Planning trip to Germany - which city?

[Lottapianos]

DP and I are planning a few days in Germany at end of March. It's just the two of us and we're flying from London. We love food, beer, walking, bit of shopping, bit of museum and gallery stuff. Will probably be there for 4 nights so could consider a day trip to somewhere else a short train journey away

Which German city would you recommend? Thanks

That's so useful @TheSquareMile , thanks so much!

I can't believe anyone suggested Frankfurt, it's the most bland and soulless city I've ever had the misfortune to visit.

I'm out. All you frankfurt haters obvs only went to the office part.

Great places Berlin, Munich, Heidelberg, Nuremberg and Hamburg (Miniature Wunderland!) have already been mentioned, but I'd also throw in the beautiful Trier and Weimar, and the fairytale-like Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We prefer to walk everywhere (rather than using trams/trains) once we're somewhere and I'd say that's more of an option in Berlin than Hamburg.

However, if you're staying in Hamburg there are certainly good things to do, Elbe Harmonic Hall worth a trip for views and potter around that area. The area by lake is nice. We stayed close to train station, but not many restaurants there. DD was at uni close to Hamburg and she loved the Blankenese and Sternschanze areas - we walked to the later and there was lots of eating out areas there. If you've got time, a trip to Luneburg is a lovely place to potter in terms of the architecture and there are so many cafes/restaurants to visit in the town.

In Berlin we stayed in the Hackescher Markt area - this was a great location for restaurants in the arches and by the river. Gendarmenmarkt central area is a nice area to stay, if not certainly a nice area to visit for a couple of hours.

Aachen. Amazing place. It was Charlemagne's 'seat' and has the most brilliant museum covering central Europe from his time. And his octagonal cathedral - one of the oldest in Europe. It's also a lovely town to walk around and between 40 mins and an hour on the train to Cologne, so you could visit both.

I wasn't keen on Frankfurt either

A lot of drug use especially by the station which stank of urine

And not keen on the Disney landesque city centre

Much preferred Cologne and Bonn

Munich and then get a train to Nuremberg for the day.

Ha, I'll admit my views may be coloured by too many days walking around the godawful convention centre, but I never managed to find anything fun to do outside of work either.

The museum of the German postal service is so boring it's quite funny.

Hamburg has much to offer

Do you like marzipan?

Lubeck might be the place for you ;-)

It has a quaint Old Town, and has been nicely restored. The architecture is late medieval, from the period when it was the leading hanseatic trade city.

Might be a tad chilly in March though.

Munich would be my first choice.

Berlin can be described as many things, but "tedious" is far from the first that springs to mind for me.

I realise that there is probably far more to Sachsenhausen than a concentration camp, but the line about nipping over there for Apfelwein and dinner jarred with me a little.

And this thread is making we want to spend the entire summer whizzing around Germany.

Blankenese in Hamburg is very lovely - an easy zip out of the city by train. I really enjoyed the boat trips too and iirc they are included in your train travel day ticket.

Munich for sure. See Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Visit the English Garden. Beer Halls.Take a trip out to Berchtesgaden. The Bavaria train ticket (if they still do it-while since I’ve been) is a steal. But I’ve never been to Berlin and am so interested to go!

Frankfurt Sachsenhausen is not the concentration camp. FF Sachsenhausen is a nice area with good restaurants.

The KZ Sachsenhausen is near Berlin.

Agh. Sorry! I didn't know there were several places with the same name. Apologies.

Cologne is lovely too