Merzig is a small Saarland town on the railway and river corridor between Saarbrücken and Trier. It is quiet, practical, and easy to underestimate, but it has a few sights that make a short stop worthwhile.
The centre has St Peter's Church, one of the Saarland's better Romanesque churches, and the Fellenbergmühle Museum, a precision-engineering museum in an old mill. On the edge of town, the Besseringen B-Werk preserves a heavy concrete section of the Westwall, Germany's western defensive line before and during World War II.
Merzig also works as a soft landing for the lower Saar valley. The famous river bend at Mettlach is nearby, Saarland wine country is close, and Luxembourg is near enough that the town feels more borderland than deep Germany.