We are looking at travelling from Amsterdam to Prague around September. Travel will most likely be by train. I am looking for suggestions on what places are best to visit and what sights to see. Don't need to spend too much time in big cities but like old towns and would like to see some "tourist" spots as well as less touristy areas. We will have just over 3 weeks. We are a group of 6 active 60yr olds. Any suggestions are very welcome.

If going via Magdeburg and Dresden you can see in Magdeburg a Hundertwasser complex and visit also the nearby cathedral. In Dresden there is the old town itself and the Green Vault among other sights. Since most of the train ride is across Germany, it might be worthwhile to get the Michelin Green Guide for that country.

https://flic.kr/p/X5Fe7G https://flic.kr/p/X8ycaR
https://flic.kr/p/7wv8Qb https://flic.kr/p/7wrpwt https://flic.kr/p/7wrnmF

Thank you Michael. I will look into that.

If you are going via Germany and specifically east Germany (Dresden), I would also make a stop in Weimar. For an east German city it is fairly well-preserved, but to understand it properly you need to do some reading. Weimar was home to the Weimar Republic, the Bauhaus movement, and the Classicist movement in literature (Goethe, Schiller) as well as home to Bach and Liszt (composers), and the painter(s) Lukas Cranach (I think both the elder and the younger). There is also the 18th century Herzogin Anna Amalia Library, which had a fire in it but it has been restored. And if so inclined, there is Buchenwald concentration camp nearby.

Weimar gets a lot of German tourists but not many international tourists, I guess because they don't know the history. It is a pleasant enough city to visit if you are only going for the aesthetics but punches well above its weight in significant figures and movements, and if you know who/what they are, only then does the visit become meaningful. It also has an east German history which adds a layer of meaning to the history as well (somehow less commercial). You'll see when you get there!

Lavandula

https://entdecke-deutschland.de/en/b...saxony-anhalt/

Saxony- Anhalt is a hidden gem.

Some other options:
Saxon Switzerland

Thank you for all suggestions

Curving a bit further south Ulm is a little gem and Wurzburg is an attractive setting