baard,

thanks for the fine suggestions. just what i was looking for. the wife and i set some plans last night. looks like we will not be taking the kids this time. it will just be the two of us. my mom has convinced her that a tour is the best thing so we will probably do a Rhine tour and then tag the car stuff on the beginning and/or end. Autostadt looks like a must. i'm diggin' the two-day package.

anyone know any aircooled shops worthy of visiting in that region?

They have a museum shop at the old VW museum and at Autostadt.
There also is a shop called vw/audi classic parts, and they sell parts that are not in production now. NOS parts for the most, and some repro. If you search on http://www.volkswagen.de you can find out more there!

Don`t forget that if you are in Europe in june, the biggest VW event in scandinavia is in Sweden 10-12 June.

http://www.bugrun.com

If you look at this link you might find somwe info!

http://www.volkswagen.de/vwcms_publi...n_erleben.html

Check out this store:

http://www.vw-classicparts.de/

great suggestions. thanks. looks like we are going in mid to late September as of now. hopefully some good events around that time.