One of the most popular drives that you can find in Germany is the one known as "The Romantic Route", not named for the beauty of the landscapes but for the type of architecture that you find along it.  A lot of the main town buildings throughout the drive are built in the Romantic Style, whatever that is.The is also a lot of the 'half timbered houses' aswell which is by far my most favourite style, it's what I consider the typical medievel town look that we see in all the period movies or the nice tourist books that you buy.  It starts in Wursburg, a city of 130,000 people that was totally destroyed during WWII and passes through at least 19 posted towns along the way.  Because there are too many towns to discuss individually, I'll only talk about 3: Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbuhl and Nordlingen.
Rothenburg is one of those places straight out of the fairy tales that we have all read.  A town encircled by a stilll intact defensive wall, built on the hill above a reliable water source, narrow streets that run in all directions and several tall spires from all the churches that were built back in the day.  But of course in todays day and age the actually town is modernized to have coffee shops and souvenior places instead of butchers, weavers and bakers plying there trades, although it wouldn't take much of an imagination to picture what it would have been like back in the day.
Dinkelsbuhl is the next place along the road and is just outstanding.  Once again it's surrounded by a wall, only a lot smaller in area, and all the building that are inside the wall, especially along the 3 main streets, are painted in bright pastel colours.  It gives the town a really special feel about it.  Audrey and I had dinner in the main street and watched the sun set over the buildings, watching the colours change as the day disappeared.  I know that it's the Romantic Route for a different reason but this night was very romantic in an English language sense.  We topped the night off by going for a walk around the walls after nightfall.  Maybe not so romantic because I was always thinking about what it would have been like in the past and whether we could have been attacked with lances, spears, arrows or maces from all the dark hiding spots.
Nordlingen is a unique place in the world as it is completely built inside an ancient meteor crater, that is still obvious to the naked eye, the only place in the world that does so (debatable since there is a crater in South Africa that is huge and several towns are built in there).  The initial thought was that the crater was an old volcano caldera but that was disproven in the 60's with the discovery of a certain type of rock in the area.  Because of this Meteor impact, the pressure and heat applied at that time has produced rock that contains millions of tiny diamonds which the ancient town folk quarried to build the home in Nordlingen.  To me that would sound nice to live inside a house made of diamonds.  Oh and it's also surrounded by a complete wall.  In fact these 3 towns are the only ones in Germany that still have a complete wall that is still intact.  It would seem that by keeping your wall intact, you can keep your town as it was hundreds of years ago.
The other places along the Route that I would recommend are Bad Mergentheim, Landsberg am Lech and Wildsteig.  Wildsteig for instance is home to a wonderful church placed in an unusual spot but with an interior to die for.  Magnificent.
The Romantic Route finishes in Fussen which has an unbelievable Castle nearby.  But that needs it's own page to talk about ...