As German... I'd also like to know what's worth looking at here. :meow-coffee:

Germany is a large country for European standards, so you'd have to pinpoint a bit where you're going to be. From wanting to go to Amsterdam and Paris as well I would guess the Western part.

I lived in Amsterdam for 3 years and in my opinion it's a touristy kip nowadays. Probably more worthwhile to go to Utrecht, or if you're looking for the most leftist experience in the Netherlands, Nijmegen. Be aware that most proper Nijmegenaren aren't bigfans of Americans, as they accidentally bombed the shit out of the city in WW2 and they will tell you about it.

For all these places also keep in mind how much time you'll be spending there, definitely wouldn't do Paris on less than 3 full days if it's your first time there, there's so much to see and do.

Also as an American: I didn’t personally like Germany when I visited so I’ll say visit Austria as well if you have the chance. Salzburg and Vienna are very beautifully designed cities, and there are definitely less tourists than Berlin Dresden Munich etc

1. What is your budget?

2. How many days do you roughly plan to be there?

3. Would you like to city hop or be more focused on one region in which you can reach stuff by train?

If you are interested in city and urban planing I would suggest to def. make a stop in the Netherlands and have a real view of the biking infrastructure, sure big city is nice, but so is to view one other cities.

Besides that if you are in Germany there are some thing you could do and look at depending on your likings. If you likings are squats Barcelona is also a good place to be btw. You have as rough typology Western vs Eastern cities, you have Smaller vs Big ones and those that are relatively new built in terms of center (cause Bomber Harris bombed the inner cities to make space for new post WW2 urban development) vs those which city centers are old (e.g. Aachen).

So West vs East, Small vs Big, Old vs New. You could also add more, like Bochum in Western Germany is part of the Blue Banana (NSFW picture and in the Ruhr area where a lot of industry was and the population centers are quite interconnected. However it wouldn't add so much, since as tourist you will see new stuff anyhow, cause you don't know stuff.

For Germany I would urge you to look at some (former) squats, to have a look at some housing coops (ie cluster housing), at older housing of the GDR and maybe drive around a bit via train in the local city you choose. In Berlin it is traditional to go to the Tempelhofer Feld - large empty space in the middle of Berlin, a former airport and former KZ - and experience a lot of wind and SPACE!!! in the middle of a city.

It is much more easy to walk by foot in Leipzig and Dreseden than it is in Berlin, but if you would just focus on some areas in Berlin you can easily get around as pedestrian plus public transport.

Honestly I couldn't really tell where to go and what to do without having some more insight into what you wanna do. Munich and surroundings has some intriguing parts but its quite expensive compared to Leipzig.

Of course if you have 1-2 days and time to process and feel like it it could also be something to visit some historic places and learn about the people who survived, who were exterminated and how they resisted the Shoa by taking some tour at some now memorial places. They typically are a bit wider and also incorporate violence against others, e.g. Roma and Sinti.

Currently cause the Covid counts are rising I guess that in December there will be a lot closed.

Where you Fly in , where do you fly out from ?

Depends a bit on what you want and when you're going (november/december might not be the best time for outdoors activity). I guess I would tell you to avoid Berlin or Munich (teeming with tourists/expats, gentrified, very international).

If you want to go to cities I would suggest smaller ones. Heidelberg and Mainz would be my suggestions for more "typical german" life and the juxtaposition of beautiful oldtowns with post-ww2 building that is very typical for germany while still being nice to look at. On the ohter hand, if you're coming from Amsterdam going to Maastricht and then Aachen is a good pick if you want to see "european style cities".

Or you could learn something from the pensioneers and hike/travel along a river and stop at villages/small towns/(ruined) castles to eat and drink. Which in my experience a good way to meet some folksy characters and is a more unique experience than are the cities. For this the middle-rhine or mosel regionsget my recommendations, but maybe not this time of year.

Berlin is so fucking cool, definitely go there and walk around downtown. The eastern part of the city has a lot of Ostalgia so there's no shortage of socialist swag you can see and get, I remember the German part of my family when I visited took me to a revolution themed cafe after learning I was a socialist, it was pretty neat.

Most of Germany is like the Midwest though - long rolling hills, small towns scattered around, local truck stops with kitschy flavor. If you're going to multiple places, I recommend renting a fast car and driving on the Autobahn, it will make you hate other highways even more for not being nearly as well maintained. The biggest difference between this part of Germany and the US equivalent is the massive amount of history - if you like castles, then by god Germany has some badass castles to go look at.

During my trip we had six (!!!) kids with us, so a big part of my experience was going to public parks and playgrounds with them. If you can take an American kid with you to one of those you will forever ruin American playgrounds for them, because the German ones are well funded and not nearly as constrained by safety concerns.

If you can, stay away from cities with US military postings or stay as far away as you can from the military presence. We tended to overrun bars and clubs on the regular and our shit baggery probably will have put the locals on edge when anybody that sounds like a Yank is around.

I only spent time in Bamberg, but it was an interesting mix of old as fuck buildings/parts of the city mixed with modern builds and modern renovations. I'm not a religious person but there were a few old churches with reliquaries, that was kinda neat to see.

Near Berlin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanssouci is the summer palace of King Frederick the Great of Prussia, and while touristy, there seven palaces on the same grounds and it's definitely non-American and one of the best palaces I've been.

In Berlin, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiergarten_(park) is cool for a picnic and you can try a Berliner-Weisse beer somewhere.

Don't forget to buy a ticket if you ride the trains (the awesome trains!) You can hop on and off without hassle but they will sometimes check randomly for tickets and it's a bit of a fine if you get caught. I saw them check tickets twice and my friend got caught but not fined somehow.

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Random thoughts:

• No credit cards. Caught me out the first day I was there and was a bit embarrassing having to run down the street to an atm
• Berlin is super cool
• Get some Luft and a Club Mate from a Späti and just wander around
• Catching the train from Berlin to Amsterdam was fun because trains.