Opinions on Germany?

Photo by my favorite photographer, Trey Ratcliff, whose work you can find at Stuckincustoms.com

Good morning friends and readers!

Today, I am contemplating Germany. It’s one of the EU countries currently high on my list, but there are so many towns I might want to visit. What’s a girl to do with a silly 90-day limit in the Schengen area and so many German towns to explore? The answer might be: pick one. For now, at least.

So here’s where I reach out to you, my lovely readers. Have any of you spent some time in Germany? What cities or towns did you fall in love with? Would they be a good base camp for me? Keep in mind that I’m traveling with a month (or at least a couple weeks) in each place, so I’ll need to be able to find longer-term vacation rentals, English speaking store clerks, and people to hang out with while I’m there.

Here are a few towns I’m strongly considering. Currently my bias is running toward Freiburg, but my mind could be changed.

Fussen
Possible pros:
- Near Crazy King Ludwig’s castles.
- Rural, green, and with that European small town architecture.
- Situated in lush, green hill-country along a gorgeous body of water (or so the pictures indicate).

Possible cons:
- Smaller town (will I get bored? Will many people speak English?)

Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Possible pros:
- Distinctive Bavarian architecture (which I am in love with).
- Walkable.

Possible cons:
- I hear that it gets dead in the evening, after the day-trippers move on. Will I be bored?
- Harder to access (lots of train changing or bus-taking).

Freiburg
Possible pros:
-  Larger city, which may mean more to do and higher likelihood of getting by in English
-  Pretty.
- Easy access from the west, which is the direction I’d likely be coming from.
- Gateway to the lush Black Forest and home of the cuckoo clock.
- Close to the Swiss and French borders; very close to parts of Switzerland I haven’t yet seen (the north outside of Zurich).
- Accessible by train.
- Surrounded by spas (also, Europa Park).

Possible cons:
- Large, and thus possibly harder to navigate and/or less walkable?

Heidelberg
Possible pros:
- Charming and with a castle right in town.
- On the Castle Road, which leads to, you guessed it, more castles.
- Accessible by train.
- Walkable.

Possible cons:
-  Very popular, meaning higher prices, less available housing and larger crowds?