Only 6 days in Germany with 2 kids!

Directly south of Zurich is the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg ( http://www.baden-wuerttemberg.de ; http://www.tourismus-bw.de ; http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/en for the excellent castles, palaces, monasteries and gardens operated by this German state). My favorite town in Germany is there, Tuebingen ( http://www.tuebingen.de ), just quintessential Germany with its hilly cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses, castle, interesting nontourist shops, one of Europe's oldest universities where you can take a ride in a poled boat on the Neckar River like at Oxford or Cambridge, and the nextdoor delightful well-preserved medieval Bebenhausen Monastery (in http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/en ). The website lists accommodations, and I would suggest someplace in the heart of the old town like Hotel am Schloss or Hotel Hospiz. And if you want an excellent fairytale-like castle, Hohenzollern Castle ( http://www.burg-hohenzollern.com ) is a few kilometers south at Hechingen.

The whole family can travel about this German state inexpensively using the Baden-Wuerttemberg group day train ticket for 29€ which will cover all public transportation in this state (regional trains, S-bahns, U-bahns, trams, buses) except the fast-long distance IC, EC and ICE trains. The only other restriction with this ticket is no travel before 9AM on weekdays.

Since I recently posted something for families with toddlers to do in this area (Stuttgart), have a look at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2028326&messageID=18216457#18216457 .

Edited by: marcopolko

Goodday teresanz,

My suggestion would be: two breaks:

1. middle Rhine Valley, one of the smaller places, some boating with KD (http://www.k-d.de/englisch/index.html) and toyshops in Koblenz. Impossible to look around without seeing a castle.

2. northern Germany: Holsteiner Schweiz, e.g. base in Neumuenster, Rendsburg or Schleswig; possibility to visit the beach and/or Hamburg, weatherwise alternatives.

Though 1. is pretty touristy, even in May. But there's a reason for it. Rhens between Boppard and Koblenz could fit your bill but I can't remember the cobblestones.

IMO first choose your (number of) breaks and where (more suggestions will come up for sure), then the Forum might give more details.

Directly south of Zurich is the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg

I'm just trying to avoid misunderstandings here by saying that it's exactly the other way round - the German Bundesland Baden-Württemberg is in the North of the Swiss canton of Zürich. A joking remark: Anybody knows how the Swiss talk about their neighbour in the North? The answer is "the big canton" :-)

Yes, a typo on my part. Baden-Wuerttemberg is to the north of Zurich.

As you're going to Copenhagen, further to #2's comments, how about a couple of days in Hamburg itself - plenty for adults and kids to do, boat trips round the docks area, parks around the Alster lakes almost in the centre of the city, some good big shops for Mum near the Town Hall (if she's interested??) as well as the smaller ones, the new(ish) large model exhibition in the Speicherstadt (between the city centre and docks area- I think its called Miniaturwelt, but beware possible queues to get in), picturesque old suburbs out at Blankenese where you can walk down to the Elbe river (when I last visited there was a really good Kaffee und Kuchen shop there too) AND provided you are prepared to pay the supplement for travelling on the ICE trains, several through trains from Hamburg to Copenhagen daily.

#3: In my view B.-W. is south of Zurich

arizona: Good joke! Where then do you think is Lake Geneva? West or East of Chicago? Neither, it's in the North-East of the Windy City :-)

Thanks everyone, that was very helpful.