Oooh, I'm the most partial person in the world about my region : Alsace is the most amazing, beautiful and fascinating place for me and I'm a pure product of it for many reasons : the architecture, the History, the culture, the duality in so many aspects are a constant source of discoveries and thinking. Alsace forged me and is thrilling me everyday. I spend every weekend in visiting it from museum to small villages, Vosges, churches, ruined castles..., and I discover something new everytime. I'm between Strasbourg and Wissembourg right now, but lived on the Wine Road half of my life, and a few years in Colmar too, so I know every single town you mentioned and can add some more to your list (including my favourites : Turkheim and Eguisheim) : there is treasures in alsacian villages, some visible, many hidden.
But it's precisely because I'm deeply in love with Alsace and because I know it very well that I love going in Germany : I love looking for the details that makes architecture similar and different as we go further East, I love to see what Alsace took from Germany and France (and Switzerland, and Celtic and Norse cultures too), and what is exclusively Alsacian. Alsace is the center of a cultural giant spider web : following every branch is my favorite hobby (and now you understand why it's a bad idea to talk to me about Alsace : I'm inexhaustible ! "Misty" in my name is a reference to the unique blue mist on the Vosges : you know it if you lived in Strasbourg ! ^^).
Language is also one of the reason why I love to go in Germany. I can read german a little and understand it sometimes, but it gives me the feeling to be in a "Fantasy Alsace", something a little more exotic for me who is so accustomed to the real one. Without reading, without listening, sometimes without understanding, it's just my eyes and my brain for understanding what's around me, and I love that
And... France destroyed all our castles, while yours are still there : how to not love Germany when there is there something like the Drachenburg castle ? I visited (once again...!) the Haut Koenigsbourg last Friday : the one who doesn't admit Germany is great for castles is an idiot ! ^^
A huge thanks for the candy : thanks to you I added Altensteig to my "Weekend potential adventures" list (and as there is Freudenstadt on it, I can hit two targets with one stone) ! Maybe the next one ?