Germany: Thirteen Attractions and Natural Wonders

Sixteen states, one country since 1990

Germany is the most populous country in the European Union — about 84 million people — and one of its most federal: sixteen states, each with its own capital, dialect, beer, and often its own claim on the national story. It was a patchwork of kingdoms and free cities until 1871, split in two from 1949 to 1990, and much of its urban fabric was rebuilt after 1945, so its old towns are a mix of the genuinely medieval and the carefully reconstructed. The landscape runs from North Sea marsh and Baltic beaches to the Alps.

The thirteen below span the big cities, the Rhine, the Bavarian mountains, and several quieter regions. Late spring to early autumn is the main season; December brings Christmas markets to almost every town square, and the Alps and uplands have a winter season of their own.

1. Berlin

Berlin is a big, spread-out, unpolished capital that wears its 20th century on the surface: the Brandenburg Gate and the glass-domed Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial, the Museum Island with the Pergamon and Neues museums, Checkpoint Charlie, and the vast Tiergarten. It is also a city of nightlife, street art, canal-side cafés, and cheap ethnic food, and it changes fast.

Three or four days barely covers it; the transit system is excellent and much of the centre is walkable.

2. The Berlin Wall

The Wall that ringed West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 has mostly been removed, but key fragments remain. The East Side Gallery, along the Spree in Friedrichshain, is the longest surviving piece, turned into an open-air mural. The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse preserves a full cross-section — outer wall, death strip, watchtower — with an excellent documentation centre.

A double row of cobblestones traces the Wall's line across the whole city for those who want to follow it.

3. Munich

Munich, the Bavarian capital, is Germany's most self-consciously traditional big city — beer halls and beer gardens, the Marienplatz glockenspiel, the sprawling Englischer Garten with its river surfers, and world-class art in the three Pinakothek galleries and the Deutsches Museum of science and technology. The Oktoberfest in late September and early October draws six million people.

It is also the springboard for the Alps, Neuschwanstein, and the Dachau memorial site just outside the city.

4. Neuschwanstein and the Bavarian Alps

Neuschwanstein, near Füssen at the foot of the Alps, is the castle that inspired Disney's — a Romantic fantasy built by the reclusive "fairy-tale king" Ludwig II, its interiors a homage to Wagner's operas. It is set among lakes and peaks, with the older Hohenschwangau castle across the valley and a viewpoint from the Marienbrücke gorge bridge. Timed tickets, booked ahead, are essential.

The wider region — Garmisch, the Zugspitze, the painted village of Oberammergau, and the rococo Wieskirche — makes a rewarding few days.

5. The Zugspitze

The Zugspitze, above Garmisch-Partenkirchen, is the highest mountain in Germany and the easiest big Alpine summit to reach: a cogwheel railway and cable cars climb to a viewing terrace looking over four countries, with Germany's highest church, a small glacier ski area, and a restaurant. The blue Eibsee at its foot is a beautiful walk.

It is a day trip from Munich by train, weather permitting.

6. Cologne Cathedral

The Kölner Dom, rising straight out of the railway-station forecourt, is the largest Gothic church in northern Europe and Germany's most-visited landmark. It took more than 600 years to build, survived the wartime bombing that flattened the city around it, and holds the gilded Shrine of the Three Kings. You can climb 533 steps up the south tower for the view.

Cologne is also a good base for the Rhineland, its Romanesque churches, and its famously informal Kölsch beer culture.

7. The Romantic Rhine

Between Bingen and Koblenz, the Rhine cuts a 65-kilometre gorge lined with terraced vineyards, wine villages, and around 40 hilltop castles — a UNESCO World Heritage landscape. Highlights include the toll castle of Pfalzgrafenstein on a mid-river island, the Loreley cliff of legend, and the pretty towns of Bacharach and Sankt Goar.

The classic way to see it is a slow boat between Rüdesheim and Koblenz, or the train along either bank.

8. Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg, in Franconia, is the best-preserved walled medieval town in Germany — a near-complete circuit of ramparts and towers you can walk on top of, around a tangle of gabled houses, fountains, and the St James church with a Riemenschneider altarpiece. It anchors the Romantic Road, a marketing route linking Würzburg, Rothenburg, Augsburg, and Füssen through a string of historic towns.

It is small and very popular; staying overnight gives you the streets before and after the day trippers.

9. Bamberg

Bamberg, spread over seven hills in northern Bavaria, came through the war almost untouched and keeps a complete medieval and baroque townscape — a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The four-towered Romanesque cathedral holds the only papal grave north of the Alps and the enigmatic "Bamberg Horseman"; the old town hall straddles the river on its own island. The city is also known for its smoky Rauchbier.

It sits on the main line between Nuremberg and the north.

10. Dresden

Dresden, the Saxon capital on the Elbe, was a baroque showpiece obliterated by firebombing in February 1945 and painstakingly rebuilt over the following decades — the domed Frauenkirche was only reconsecrated in 2005, using original blackened stones. The Zwinger palace and the Green Vault treasury hold the Saxon kings' collections; the Brühl Terrace walk along the river is known as "the balcony of Europe".

Nearby are the palaces of Pillnitz and Moritzburg and the Meissen porcelain works.

11. Saxon Switzerland

Upstream of Dresden, the Elbe has carved the "Saxon Switzerland" — a maze of eroded sandstone towers, mesas, and ravines that is a national park and a cradle of European rock climbing. The Bastei, a rock formation linked by a 19th-century stone bridge, is the famous viewpoint; the Malerweg ("painters' way") is a multi-day trail through the best of it, and the hilltop Königstein fortress guards the river.

It is an easy day trip from Dresden by suburban train and ferry.

12. Hamburg and the Speicherstadt

Hamburg, Germany's second city and biggest port, is built around water — the Alster lakes in the centre and the Elbe and its harbour. The Speicherstadt, a dense quarter of Gothic-revival brick warehouses on canals, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, next to the wave-roofed Elbphilharmonie concert hall on the waterfront. The nightlife district of St Pauli and the Reeperbahn is a counterpoint.

Harbour boat tours and the Sunday-dawn Fischmarkt are local institutions.

13. The Black Forest

The Black Forest (Schwarzwald), in the southwestern corner between the Rhine and the Swiss border, is a range of dark wooded hills, farmhouses with sweeping roofs, cuckoo clocks, and gâteau. The spa town of Baden-Baden, the university city of Freiburg, the Triberg waterfalls, Lake Titisee, and the high scenic road (Schwarzwaldhochstrasse) are the main draws, with good hiking and, in winter, gentle skiing.

It pairs well with Alsace, just across the Rhine in France.

Germany is big and well connected by rail. A first trip often pairs Berlin with Bavaria (Munich, Neuschwanstein), linked by a fast train; adding the Rhine, Dresden and Saxon Switzerland, or Hamburg and the north makes a comfortable two weeks.