Germany

Germany confounds expectations, which is precisely why it deserves more attention than most travelers give it. The stereotype — efficient, orderly, serious — describes approximately none of the Germany you actually encounter. Berlin is one of the most anarchic, creative, and nocturnal cities on the continent, a place where a techno club occupies a former power plant and a museum island holds treasures that rival the Louvre. Munich performs Bavarian tradition with genuine warmth, but its art galleries and its proximity to the Alps give it a depth that Oktoberfest alone does not suggest. Between these poles lies a country of startling variety: the Romantic Rhine with its implausible castles, the Black Forest’s quiet villages, Hamburg’s maritime swagger, Dresden rebuilt from rubble into something luminous.

Berlin and the East

Berlin is a city you understand by walking it. The Brandenburg Gate, the remaining stretches of the Wall at the East Side Gallery and the memorials scattered through the center tell the twentieth century in plain stone, and the neighborhoods beyond them — Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Prenzlauer Berg — are where the city actually lives. Many museums and memorials ask for a quiet, serious visit, and they reward it. Just outside, Potsdam has the palaces and gardens of Sanssouci, a UNESCO site, and is an easy day trip by train.

East of Berlin the country changes pace. The east is less polished, less expensive, and frequently more rewarding than the well-trodden west. The Spreewald is a strange, canal-laced forest where you travel by punt, and villages sell pickled cucumbers from stalls along the water. Leipzig is a university city with a lively music scene, Bach’s church and a reputation as the young, creative alternative to Berlin. Dresden was bombed flat in 1945 and rebuilt with extraordinary care: the Frauenkirche and the Zwinger palace shine along the Elbe, and the old town is gorgeous at dusk.

Bavaria and the Alps

Southern Germany is where the postcards come from, and many of them are accurate. Munich’s beer halls, the Englischer Garten and the Residenz palace make it much more than a festival town. The Bavarian Alps rise just to the south, with mountain lakes, painted villages and trails for every level, and the royal castles of Ludwig II nearby. In Franconia, Nuremberg has a rebuilt old town under an imperial castle, a gingerbread tradition and a Christmas market that is among the oldest and most famous in Europe, and Bamberg is a UNESCO-listed old town of bridges and canals, with a unique smoked beer called rauchbier. Rothenburg is the walled medieval town that sits on every list; the crowds are big by midday, but a walk along the town wall early or late is lovely.

The Rhine, the Mosel and the Southwest

The Romantic Rhine is one of the most beautiful stretches of river in Europe. The Rhine Valley is a gorge lined with castles, steep vineyards and small half-timbered towns, and the best way to see it is slowly, by boat or on the train that follows the bank. Cologne sits farther north, built around a huge Gothic cathedral, with a strong beer culture and one of the best Christmas markets in the country. Trier is Germany’s oldest city, packed with Roman ruins, including the Porta Nigra, on the Mosel river, where Rieslings of such crystalline clarity can make you reconsider the entire grape. Heidelberg is a university town under a ruined castle on the Neckar, and the beautiful Philosophers’ Walk gives the best view of it.

The Black Forest is the other great landscape of the southwest: dark conifer slopes, farmhouses with huge roofs, lakes and waterfalls, plus the cuckoo clocks and the cherry cake you have heard about. Freiburg is its sunny university capital, with a cathedral spire, stream-lined lanes and a popular market, and it makes the best base for walks.

The North

Northern Germany is another country again. Hamburg is a vast port with a harbor, canals and the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, famous for its music scene and its nightlife around the Reeperbahn. Lübeck is the old Hanseatic capital, a UNESCO town of brick Gothic churches and gates, and the home of marzipan. Lüneburg Old Town is a gentle Hanseatic town of stepped brick gables, once rich from salt. On the Baltic coast, Rügen Jasmund is a national park of white chalk cliffs and beech forest on Germany’s largest island, with the famous Königsstuhl viewpoint.

What strikes most visitors is how seriously Germany takes its pleasures. A bakery in a small Franconian town will offer bread made from recipes centuries old, with a precision that borders on devotion. The wine regions along the Mosel and Rheingau produce Rieslings of such crystalline clarity that they can make you reconsider the entire grape. Even the Christmas markets, which sound unbearably quaint in description, turn out to be genuinely magical — the smell of Glühwein and roasting almonds in a medieval square at dusk is a sensory experience that no amount of cynicism can fully resist.

A practical word: the trains are excellent but can be late, so do not count on tight connections. Book ahead for popular trains and for hotels at Christmas market and Oktoberfest time, and carry some cash, since many small places still do not take cards.

When to go: May to June for long days and manageable crowds. September for wine harvest season along the Mosel and Rhine. December for Christmas markets, which are best in Nuremberg, Dresden, and Cologne. Avoid August, when half of Germany is on holiday.

What most guides get wrong: They skip the east. Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg hold some of Germany’s most compelling landscapes and cities — Leipzig’s music scene, Weimar’s literary ghosts, the Spreewald’s strange, canal-laced forest. The east is less polished, less expensive, and frequently more rewarding than the well-trodden west.

Photography: Pexels contributors.