Hi, we will be traveling from Prague to Paris and I am looking for a couple of neat small German towns that would be fun to stop on the train. We will only have about three nights to get from Prague to Paris. We have been to Frankfurt and Munich, but I don't really feel familiar at all with Germany, and we are looking for towns that are small and charming. We will be going in November, so it would be nice to get some Christmas gifts too, and I remember Germany had wonderful Christmas shopping. Thanks for any insight.

Try Dresden. Its about 2 hours from Prague and very interesting now that it is no longer Communist.

I suggest stopping in Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, they have a good market and is a "neat small German town". Go to http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en for the German rail system site, use Praha for departure, Paris for destination and via Rothenburg o.d. Tauber Bahnhof. You will get a "connection overview", click on the "itinerary" tab and it will give you times, train numbers and stops. With the side trip to Rothenburg, not counting time spent there, the journey will take almost 24 hours. By the by, stay in Rothenburg and take the night watchman's tour.

Berlin is an incredible city that is about 4 1/2 hours trainride north of Prague. If you want 20th century history, it is there--1936 Olympic Stadium, Checkpoint Charlie, Reichstag, Potsdam, Infobox, Kurfurstendam Strasse, museum with entire ancient ruin-Pergam...(oh, well). Very nice people and good transit in town.

If you are travelling in the last week of November I would definitely advise you to stop in Nuremberg, because the Christkindlmarkt will be on. This Xmas market is the most famous one although many German towns and villages have one during advent. Nuremberg is on a main line from Prague to Paris: ex Prague at 07.52 arr Nuremberg 13.12. You can continue on to Paris-Est at 08.30 next day arriving 17.07. Also on this route are Baden-Baden and Strasbourg, both worth a stopover, if you have the time.