Due to FF miles seats, we are flying into Berlin instead of our first choice city, Munich. We will stay 2 nights and enjoy Berlin and then we would like to stop about half way (we will be traveling with rail passes) and spend 2 nights on the way to Salzburg.

Would prefer a smaller city.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

There are some cheap flights but the baggage allowances are not going to work for us. We travel carry on but would have to check based on their severe restrictions.

Prague is the obvious first pick, although it might stretch the "smaller city" definition a bit. Mind you, the center where you want to be is very manageable.

Karlovy Vary? Plzen? Cesky Krumlov? Passau? Linz? Bayreuth? Nürnberg? None of them as symmetrically in the middle as Prague, but look them up, all have something to offer for a short stay.

I looked at Prague first but it is not really in the center as we would have a 6 plus hour train ride to Salzburg. Really looking for 3 or 4.

I am looking at Nurnberg and hoping for some additional suggestions.

Sure, trains in the Czech republic are slower. If speed matters, here's how you find out what your options are, as dictated by where the fast trains stop:

On www.bahn.de you input Berlin and Salzburg, then click on the arrows on the left to open the details of the connections, then click on the actual train numbers to see where they stop.

For example, the ICE785 to which you connect in Fulda when coming from Berlin if leaving at 7:37AM stops in the following cities between Fulda and Munich: Würzburg, Nürnberg, Ingolstadt.

Unless you want to switch to a regional and go off course, these three are your choices. The times will be easy to compute. Würzburg to Munich 2:10, Munich to Salzburg 1:43, and so it goes.

Hi kf,

Is there a reason for not visiting Munich?

Hi, ira! We are spending the last three nights of our trip in Munich. We love that city.

DalaiLama, thank you and I am quite familiar with the excellent bahn.de website and understand how to display the full details. I was looking for personal recommendations from others that had perhaps planned a similar routing.

Czech Republic probably isn't covered by the rail pass?

Since you seem to have now excluded it anyway, I agree with something around Nurnberg.

Nurnberg itself makes the easiest stop since it is a connecting point for the fastest trains, and despite it's size, it fells like a smaller town in the insulated alststadt.

It would also make a quick change point for some other towns like Bamberg, or Rothenburg.

Nürnberg is a good possibility. You could also consider Bamberg or Regensburg
You didn't say what time of year?
If in spring, summer or fall you might enjoy Eichstätt, a small episcopal city in the middle of the Naturpark Altmühltal

If you prefer a smaller city, I would suggest looking at one of the smaller cities of Northern Bavaria: Bayreuth, Coburg, Bamberg.

We fly into Berlin on the 26th of November and the trip will be 11 nights.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions

I can recommend staying in Nürnberg from personal experience. What is it about Nürnberg that you need to know?

Stay in the vicinity of the St. Lorenz church or the market square - we stayed too far out of town on the subway, I would not do it again.

We did a daytrip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, it's slow going with two changes of trains. Some people absolutely love Rothenburg - we didn't, thought it was too calculatedly touristy and cutesy, rebuilt to look authentic but coming across as fake, like something Disney (a big turn-off to us) could have concocted. Still, see for yourselves, to each his own.

Otherwise we did all the obvious stuff in and around Nürnberg, nothing that hasn't been written up everywhere before. We liked the Lorenz restaurant on the quiet side of the square adjacent to the St. Lorenz church - very nice terrasse location.

With a bit of luck in scheduling you could break the journey in Würzburg for a few hours before carrying on to Nürnberg, leave your bags at the station and head on out.

kfusto,

Have you been to Berlin before?

2 nights will not be enough.

It's a wonderful city.

gruezi

I agree with gruezi, but I also notice that you seem to be in the mood for a small town. I don't see anything wrong with Nurnberg as I've been going back there several times and have always enjoyed my stay. I like it better than than the town of Wurzburg although the Residenz in Wuerzburg is a real gem to visit, so a quick stop there as Dalai has suggested is a good idea if you are into city palaces and wood carving. Nuernburg has more of a small town feel than Wuerzburg. Bamberg is good too but it's not as practical if you're taking the ICE train.

They probably won't be serving out on the square at that time of the year, but this menu brings back fond memories:

www.restaurant-lorenz.de/lo_speisen.html

I agree that Berlin deserves as many days as you can devote to it - it is not all concentrated in one area which makes running all over town a necessity. That takes time, too.

My obvious first pick along the main train route would be Bamberg. ICE trains stop there, by the way, so getting there is no problem. You have direct trains from Berlin to Bamberg. On the leg to Salzburg you'll have to change in Munich anyway.

Unlike Nürnberg which is mostly post-war rebuilding, Bamberg has not been affected by World War II bombs and presents an intact and authentic, mostly baroque city centre. To me, it is one of the finest places to see in the whole of Germany.

Czech Republic is now covered by the rail pass in 2009. Dresden makes a wonderful stop, but it is 2 hours out of Berlin

I did an overnight stop in Bamberg in March and found plenty to do and see - I could certainly have used more time there. Nice walkable city center with plenty of history and architectural charm.

I've been to Regensburg twice and enjoyed it very much. Love the river, the bridge, the Dom, the traces of Roman masonry.

Although you've said that your trip is 11 nights, and you are obviously spending time in Salzburg and Munich, I'm not sure of the details of your itinerary. That being said, I'd have to echo the sentiments of others that 2 nights is just not enough for Berlin. In my experience, people don't really "click" with Berlin until 3 days. It has happened that way for each member of my family (on separate trips). The city has everything you could want, especially museums, culture, food, and history of all eras. I've stayed there around 25 nights in 4 visits over the past 2 years, and I'm not tired of it yet!

As for the preference for small cities, we really enjoy the stunning scenery of the Alps and the many outdoor Christmas markets of the smaller areas. While we very much enjoy big cities as well, this is not the focus of this trip.

Since we live in Florida, we get very little in the way of mountains and snow and Christmas spirit. We just loved St. Gilgen and Garmisch for daytrips.

Yes, I have been to Berlin twice, once in the early 70s and again briefly in 2003. The changes were enormous and I am excited to go back.

We now have carved out 12 nights for this trip and are booked in Berlin for three nights at the Novotel Berlin Am Tiergarten.

I believe from there we will head to Nurenberg for one night. Salzburg is a favorite of ours so we have 4 nights there and then we will spend two nights in the Salzkammergut and end in Munich.

We are not so interested in museums this trip as we have had the opportunity to visit some of the wold's best on other trips. This is about the experience of the area itself for us.

We are recently back from a short 9 night trip to Germany and Austria. It was my third visit and his first and loved it. We are both pretty well traveled and this is an area we want to spend more time in.