5 Best Sights in Bad Wimpfen, Heidelberg and the Neckar Valley

Displays include the 1885 Daimler machine that started us on the road to motorized mobility, the world's first mass-produced motorcycles (Hildebrand and Wolfmüller), and exhibits on racing. Also here is the NSU Museum, an early motorbike manufacturer acquired by the predecessor of the company now called Audi, which has an auto production facility in Neckarsulm. The collections are arranged over five floors in a handsome 400-year-old castle that belonged to the Teutonic Knights until 1806. The Audi factory in nearby Neckarsulm offers tours.

Wimpfen im Tal (Wimpfen in the Valley), the oldest part of town, is home to the Benedictine monastery of Gruessau and its church, Ritterstiftskirche St. Peter, which dates from the 10th and 13th centuries. The cloisters are an example of German Gothic at its most uncluttered.

The 13th-century stained glass, wall paintings, medieval altars, and the stone pietà in the Gothic Stadtkirche are worth seeing, as are the Crucifixion sculptures (1515) by Rhenish master Hans Backoffen on Kirchplatz, behind the church.

Germany's largest Romanesque living quarters and once the imperial women's apartments, this is now a history museum with relics from the Neolithic and Roman ages along with the history of the Palatinate, including medieval art, armor and weapons, and ceramics. Next to the Steinhaus are the remains of the northern facade of the palace, an arcade of superbly carved Romanesque pillars that flanked the imperial hall in its heyday. The imperial chapel, next to the Red Tower, holds a collection of religious art.

On the last weekend in August, the Old Town's medieval past comes alive during the Zunftmarkt, a historical market dedicated to the Zünfte (guilds). "Artisans" in period costumes demonstrate the old trades and open the festivities with a colorful parade on horseback.