see. We love to relax and do a few tours... we will be there Sept 13th thru the 20th..."

Perfect time for a Rhine visit. With a week you'd have a relaxing stay and time to see the Mosel River as well. The big wine fest and Rhine-in-Flames event in St. Goar and across the river in St. Goarshausen begins the 13th with live music in the evenings; on Sat the 15th the wine stands open and the fireworks event takes place that night at 9 pm.

http://www.rhein-in-flammen.com/de/s...ressionen.html

I would book well in advance for this particular weekend.

History:
Visit Trier for Roman history.

Castle tours: Marksburg - www.marksburg.de - Eltz - www.burg-eltz.de - and St. Goar's Rheinfels - http://www.st-goar.de/17-1-rheinfels-castle.html

WW II: Remagen's WW II museum, with much in English: www.bruecke-remagen.de ; German bunker in Irrel, near Trier: http://www.westwallmuseum-irrel.de/index_en.html

Attractive old-world towns with half-timbered buildings: Rhine towns Linz (north of Koblenz) and Bacharach stand out. Mosel towns: Cochem, Bernkastel

the Mosel Valley in September sees many wine festivals in this deep gorge with a tranquil river at the bottom of it that many find more romantic than the nearby Rhine Gorge - easy to do by public transit with getting to Cochem by train a snap, from Koblenz or Trier - can take train and bus to Burg Eltz as well, hovering high above the Mosel, one of Germany's most gorgeous and beautiful castles.

Cochem is the kind of town that most tourists only dream about staying in - a castle of your dreams, albeit Ersatz, pops right out of the town center and is encircled by vineyards - vineyards carpet much of the Mosel Valley here as well - put up in a family-run guesthouse with down comforters and you'll fall in love with this place.