Is Eppstein really all that special?

I mean, yes, it's pretty, but apart from the location, it looks like any one of hundreds of small towns/villages in southern/western Germany...?

Note also there's a bunch of buildings that were refinished in the 50s, hiding the beautiful wooden framework.

In other towns, such as Ladenburg (which isn't quite as quaintly located in the middle of the woods, but is a thousand years older), they've started removing those "improvements" and restoring the original mediaeval facades, resulting in stunningly beautiful streets.

http://www.ladenburg.de/content/ts/cards/

-s*