Northern Germany - Germany is Wunderbar

Germany Holidays: Time for coffee and cake

Germans love their cafés and you should try them as well. Have a piece of cake with your coffee. There’ll be plenty of choice.

Germany Holidays: Wattwandern, otherwise known as mud-flat hiking

Get out in the goo of the Wadden Sea. This pristine environment of tidal flats in the North Sea has plenty of skin-enhancing mud, for free.

Germany Holidays: The Hamburger DOM

No, not the cathedral – this DOM is the northern German equivalent of Munich’s Oktoberfest, but with more rollercoasters.

Germany Holidays: Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg’s model railway

The world’s finest model railway is in Hamburg. Prepare to be surprised by its extraordinary ambition, gorgeous detailing, and surprising sense of humour.

Museums and architecture n Germany: MARTa in Herford

Germany Holidays: Travel along the Museum and Architecture Route

Germany is a major centre for modern architecture, as demonstrated by a new Museum and Architecture Route in Northern Germany.

Beeksheepers in costume by half timbered farmhouse

Germany Holidays: Platt Deutsch

Moin Moin! Northern Germans have great affection for their regiolect, Platt Deutsch, which actually shares a surprising number of words with English.

Germany Holidays: The Harz Mountain Railway

A beautifully-preserved, enthusiast-run, steam-hauled railway network which serves historic towns and villages in a spectacular landscape.

Germany Holidays: Ideal cycle country

Flat, pastoral, villagey and not too hot, northern Germany is ideal cycling country, with a selection of local and long-distance routes.

Brocken spectre, Harz Mountains pic Tanzawa Wikimedia

Germany Holidays: The Brocken Spectre

Is that flickering shape in the mountain mist the outline of a fellow climber, a witch or a ghost? None of the above, it’s a Brocken Spectre. It’s you.

King George I of England, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller

Germany Holidays: The House of Hanover

Britain got 200 years’ worth of Kings from Hanover, and Hanover reciprocated with lovely English gardens, but we showed the city little respect during the Second World War.