Newspaper Reports
Let us share with you what the British National Press has to say about our beautiful country. Many of these articles should give you plenty of new ideas and hopefully great inspirations about where to spend your next holiday.
Stuttgart's Mercedes-Benz museum
After the creation of their first models, in 1886, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II asserted: "I do believe in the horse. The automobile is no more than a transitory phenomenon."
The Mercedes-Benz Museum makes a bold statement. From the outside it looks like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao - a gleaming metallic structure with graceful curves and tinted glass, next to a flyover leading to the city centre.
Taking it easy on the north coast of Germany
Standing waist deep in an azure sea, I squinted at the shore. Blinding white sand dunes stretched as far as the eye could see, a strange, almost lunar landscape. Yet I hadn't had to travel halfway around the world to get to this apparently exotic location - just three hours from Berlin.
Family InterRail adventure in Germany
"Have we passed Ashford yet?" I asked, looking up from studying the InterRail small print. My children laughed at me... "Mum! Didn't you notice that long tunnel we just went through?" I hadn't. The Pas de Calais looks much like Kent and only 45 minutes after the pain-free start of our journey at Ebbsfleet International, I was feeling relaxed, and pleased we had decided to eschew the frustrations of airport queues for a greener alternative - an adventurous trip to and around Germany by train.
Our initial destination was Crailsheim, near the border between the southern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, and we reached it using a variety of trains - Eurostar, Intercity with air conditioning, and local trains with lavatories which revealed the rails speeding by below - and with changes at Brussels, Cologne and Stuttgart. A pack of cards kept the boredom and fidgeting at bay.
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The inside track on Germany's capital of cool
2009 is not just a year for the stars in Berlin. It is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Potsdamer Square you can see the line the wall followed marked in the streets. And a specially-built platform gives a feeling of what it might have been like to peek over the top of the barricade at East Germany. One of the old watch towers still stands near by, and there are black and white photos of No Man's Land on display to mark the anniversary.
Then there is also the all-new Legoland, well within walking distance of the emblem of the city, the Brandenburg Gate. That remains a truly impressive sight with the best views of it from the German Parliament just around the corner, where the glass dome is open to tourists.
At Alexanderplatz, there is a further chance to delve into the history of the wall at another exhibition - plus delicious sausages on sale at the various one-man stalls. Or you can take lunch at the TV Tower's revolving restaurant, which stands 200 metres up in the clouds.
Celebrating the Fall of the Berlin Wall
On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, an East German Communist Party official announced on live television that the rules barring East Germans from traveling to the West had been lifted. Hundreds of thousands of East and West Berliners rushed to the Berlin Wall and partied until dawn, turning the city's terror-filled inner border into a giant open-air nightclub.
The party, by some measures, has never stopped. In less than a generation, Berlin has evolved from austere oddity into one of the world's cultural hotspots, with nightlife and a gallery scene many consider the best in Europe. The Berlin Wall, once a symbol of a divided city, is now remembered as a symbol of reconciliation.
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Square roots - Bauhaus celebrates its 90th birthday
In a quiet cul-de-sac in Dessau, in an undiscovered corner of Eastern Germany, the world's most influential art school is celebrating its 90th birthday. Founded on April Fool's Day 1919, the Bauhaus has become a byword for the best aspects of modern architecture and design, and in this historic, rundown town you can see where the revolution began.
The future of weekend skiing for Brits?
The Kandahar was actually a lot more fun to ski than most race tracks I've tried - chiefly because it's so sinuous: with each turn you seem to get an entirely new perspective on the slope.
Add to that another sweet red down into the valley from the Hausberg, and you've got three classic pistes. That's a great strike rate for an area which totals a modest 71km of groomed trails. And there are plenty more pleasing runs to ski higher up.
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A German Gem
Shoppers splash through the puddles along the banks of the Alster River, heading for the boutiques and malls along the Neuer Wall in Hamburg.
"I don't know why British people do not come here in greater numbers," says Frau Peiseler, who looks after the PR for the nearby Steigenberger Hotel. "Perhaps we are too near, do you think? Not as romantic as Venice or Amsterdam, perhaps?"
Intoxicating Cologne
My Aussie mate Steve likes a drink or two. I too have been known to prop up a bar. So what better way for a bit of Anglo-Australian male bonding than a few cheeky beers at a German Oktoberfest?
Bavaria's the perfect holiday
If your summer holiday dilemma is a choice between swimming in raw Mediterranean sewage while someone swipes your Blackberry or falling out with your best friends on a camping trip, then I have a suggestion: go to Northern Bavaria instead.
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In the Black Forest, don't mention the G-word
'Too simple, too good," says Mr Fischer, the maître d', with endearing understatement as he lays out an exquisite dessert of cherries marinated in sherry, holy flower ice cream and chocolate biscuit.
It's four hours since I was served an amuse-bouche of foie gras with curry and lemon grass soup, accompanied by a glass of Krug champagne in the restaurant's wood-panelled bar. In that time, I've eaten nine courses: the best meal I've ever had.
Germany's secret riviera
What do you think of when you hear the words "the Riviera"? Is it the snap, crackle and pop of champagne, the deep heat on the breeze from the ocean or the magnificence of the yellow-trousered yachties scrambling for pole promenade position?
Now add the word "German" and what happens? The German Riviera. That's thrown you, hasn't it?
Don't look down - the 'Saxon Switzerland'
The steps began to obsess me. Our arrival in "Saxon Switzerland" - the region of Germany that lies between Dresden and the Czech border - had coincided with a heatwave. The adventurers who explored and mapped this territory, which is filled with curiously formed cliffs, table-shaped outcrops and solitary pillars, had done so in style, by constructing stone staircases, flights of wooden steps and metal rungs at every juncture. As we sweltered in temperatures of 39C, I counted them as a diversion from the heat.
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Prussia by water - Boating in northern Germany
Often we could kid ourselves that we were completely alone, watching the reeds reflected in the water and the kingfishers and herons waiting to swoop. There were certainly no other British people around; only three of Cardinal's 600 charters last year were taken by British customers. A few Dutch and Swiss have discovered these waterways, but most of the other boat-users were German.
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Northern sights
GERMANY Head about an hour south of Esbjerg and you're in Schleswig-Holstein. It is a relaxed, hilly town where every street provides a different, amazing view of sailing boats on the narrow inlet. Flensburg, with its historic old quarter and buildings with lovely facades, also has plenty of cultural attractions and great shops. Nearby is the impressive Glucksburg castle - built in the 1500s, it's Germany's largest "water" castle and well worth a detour to see.
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Germany: What's not to like?
One evening in early June a friend and I sat on the terrace of his family's holiday home on a hillside above a small village in the Odenwald, an area of rolling, wooded countryside that stretches from east of the Rhine in southern Hesse all the way to Bavaria.......
Rügen, Germany: Brighton for Berliners
When things were looking grey in the former East Germany, the ruling communist party elite could always jet off to Cuba to demonstrate a bit of socialist solidarity in the sun - but they also had a gem of their own, a glorious holiday island just three hours' drive from Berlin.
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Schleswig-Holstein: History on two seas
The sand is white and powder-fine, the sea before me glittering blue, the June sun high in the sky - and the beach is empty. It could be the tropical island of my dreams but for the large, roofed wickerwork beach chairs that have been set out tidily for my benefit....
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Germany, but not as we know it
I've upgraded us to a BMW, as we're in Munich," my husband said. "It only cost an extra €5 a day, and I know how much these things matter to you."
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