Of all Europe’s capitals, Berlin is one of the most geographically unique in that it doesn’t have much of a city ‘centre’. In its day, cutting the city down the line, the Berlin Wall created two separate hubs, depriving the reunified modern capital of an organic ‘downtown’. While a ‘centre’ has developed since the reunification …
The Romans had a terrible time marching through the dark masses of spruce, pine, and fir in the aptly named Black Forest. They said it was impenetrable and inhabited by wild beasts and barbarians. And sensibly they—like their fierce predecessors the Celts—seldom ventured far into its depths. But today, I’m pleased to report that although …
Now and then, travel writers in Europe stumble across a unique place that has somehow remained undiscovered by the teeming tourist masses. So it was with my random visit to the small, perfectly preserved medieval town of Seligenstadt. Lying only 25 kilometers southeast of Frankfurt am Main, this intriguing town—with a population of only 20,000—packs …
My husband Bill and I were invited to take a cruise with Viking River Cruises and decided that a Christmas Market Cruise on the Danube could be a fun way to get into the holiday spirit. Our 7-day river cruise started in Passau, Germany and ended in Budapest, Hungary. This was our first river cruise on …
Tucked into the ‘V’ where the arms of the Mosel and Rhine Rivers meet, the small town of Koblenz is yet another undiscovered German gem that packs plenty of touristic punch for its weight. Koblenz offers enough well preserved historic attractions to keep tourists entertained for a day or two of solid sightseeing. And for …
There’s a good reason why 3 million people visit Heidelberg every year. From the moment you set foot in Heidelberg’s Baroque Old Town, you feel like you’ve been transported back into scenes from Grimm’s Fairytales. With these fascinating medieval scenes, its no wonder Heidelberg is one of Germany’s most visited places—remarkable for a town of …
Cafes, bars and restaurants continue to sprout out of Berlin’s gentrifying neighbourhoods like spargel in the summertime. Kreuzkölln, the apex of gritty Kreuzberg and Neukölln, and its surrounds, remain a lure for Berlin’s flock of international émigrés, students and creatives. It’s no secret that the borough offers some of the best and cheapest options in …
The immaculate little town of Baden-Baden, tucked away in the foothills of S.W. Germany’s Black Forest, is a luxurious cross between Monte Carlo, Paris, a spa, and an English park. Within a few minutes’ walk in Baden-Baden you can see the world’s most beautifully appointed casino, stroll through a verdant green park that is a …
Eberbach Monastery (Kloster Eberbach) is a former Cistercian monastery near Eltville in the Rheingau Valley of Hesse, Germany (famous for its Riesling wine). In addition to being a world heritage site, the monastery provided the interior scenes for the 1980s film, The Name of the Rose. It is also the site of the Rheingau Musik Festival, and …
In his novel, Hyperion, which follows the adventures of an American traveler in Germany, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow states, “beneath me flows the Rhine and, like the stream of time, it flows amid the ruins of the past.” There is a section of the Rhine River that flows through the wine-growing region of Germany in …