Touristic highlights
Cities
German cities have something to offer for everyone: museums, theatres, history, new and older architecture, shopping, local and international food, etc. The largest cities in include Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart and Dresden. However, the smaller ones too, like Heidelberg, Mainz, Würzburg, Weimar or Quedlinburg, are certainly worth spending several days.
Landscapes
With a total area of 357,000 square kilometres Germany has unusually varied and attractive landscapes, ranging from the fertile marshlands in Northern Germany to the lush green pastures and spectacular mountains of Bavaria in the South, from undulating and sometimes also breathtakingly steep vineyards along the Rhine and Moselle in the West to the seemingly endless flat fields of Brandenburg in the East.
Nature
For nature lovers Germany offers plenty of opportunities for hiking in internationally recognized national parks and 6,200 nature reserves on numerous well-tended routes. Some of the highlights include the Bavarian Forest, Müritz National Park, 'Saxon Switzerland', the Alps, the Black Forest and the Lake of Constance.
Sea
Germany has a coastline of 3,600 kilometres. Unique in the world are the famous mud-flats of the North Sea, which make up the largest nature reserve in Central Europe. At low tide you can walk on the sea bed for a number of hours. The Baltic Sea coastline is also a protected area. In the national park called Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft you can discover steep cliffs, sand dunes, sand bars and beach lakes.
Culture and History
Cultural highlights can be found throughout the whole country. There are several places that stand for a particular historical epoch. To mention just a few examples: Trier takes one back to ancient Roman times, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Bad Wimpfen have well-preserved medieval town centres, Dresden is still a Baroque city, Weimar represents German Classicism, in the Ruhr region monuments of the industrial era have been turned into museums and cultural centres, and in Berlin you find witnesses of recent German history wherever you go.
Castles and Palaces
Formidable castles and splendid palaces bear stony witness to Germany's feudal past. Sanssouci and the magnificent palace grounds of the Prussian kings in and Neuschwanstein, the fairy-tale 's King Ludwig II are just two of the more renowned ones. There are equally noble architectural jewels to be discovered all over Germany.
