Germany

 

Germany is a beautiful country with a lots of interesting places to visit, breathtaking views, mind-blowing history, very good food, and also great beer and wine. If you are planning to visit Germany, don’t forget to put these great spots on your list:

The  Fairytale Castle: Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein Castle  is a nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds.

The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. Since then more than 61 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle.More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer. The palace has appeared prominently in several movies such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Great Escape and serves as the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and later, similar structures.

Cologne Cathedral

The magnificent Cologne Cathedral hovers above the roofs and chimneys of the city. It is not only used as a point of orientation but is the pride of the people in Cologne. The panorama of the city has been dominated by the Cathedral’s gigantic pair of towers (the North Tower (157.38 m) is 7 cm higher than the South Tower) since their completion in 1880.

Cologne is especially beautiful during the Christmas season, when Christmas market is setup right at the footsteps of the Cathedral.

 

University Town of Würzburg

Würzburg is a city in Germany’s Bavaria region. It’s known for lavish baroque and rococo architecture, particularly the 18th-century Residenz palace, with ornate rooms, a huge fresco by Venetian artist Tiepolo and an elaborate staircase. Home to numerous wine bars, cellars and wineries, Würzburg is the center of the Franconian wine country, with its distinctive bocksbeutel (bottles with flattened round shapes)

Schloss Johannisburg mit Schlossanlagen

Schloss Johannisburg is a schloss in the town of Aschaffenburg, in Franconia in the state of Bavaria, Germany. It was erected between 1605 and 1614 by the architect Georg Ridinger for Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg, Prince Bishop of Mainz.

Schloss Johannisburg is one of the few mostly symmetrical palace buildings of the German Renaissance. The castle sits on a terrace overlooking the river, which Ridinger expanded in area and height, elevating the castle above even the highest flood lines. Four wings surround an almost square interior court. The buildings have three floors each with the exterior structured only by fascia and a central three-tiered transverse gable in each roof. A tower is located on each the four corners, extending outward beyond the building line. From a square foundation the towers turn octagonal from the seventh floor upwards. The towers are topped by slate roofs with roof lanterns. The symmetry of the structure is only broken by the old keep which extends into the courtyard from the north wing. It is crowned by a steep roof with four small decorative towerlets at the corners. This roof design was in contrast to Ridinger’s plans, who had intended the central keep to mirror the appearance of the castle’s corner towers

 

Miltenberg

Documented for the first time in 1237, the city looks back on a lively past. Viniculture, wine trade, river traffic and fishery, as well as wood and stone industries were the most important growth engines of trade and craft. The favourable location at the old trading artery Nuremberg – Frankfurt and the staple right very early led Miltenberg into economic flowering periods. During the early 19th century the city suffered the loss of being the top quality location of the Electoral State of Mainz and as a result found itself unfortunately situated on the brink of the Kingdom of Bavaria. The major phases of urban development were history and hence the medieval townscape was preserved to this day.

The Zum Riesen Hotel,  Miltenberg

Zum Riesen  is a hotel in Miltenberg, Germany and is one of the oldest hotels in the country, dating back to at least 1411.

 

Alte Oper, Frankfurt

Pull down or rebuild: For years the fate of ‘Germany’s most beautiful ruin’ was under discussion. But the people of Frankfurt provided an example of civic appreciation and on how to deal with historical heritage. Thanks to civic protests and generous donations the representative building from the Wilhelminian era, which had been bombed down to its foundation walls, was faithfully rebuilt to the original. On 28th August 1981, the inauguration of the Old Opera House was celebrated.

Since then, around 300 concerts and events a year have been attracting many visitors to its halls. The season starts with the ‘Auftakt’ festival for contemporary music. Throughout the year, evening for evening, there are then performances of national and international ensembles and soloists in the Great Hall (2450 seats), famed for its excellent acoustics and fitted out in mahogany. The Mozart Hall (720 seats) is available as an additional stage. Symphony and chamber concerts, song evenings, old and modern music are part of the programme. The public can make its choice from subscription series, from early baroque to avant-garde, from ‘heitere Muse’ to ‘ensemble modern’. Family concerts, musicals, jazz, rock and pop complete the high-quality range of concerts on offer.

The Old Opera House is also known and sought-after by companies and institutions as a congress house. Every year, around 40 congresses, company anniversaries, receptions, presentations and glamorous gala evenings such as the Opera Ball are held in its representative halls and salons.

Schloss Drachenburg

Schloss Drachenburg is a private villa in palace style constructed in the late 19th century. It was completed in only two years (1882–84) on the Drachenfels hill in Königswinter, a German town on the Rhine near the city of Bonn. Baron Stephan von Sarter (1833–1902), a broker and banker, planned to live there, but never did.

If you take a short hike to castle, the magnificent views of rhine river valley will take your breath away.

 

 

The Romantic Rhine Valley

The romantic Middle Rhine is a river valley straight out of a picture book, with precipitous cliffs, steep vineyards, a castle perched on virtually every hilltop and pretty villages lining the river banks on either side. Myths and legends abound here, such as the story of Loreley, the beautiful siren of the rocks. The scenery is the stuff of dreams and villages and towns like Bacharach, Boppard, St. Goar and Linz epitomize the charm of this remarkable area with its rich cultural heritage. UNESCO has recognized the importance of the region by designating the Upper Middle Rhine Valley a World Heritage area.
A riverboat cruise along the Middle Rhine makes a lasting impression. Sipping a glass of wine from the vineyards you are passing, enjoying the sunshine on the boat’s upper deck and the castles passing by, you’ll know what is special about the Rhine.