OCTOBER 2020/UPDATED FEB 2022
I have to admit that before 2020 I had no idea that Germany had so many charming towns and cities. Of course I have been to big cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Dusseldorf, but there is so much more to discover in Germany! Over the last years Hielke and I stayed in some super cute towns. I hope this blogpost inspires you to visit more places in Germany than just the standard, big towns. Even if you pass through Germany, on your way to another country, it certainly is worthwhile to stay the night in one of the cute towns that are featured on this blog: Freudenberg & Esslingen am Neckar.
Freudenberg
Freudenberg is located in North Rhine- Westphalia, pretty close to the Dutch borders. Freudenberg has a very small historical city center which is filled with identical white wood-timbered houses. The town is pretty popular in its region, so there is plenty of choice in restaurants and even some specialty shops. You are probably familiar with typical German food and in Freudenberg you have several options to have a typical German dinner in a cozy stube. If you visit Freudenberg I recommend to take a little walk to the viewpoint of the town, which is located in the Kurpark. When we visited in 2020 the Kurpark was under construction and not accesible, but in January 2022 we found it finished. You can camp for free at the Gambachsweg 19.
Summer pictures:
View from the Kurpark
We recently revisited Freudenberg, in hope to catch some snow. However, we were a little bit too late and the snow had just disappeared. Be on the look out for snow in wintertime, as Freudenberg is an absolute fairytale in the snow. At least we have a good reason to revisit Freudenberg again 😉 I found Freudenberg a little less lively in wintertime, restaurants don’t open until 5PM, while we were hoping to do some afternoon drinks. But the plusside is that you can have this town to yourself, with all the photo opps!
Winter pictures:
Esslingen am Neckar
Esslingen am Neckar is located in Baden-Württemberg near Stuttgart. A few years ago I visited Stuttgart as I had seen super cute colorful pictures of half-timbered houses on google, but couldn’t find them anywhere. Apparently, if you google Stuttgart you also get to see pictures of Esslingen! How misleading as they are totally different cities. Esslingen is a larger city than Freudenberg, but the medieval center is still very much walkable. We visited Esslingen on our way back from our Italy travels and stayed a night in the hotel “The Niu Timber”, which is located just outside of the city center. I had never heard of this hotel chain before, but was pleasantly surprised. As the hotel is relatively new, the rooms are really modern. For example the rooms are equiped with a TV which can be connected to your phone, so you can livestream all your favorite shows. We paid € 55 for our room, excluding breakfast, but including parking in the hotel parking lot. Apparantly, the breakfast is really good, when you visit outside of COVID times (oh how I long for that!)
We had breakfast at Backhaus Zoller instead. Germany has a really good breakfast culture; you will find many small bakeries offering coffee and fresh bread at an affordable price-rate. I don’t remember exactly what we paid but I think € 3 for a freshly made sandwich and about € 2 for coffee.
As we visited at the end of summer 2020, Esslingen was still decorated with lots of flowers. Hielke and I liked visiting the medieval city wall, which is accessible for free. This wall is situated on a hill, so be prepared for a lot of stairs. We did a steep hike the day before, so our muscles were still sore, but when you are at the top of the city wall you get a beautiful view of the city and its surrounding vineyards.
Mooi die vakwerkhuizen…..je hoeft niet zo ver weg om mooie dingen te zien. hè….hou jullie goed gr.
Ja ik vind de vakwerkhuizen echt super altijd 🙂