Unlike here public transportation is seamless in Europe... Buses connect to the trains on either end or to the subways. Rick Steve's books are good as he likes to use basecamps and then trains to see nearby cities.
Now is a good time as the dollar is almost on par with the Euro. We spent three weeks in Southern Europe this past summer and other than one area near our hotel in Rome nowhere else made me concerned.
I would rent a small class C in Germany to save the VAT... 19 percent. Distances in Europe is like the distances between our states.
