in Europe for 12 days, starting with Malaga for 5 then plan to escape (by plane, train, car) to a cooler climate with good architecture, food, vibe. Could be a city and /or villages. Willing to travel as far as Germany. Any thoughts from seasoned travelers?

Berlin. wonderful city plus great day trips - Potsdam, the elbe, even an overnight in Dresden.

PS - it may not be that much cooler. We were in Berlin one July and it was seriously hot.

Thanks for your advice. Berlin is a contender! We are also exploring something closer.... have you been to Bonn or Cologne? Strasbourg or Heidelberg?

Switz will be cool (you can always head up a mountain) and expensive. Germany will be cooler - very probably - but not guaranteed. Berlin is a great city with a ton to do and budget friendly.

Strasbourg is charming and - along with Colmar and the wine road - worth 4 or 5 days at lest.

Heidelberg is cute but small.

Cologne has a great cathedral.

Bonn and Cologne don't make many folks wish lists. Have you found a cheap Germanwings flight?

haven't looked at flights as of yet. Does anyone know if the Dordogne area of France has enough going on for 6 days?

The Dordogne has enough if you like castles, wine, walking, more castles along rivers, spectacular medieval towns, fabulous food, caves and grottoes, early human history (mostly in caves).

Google up a picture of Sarlat, for starters.

Northern Germany gets my vote. As does Belgium.

Was there a reason you want Germany to be your limit? If you're flying then many more cooler destinations open up like Riga, Vilnius, and G'dansk.

The way this year is going, all of Central Europe might be cool this summer.

Actually, East Central Europe can get much hotter in July than France or Italy.
The Continental climate begins more or less in Eastern Germany, and having six weeks of 90F or more is no weather abnomaly during summer. IF we will have any summer anywhere this year.

Anyway, if you don't have much luggage, Ryanair has a pretty extensive number of services from Málaga. You can fly non-stop to Northern Germany as well as to Memmingen (west of Munich), less than an hour by rental car from Neuschwanstein and the Alps.

And I think Vueling will start the new route from Málaga to Munich more or less now for the summer season (yes, European tourists actually fly down there a lot in July and August - if you could look out of the window here you would know why).

Go to Northern Spain, Galicia, Santiago de Compostella, wherever. Nice and cool, lots of expensive seafood, and sights to see. No need to leave Spain for cooler weather.

Thank you all for the great advice! Still working on it but thinking of the Alsace region, Strasbourg Germany/France area.