Mainau and Konstanz - Germany

Mainau and Konstanz – Germany

Post published:11 May 2014
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

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Roman Constantia

Heading to our last city for this trip, just a short ferry crossing from Meersburg are those 2 beautiful places right where Lake Constance splits into 2 and the river Rhine flows into the lake right through the city. The first of them, Mainau, is an island referred to as island garden because all that is there are impressive landscaped gardens and palaces, all of which listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. And the second, the beautiful city of Konstanz, some 5 kilometres away from Mainau.

The Medieval city of Konstanz will impress any visitor. Larger than all the other cities we visited you will definitely need more time to enjoy and properly visit, something that unfortunately we could not count with any more as we would have loved to. But in any case was “just” enough to enjoy all the beauties of the city and finalise such a wonderful trip all together.

After all, there is not really much to see and do other than walk around the nice streets admiring the architecture and nature around you, hence straightforward and easy to navigate. Then if you do a similar tour as the one we did this weekend, driving back from here to Zurich airport is very quick at not even 80 kilometres distance. For us it was just arrive, drop the rental car and board minutes after, as simple as that. We take planes that often as people who gets on the metro.

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Bonn - Germany

Bonn – Germany

Post published:29 October 2011
Post category:Europe Germany

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The Federal City of Bonn

Once more, another weekend spent in Dusseldorf, hence travelling around the whole region in search of new places and cities to visit. This is the time for the elegant city of Bonn. Founded as a Roman settlement in the 1st century BC, it is still to date the largest Roman fort known from the ancient world, although minimal archaeological remain from that period. It’s therefore one of the oldest city in Germany; the once de-facto capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990. It was this fact why it holds the title of Federal City in recognition for it.

With the fall of Rome, it became the Kingdom of the Franks well into the Middle Ages, when the Romanesque Bonn Minster was built between the 11 and 13th centuries, leading to a strong growth of population and expansion only accelerated in the 17th century and onwards with several grand constructions in Baroque style for what it is still famous the city. It was at this time, year 1770 that Ludwig van Beethoven was born here in Bonn, where he would study before leaving for Vienna as the composer’s first journey.

With such a rich history, you can expect to see many monuments and grand buildings, palaces, tree-lined boulevards and what I consider without to be one of the most elegant cities in Germany. While visiting it is quite straightforward. Distances are not big and you can enjoy the mix of the old town core narrow streets in contrast with broad boulevards, tree-lined avenues and gardens.

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Cologne – Germany

Post published:9 April 2011
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

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Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium

Again, another of these destinations I have been so many times like neighbouring Dusseldorf but never created the guide for it. Although honestly, since the first couple of times or so I came to the city, took all the pictures around and did almost every tourist sight, all the later occasions I returned is mainly to go to some favourite restaurants, meeting friends there and going out. The choice here for going out, say discos, pubs and general entertainment, is definitely greater than in Dusseldorf.

Cologne is without any hesitation one of the most historical and oldest cities in Germany. Back in the Roman days, it was the largest city in what was known the province of Germania. Currently ranks the 4th largest in the country in terms of population and of course importance, and because it did not suffer as badly as Dusseldorf the raids during WWII, it managed to retain a cute historic medieval old town. Not everything is “real” let’s be honest here, but the reconstruction and restoration thereafter was quite a success. It is therefore here you will find many more places of interest and sights than bigger brother Dusseldorf.

Still, the scars from the war are visible even right in the middle of a major landmark, the Cathedral Square. Notice the horrible brutalist and socialist hideous buildings scattered around. However with the latest projects trying to restore absolutely everything, gentrification to the maximum through the old town and construction of great cultural centres, museums and entire new districts with spectacular striking architecture have translated in even more tourism coming year after year.

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Dusseldorf - Germany

Dusseldorf – Germany

Post published:26 February 2011
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

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Japan on the Rhine

Although I have been so many times in this city, and also living for almost 9 months there, it’s time to finally create the well deserved guide for what is considered one of the most important cities in Germany. Surprisingly-wise talking, it is generally more important than Berlin in the sense of events, fairs, design, technology and entertainment. It is the city with the most Japanese population outside of Japan, hence its nickname Japan on the Rhine.

A weekend to enjoy the city is well enough, and even for the first time visitor, is perfect, not only you will see majority of the sights at a slow pace without any rush, in a day you will be done meaning the other half of your weekend trip can be spent at the “twin” city of Cologne. Yet it’s not only Cologne what’s really next to Dusseldorf, it is also a vast choice of places you can go within one/one and a half hour train or bus drive such as Wuppertal, Bonn, Dortmund, Essen, Oberhausen, the Ruhr Industrial Area… or into the Netherlands border at just 60km away to the west.

Discovering the city is quite straightforward and easy. Avenues follow a grid pattern even in the old town, so you can easily move up and down making zigzags, being able to see all the sights in the city centre without the need of any public transportation. Everything surrounding the old town core is the very elegant late 19th early 20th century extension with countless of beautiful grand buildings in all styles, among them a style ranks number one for the numerous amount and its importance, that’s the Jugendstil, or art-nouveau for German. The most notorious district to see the finest, and grandest, is the shopping area of Königsallee.
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