Southern Germany
 

Going to Germany in August, can anyone suggest "not to be missed" places in Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and the Black Forest.

We loved the beautiful little town of Gengenbach in the Black Forest. Rather off the beaten path as far as American tourists so it was perfect for us.

Some of our photos:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/554...yxotU?start=24

If you can splurge on a night's stay outside Baden-Baden, I highly recommend this hotel:
http://www.buehlerhoehe.de/
The setting is gorgeous, the hotel is wonderful, great restaurant and the drive there (twisty, deserted mountain road) is a lot of fun.

In Stuttgart, we enjoyed the Mercedes Museum, if you like cars at all. Architecturally, it's pretty cool, too.

My mother said the new BMW Welt Museum is pretty fun, too. It was not open when I was there.

If you're going to be in Nuremberg, I recommend visiting Bamberg also. It is well-worth a day trip. Nurumberug is a nice town to stroll.

I think visiting Neuschwenstein Castle is a must is southern Germany. Beautiful setting and great area for hiking around.

debalyin, will you have a car? I can suggest many places around Stuttgart but most of them are best reached by car. A few beautiful towns like Bad Wimpfen, Schwaebisch Hall, and Tuebingen come to mind. Burg Hohenzollern is one of my favorite German castles, about an hour's drive from Stuttgart.

In Stuttgart proper, you could easily spend a day downtown, especially if you like to shop. The Koenigstrasse is the main shopping street and Schlossplatz is the heart of the city. Be sure to see Schillerplatz, the oldest square in Stuttgart, and maybe stop for a cold drink or ice cream at Alte Kanzlei, the only restaurant on Schillerplatz. Calwerstrasse and the Bohnenviertel are older shopping districts with some of the oldest buildings in the city that survived WWII.

The Mercedes museum is a must for anyone interested in cars. The new Porsche museum will also be opening sometime in 2008, but I'm not sure if it will be open by August.

If you have kids, the Wilhelma, Stuttgart's historic zoo, is a fun place to spend an afternoon. Lots of interesting architecture there in addition to the animals.

Hi D,

I suggest a visit to Dachau from Munich.

Other posters have recommended
Gengenbach

"Gengenbach is on the right path to really enjoy the Black Forest Expereince. You will find in some Restaurants more than 500 years of history on the walls, not to mention that the Market center is just amazing as well. It truly boasts of a rich heritage and culture as well as a broad range of food from this region.

I would suggest "Steinlkellerhaus" as well as "Lowenbergkeller" as these I have found to be on the top of tradition as well as beautiful for the eyes.

When you are there I suggest you stop in for a Cafe in the "Toskana bistro Cappucino" as that is a little nice cafe where you will be amazed at the mixture of cultures that are here in this little town of 7.000 just by seeing the staff and talking to them.

I say Gengenbach is a 9 on my ranking out of 10. A must see for those who want to experience life as it was, go on a Saturday and buy something from the Fresh Market on the Town Square and in the evening take the tour of the town in German, about how it used to be protected years ago".

What is drawing you to Stuttgart?

((I))

Munich
Nymphenburg Palace
Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt on Saturday
Flea Markets

Black Forest
Black Forest Open Air Museum "Vogtsbauernhof"
Triberg, Gutach River Waterfall
Scenic drives

Thanks everyone for the great information.

thanks dgh8m, we love small leading
hotels of the world and have always had great luck with them. We will be picking up a car at the audi plant outside of munich and driving it around for two weeks before dropping it off in Rome. If anyone has any other suggestions about Germany going down to Rome, I would appreciate it.

debalyin, now I'm really jealous! I had an Audi (best car I'll ever own, I'll wager) but had to sell it before moving to Germany in 2005. You will have great fun picking up your Audi in Ingolstadt. The customer center is amazing and you should be sure to check out the excellent museum next door.

Since you're heading down to Rome and presumably want to enjoy driving your new car on some great European roads, you might consider taking some of the famous mountain passes of the Alps and Dolomites. I recently finished a report on our week-long trip through the Alps last August that might be of interest to you:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35110299

A route we have traveled.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Bolzano via the Timmelsjochstraße. The drive is beautiful.
It is definitely mountain driving. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:P...hairpins_2.jpg
I hope that won't scare you. I've not been from Bolzano to Rome, so I can help you with that part. Other than to say take the A22 to A1 to Rome.

Thank you Hausfrau for the great information.

If anyone else has any suggestions about the european delivery program for Audi we would appreciate it.