Northern Germany driving trips - suggestions?
 

We would like to drive from Copenhagen to Berlin. Are there any good side trips in Northern Germany we should consider? Any gorgeous drives, small towns to investigate? Thank you.

You've got basically two options:

1. Drive from Copenhagen to the island of Lolland and on to Gedser. Take the Scandlines ferry from Gedser to Warnemuende near Rostock. Proceed to Berlin from there.
Rostock is quite nice. Once a member of the Hanseatic League, a mediaeval trade organisation formed by cities along the Baltic Coast, it still features a number of the typically red brick buildings.

2. Also drive from Copenhagen to the island of Lolland, but head for Roedby. From there, there are ferries running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a departure every half hour. Waiting lines are thus usually fairly short.
The crossing takes you to Puttgarden on the island of Fehmarn. You could then proceed to Luebeck, which is a gem IMHO, and well worth spending time for at least half a day. Luebeck is only a few kilometers from Germany's second largest city, Hamburg. This happens to be home for me, but it is by fairly objective standards definitely worth a visit of at least 1 day. Hamburg is right now in the process of re-inventing itself and has been drawing more and more visitors (if not from the US still from a number of European countries). The vibe is certainly very positive as compared to other regions in Germany.
Your small daughter (as I remember from another thread) would certainly enjoy a visit to the world's largest model railroad museum - and any grown-up person that has stayed a bit young at heart would also take delight from it. Lovingly reproduced landscapes with trains running around, cars moving and days and nights simulated make for a really nice experience (1,000 trains with 15,000 cars, 300 automobiles, 250,000 figures and 500,000 lights with track of a total length of approx. 9 miles) . Your daughter as well as you yourself might also enjoy one of the magnificent boat tours of one of the world's most bustling ports, that is not at all seedy, but rather scenic.

The A24 Autobahn would take you to Berlin in about 2.75 hours at a reasonable speed. Schwerin on the way might be worth a stop with its palace in the lake. Ludwigslust has a palace that is situated in a nice park, but is otherwise rather sleepy.

To top this off, here is a link to the shipping company running both the ferries to Warnemuende and to Puttgarden:

http://www.scandlines.de/en/main.htm

I assume you will be coming down on the Autobahn A-7/A24.

I looked at my German road atlas and there are a couple of German Natur Parks, similar to our national parks, but established after the area had been populated, so there are towns and villages in them. The parks were largely selected for their scenery.

The A-7 crosse through the Naturpark Huettener Berge and passes close to the Naturpark Aukrug. I'm not familiar with either of them,but they may be worth checking up on the Internet.

Obviously, Hamburg is a very interesting city and well worth a stop for a couple of days at least. Off your route, but definitely worth the detour is the city of Luebeck. It was part of the Hanseatic league and, although badly damaged during WWII (as was Hamburg),the old part of town has been authentically rebuilt along the old plans (except the plumbing has been improved!). It is a very compact "walking city", with interesting guild houses, the "Buddenbrock Haus" of Thomas Mann, and an interesting market square. It's also known for its specialty marzipan candy. We spent only half a day there, but got a good sense of the city and enjoyed it immensely.

Along the A-24, south of Hamburg, on your route to Berlin is the Naturpark Schalsee, a big lake.

Other than that, perhaps someone else on this board knows of some "hidden gems" along the route that I am not familiar with.

Coming down the A7 would only apply if you went someplace else from Copenhagen first. Namely if you indeed wanted to see the island of Fyn or go to Legoland in Billund on the Danish mainland.

If you decide to start your drive in Copenhagen, taking the route via Fyn, and the A7 would be quite a detour.

Thank you both for your thoughtful, and detailed replies. The link to the boat schedule is a huge win -- much thanks.