East Side Gallery, Berlin
Why this is the first thing I do every time I land in Germany.
Read MoreKönigssee, Berchtesgaden
A closer look at one of Germany's most rewarding experiences.
Read MoreRothenburg ob der Tauber's old town
Where to go next once you have seen the headline sights of Germany.
Read MoreGermany resists a single portrait because it insists on being several countries stitched into one: Bavarian baroque, Hanseatic brick, Prussian austerity, the raw concrete confidence of reunified Berlin. I've stood in the Black Forest where the light barely reaches the ground and driven the Romantic Road through towns that look assembled from gingerbread molds. What holds it together is a national habit of precision applied without vanity, whether to a car engine, a symphony, or a loaf of rye bread. Germans take leisure as seriously as work, which is why the country somehow manages both immaculate infrastructure and three-week August holidays. It is a place that rewards slow travel and a willingness to read the history under your feet.
Chapter One
Berlin, built and rebuilt in view
Berlin doesn't hide its scars, it curates them. Walk from the Brandenburg Gate to what remains of the Wall at the East Side Gallery and you pass through a city that has been imperial capital, bombed ruin, divided frontier, and now improbable creative capital, often within a single block. I like the way construction cranes share the skyline with Cold War watchtowers left standing on purpose. Museum Island holds antiquities enough to occupy a week, but the more honest Berlin experience is a techno club that used to be a power station, or a Vietnamese restaurant in a courtyard that used to be no man's land. The city keeps its history visible because forgetting was tried and failed.
“Germany doesn't ask you to admire it, it asks you to notice how well everything actually works.”
Chapter Two
The Alps get quieter the further you drive
Bavaria's tourist trail runs hard to Neuschwanstein, and the castle earns the crowds, a nineteenth-century fantasy of towers commissioned by a king who bankrupted himself building it. But I prefer the Berchtesgaden region further east, where the Königssee sits impossibly turquoise between sheer cliffs and can only be reached by electric boat, engines cut mid-lake so the echo off the rock face stays pure. Alpine villages here still run on dairy farming and hiking guides rather than gift shops. In winter the same valleys become serious ski country without Alpine resort inflation, and in summer the cable cars up the Jenner or Kehlstein offer views that make the crowds at the castle seem like they picked the wrong itinerary.
The Short List
Do not miss in Germany
At a glance
Germany in numbers
- Capital
- Berlin
- Language
- German
- Currency
- Euro (EUR)
- Best time
- May to September, or December for Christmas markets
Did you know
Germany has more than 1,500 varieties of beer and, separately, over 300 types of bread, a fact bakers there will happily quiz you on.