We decided to leave our plans until the last minute, en route home from Austria, and Kulmbach seemed like a reasonable location in which to stop for the night. The hotel was easy enough to find and was only a 10-15 minute walk from the town centre. We were surprised to find that the whole of the hotel lobby (room with an atrium) smelled of cigarettes and wondered if the staff smoked in their office since we rarely saw anyone outside having a smoke.
The hotel was large and mainly empty and the hallways have that somewhat creepy lighting system, where you have to stop every 15 meters to turn on another hallway light to see where you're going (the lights are on a timer and turn themselves off). The room was a good size and faced out onto the car park. (At 6.30 the next morning, that meant that had front row seats to hear all of the Italians navigating getting onto their tour bus for half an hour.)
WIFI was 10 Euros per night or free in the lobby, so we opted to go back into the smoky lobby to check emails and plan the route for the next day.
A wander into the town proved a bit odd. Flags hung from most buildings advertising the local beer, Kulmbacher, but there was almost no one in sight, despite it being a Thursday evening. Found a couple of sad looking pubs and restaurants and finally decided to try Zunftstube - nice, cheap, homely food.
One highlight was finding a good gelateria with fab Pistachio ice cream.