Tubingen

Tübingen takes 1 day to see: the colorful half-timbered houses along the Neckar river, explored on a «Stocherkahn» ride -a flat punt boat, a student tradition of the city-, on the same day. April-October is best. It's inexpensive by German standards. It's one of Germany's oldest university towns, founded in 1477, and today nearly a third of its residents are students, giving it an unusually youthful identity for such a small city.