The Bavarian Alps are probably the most popular tourist destination in Germany and it’s easy to see why. In winter, the region attracts with its skiing resorts, while in summer the Alps are great for hikers. There are pristine lakes, forests, beautiful baroque churches and fairytale castles, with King Ludwig II’s Schloss Neuschwanstein being the unparalleled favourite.

If you decide to linger a bit longer in the area, I would recommend staying in Füssen. The final stop on the popular Romantic Road and the highest town in Bavaria at 808 metres above sea level, Füssen sits on the banks of the fast-flowing river Lech. It has a lovely old town with a hilltop castle and the former abbey of St Mang right below it. Both are worth a visit. Right before the bridge to cross the river there is a little rococo church, called Heilig Geist Spital Kirche, with an unusual red façade and beautifully painted interior.

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles are less than More...

We all know the song – ‘If you in down to the woods today, you are in for a big surprise…’ – well I am yet to see any teddy bears having a picnic in the Black Forest, but you do have a good chance to see black squirrels!

Until researching through an old walking book on the Black Forest, I had never heard of black squirrels. So following the book’s advice, I headed to one of Germany’s highest waterfalls – at Triberg in Schwarzwald. There is a small fee to pay to enter the woodland park around the waterfalls, with some booths selling bags of nuts – and this is the best place I can recommend to get close to the very dark brown cousins of the reds – who can be seen in this park too. Another sight of note is found a few kilometres to the north of Triberg: the largest cuckoo clock in the world! More...

This industrial metropolis is catching up on the cultural scene and is really beginning to buzz, confirmed by its status as European Capital of Culture 2010. Admirers of engineering and architecture will be kept well occupied, yet Essen is one of Germany’s greenest cities, with 9.2% of its area claimed by nature. The city’s greenbelt follows the Ruhr River to the 9km-long Lake Baldeney, where sunny days can be spent swimming, windsurfing, or picnicking and sunbathing on the lakeside stretch of beach. Back in the city centre, there are plenty of sights and entertainment venues to make Essen a dynamic city break; here’s a taster…

Top 5 sights and attractions

Be stunned by the 1,030-year-old Golden Madonna in Essen’s cathedral. The cathedral’s sturdy octagonal tower dates from 1000 AD and miraculously survived World War II’s bombing raids.

See Germany’s largest synagogue, the Alte Synagoge, whose splendour reflects the former importance of Essen’s Jewish community, which at its peak in 1933 reached 4,500. More...

Many people may ask where the hell Wuppertal is. Even more will ask what the reason to go there is. Well, you won’t find ancient monuments; not even medieval ones. Ok, there are no monuments at all. It is just a middle-sized city in Germany, not far from Cologne or Dusseldorf. But still, people from around the world keep coming to Wuppertal. And they come to use its public transport.

At this moment you might think that I must be crazy. Nobody comes to London, for example, just to travel on the underground. True, but in Wuppertal they don’t just have an underground, they have something way better. It is called the Schwebebahn and it is a train. Well, sort of.

Trains run every few minutes and tickets cost just €2.20. Onboard you can always meet travellers from around the world who visit More...

Have you ever fallen in love with a traffic light? Strange question, you may think, unless, of course, you have already been to Berlin or the rest of the ex-DDR. Ampelmann, that lovable little creature on traffic lights over there. Born on 13th October 1961, Ampelmann was created by a traffic psychologist Karl Peglau, whose main aim was to make his design appealing to children. And judging by the crowds, aged from one to 100 years old, visiting the Ampelmann shop in the lovely courtyards of the Hackescher Höfe, Herr Peglau has succeeded beyond his wildest expectations!

Apparently his main concern was that the hat worn by his creation would be considered too bourgeois. But then, 1961 was the year when that other Berlin “tourist attraction” - The Wall - was built, begun exactly two months to the day before the introduction of Ampelmann to the stunned and bewildered city. Luckily, The Wall came down and Ampelmann has not only survived attempts after the reunification to have it replaced by more conventional traffic lights, but is now being used even in some towns in the western part of Germany. It has become the main mascot of Ostalgia, and, who knows, it may even be More...