I got interested: Any particular "small towns" in Germany perhaps?

In 1975, compliments of the government, I got to spend a year in Germany -- worked at a small hospital in Bad Kreuznach (southwest of Mainz/Frankfurt) and then a larger one in Landstuhl. Few of us had cars, so we survived on trains and hitchhiking. We managed to get around...Nuremburg, Heidelberg, Munich and 2 weeks in Gamisch-Partenkirchen skiing under the aegis of someting called "adventure training" (intended to keep us all from becoming heroin addicts!). We got to Amsterdam and Paris, too, and that July I spent about 3 weeks hitchhiking from Landstuhl to Aberdeen and back (I have never been the recipient of such hospitality as on that trip.)

I liked that corner of Germany. The hospital was on a plateau that was very woodsy with windy roads and little villages. A bunch of us used to go running and we would take a rest break at a very small stand of (very tall!) redwood trees that someone had transplanted from California in the 1800s (apparenty the plateau had its own, unique, redwood-friendly weather system or so we were told).

I'll also say that I liked the food better the further south I went. Things seemed lighter and more buttery (I know, a contradiction) in southern Germany. No damphnudlen (sp??) up north, and more wurst, less schnitzel.

My job sent me to Berlin in the mid-80s, so I got to walk through Checkpoint Charlie (verrry spooky) before the wall came down. I was actually back in Frankfurt for 2 weeks last year for work and took the train out to Bingen and rode the ICE down the Rhine from Trier.

If Tony and/or others make the trek, it is, IMO, the best time. Late May and June can have excellent weather without the holiday crowds. You can drive up to a gasthaus or pension at 5PM and usually get a room without booking ahead.