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1. I hope you've told your rental company that you're taking the car to Czech Republic - they can be "difficult" about former Eastern Europe countries, partly as there are insurance issues.

2. How long have you got? How far off the autobahn are you prepared to travel? When are you doing this? There is some fantastic scenery between Berlin and Prague - hills, lakes, rivers, stone pillars, national parks - but you have to be prepared to drive off the main roads and for preference with either a paper map, or (second best) sat nav - you need more than just google to do it properly. If any of this is of interest and you have the time to do it justice do come back with some more of your details, but you could easily take 3 or 4 days each way if you wanted to.

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Also a reply here....

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2252086

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Thanks for the replies battybilly & mike9. Yes, we found a Ford that can cross the border and back, no problem. We are driving down tomorrow, Friday, then will enjoy 4 days in Prague, then drive back to Berlin on Wednesday. So, just a small town or two on the way down and maybe something on the way back. Maybe a nice lunch spot with particularly notable architecture and/or history -- that's not too far from the autobahns -- since our main goal is really to enjoy the time in Prague. I was checking to see if there is a "oh, don't miss this along the way.." type of thing that would break up a 350km journey. Thanks for any input! Jason

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Frankly, "these are all don't miss this along the way" places

West of the Elbe: north to south Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Meissen, Seiffen (probably a bit too far off route but worth considering) Pirna, Königstein castle, and in Czech Rep Teplice.

East of the Elbe (ie. opposite side of river to the autobahn) south to north Melnik, Litomerice, the whole of the Saxon Switzerland / Cesky Svycarsky national park but particularly around Hrensko and Pravcicka brana on the Czech side and Bad Schandau, Wehlen, and Bastei rocks on the German side, and all that's before you get to Dresden.

An alternative route south to north would take you due north out of Prague towarsds Mlada Boleslav (home of Skoda cars) and Liberec (a centre of the Czech glass industry) and across the German border at Zittau from where you can go either to the sandstone rocks etc around Jonsdorf and Oybin or up to Görlitz (whose eastern suburbs are in Poland) - a town virtually untouched by World War 2, and then head over through the Oberlausitzer lake district and the Spreewald to Berlin.

Sorry if you think I'm on overdrive, but you could seriously spend several weeks on your 356 km trip - it is in my view one of the most interesting and least known areas of Germany

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mike9: This is excellent stuff. Very well organized and easy to follow. ("west of.. east of.. north to south.. south to north.. etc.) Many thanks; you've saved us from the blurrrr! Best, Jason