germany
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Warnemünde, Rostock, Germany – That’s one busy port!
The seaside resort of Warnemünde is located on Germany’s Baltic coast, just above the city of Rostock. History Founded in approximately 1200, it has been a fishing village for most of its history. The city of Rostock financed a harbour near the village, signing a contract with the patrician of Rostock to maintain the waterway…
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Maultaschen (“mouth pockets”) from Swabia, Germany
(The photo of the Maultaschen in broth is by Matthias Haupt) When I lived in Germany, my favourite cuisine from the country was easily that of Baden-Württemberg. As I am someone who eats little meat, I loved the vegetarian options from the region, including a variety of spätzle and the vegetarian Maultaschen. Maultaschen, which translates…
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Grutenhäuschen, Trier, Germany – A temple with a view
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Bismarckturm Schoden, Germany – A silent sentinal
Standing on a hill above the Saar River in Germany near the town of Schoden in Rheinland-Pfalz/Rhineland-Palatinate stands a Bismarckturm (Bismarck tower); a standardised monument built to honour Germany’s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. These towers were built around the turn of the 20th century to honour him. They conform (more or less) to a…
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Stralsund, Germany – The gateway to Scandinavia
Stralsund is a town with a population of just over 60,000 on the coast of northern Germany. It is the fourth largest city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Stralsund is a Hanseatic city: it was part of the Hanseatic League. It certainly reflects that and the wealth that it in brought from the city’s historical buildings. One of…
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Eltz Castle, Germany – A Living Castle
Eltz Castle is a majestic little castle. It sits on a rock in a small wooded valley in Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) in Germany. Although definitely among the lesser-known castles (unlike Hohenzollern or Neuschwanstein), it is extremely appropriate for its location and has a few unique features, both physically and as well as features of its history.…
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Bautzen, Germany – The Land of Mustard
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Nationalpark Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft, Germany – The sea is calm tonight
You may not connect Germany with the ocean in your mind. However you would be remiss to forget that Germany actually has two coasts. One the eastern side of the country, directly north of Berlin, lies the Baltic Coast. On the Baltic Coast lies the Nationalpark Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft, or the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National…
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Schiefergebirge, Germany – My Heart’s in the Highlands
The Thüringer Schiefergebirge, known as the Thuringian Highlands in English, is an area of the German federal state Thuringia (German: Thüringen) featuring steeply hilly areas on the border between Bavaria and Thuringia, through which the Saale River cuts. As the German name suggests, this area contains a lot of slate rock. There are very few…
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Hiddensee, Germany – Baltic Island Hideaway
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Aachen, Germany – A capital of emperors
Aachen is a city with a long, proud history, which stretches back to Neolithic times (3000 BC). From the Romans using it as a source of hot springs to Charlemagne using the city as the capital of his Frankish empire to being the capital of its own country (very briefly, the Rhenish Republic). Aachen has…
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Black Forest (Schwarzwald), Germany – Here there be witches
The Black Forest (Schwarzwald) is a major feature of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It runs from flatter areas in the north to mountains separating Switzerland and Germany in the south. The Schwarzwald contains a cornucopia of geography, geology and topography. These include mountains, valleys, large lakes and even the largest waterfall (in Triberg) in Germany.…
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Maulbronn Monastery, Germany – A Religious Paradise
Nestled in the tiny town of Maulbronn in the Enz Province of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, sits the Maulbronn Monastery, a Romanesque-style monastery with a long past. This Monastery, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has a long and bloody past but is also a beautiful and unique place to visit. History The name comes…
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Mainau, Germany – Germany’s Garden
Today I would like to present for your viewing pleasure the wonderful island of Mainau in the Bodensee (Lake Constance), Germany. Mainau, like the rest of the Bodensee, is only a stone through away from the Swiss border. Mainau has a very long history of being a place of human settlement. The Celts, the Romans,…
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Ruine Hochburg, Germany – Defending the entrance to the Black Forest
As I promised those who follow this blog on Instagram, this blog post is on the Ruine Hochburg (High Castle Ruins). The Ruine Hochburg is located in Baden-Württemberg, Germany near Freiburg im Breisgau between the villages of Emmendingen (where I used to live) and Sexau. Originally “Hachberg”, the Emmendingen family built the castle in the…
