Nestled at the southern edge of the Black Forest, in the southwestern corner of Germany, it’s perhaps no surprise that Freiburg im Breisgau lays claim to being the greenest city in the country. However it’s not just by dint of this location that it can make this boast. The self styled ‘Green City’ continues to lead the field when it comes to developing sustainable policies in housing, transport, energy use and leisure.

Ever since resistance to a nearby nuclear power plant grew in the mid 1970s, Freiburg has been at the heart of the environmental movement in Germany. From the 1980s onwards, as the Green Party gained its first seats in the German Parliament, the popularity of sustainability has been evident. This continues to the present day, with the Greens getting 21.2 percent of the city’s vote in the 2017 elections, the highest share anywhere in the country.

Early in the 1990s the city made a conscious choice to move towards creating a more sustainable future. The development of the Vauban district on the site of former French army barracks near the city centre was commissioned. This is now the most environmentally sustainable city district anywhere in Europe and has over 5,000 residents and provides 600 jobs. Guided tours of the district by bike and on foot are available.

Renewable energy

Being the sunniest city in Germany certainly helps, but Freiburg generates more solar energy than any other city in the country and indeed more than many other whole EU countries. Symbolically the Schwarzwaldstadion, home to Freiburg’s Bundesliga team, has over 2,000 m2 of solar panels on its roof.

Apart from solar energy, the city makes use of other renewable forms of energy, particularly biomass, which uses byproducts from commercial/domestic waste and the local forestry industry (over 40 percent of the Freiburg land area is woodland, another contributor to its green credentials). Overall Freiburg has set itself some very ambitious targets, aiming to have reduced its CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2030. By 2050 the intention is to be climate neutral, powered entirely by renewable energy.

Such pioneering actions have inevitably led to an accumulation of scientific and technological expertise in the city. Freiburg has attracted some of the most significant companies in the sustainability industry, which accordingly has become a major contributor to the local economy, with over 12,000 directly employed in the sector.

The city has taken other broad initiatives to increase sustainability. The Altstadt has been pedestrianised and cycle use is encouraged, with 250 miles (400km) of cycle paths criss-crossing the city. It is now estimated that at least 25 percent of all journeys are undertaken by bike. There is also an extensive and well subsidised tram and bus network. With around 70 percent of the city’s population living within 500 meters of a tram stop, this considerably reduces the dependency on cars.

All this, together with the opportunities to explore the southern Black Forest, contributes to the excellent quality of life in Freiburg and makes it a very appealing destination. As the impetus towards increasing environmental sustainability grows, it has certainly earned its ‘Green City’ soubriquet. – Mark Arrol

At the northern edge of the Black Forest, Baden Baden lays claim to being one of the most glamorous towns in Germany. Taking its name from the German word to bathe, and being in the former Duchy of Baden (thus the distinctive double-barrelled name), the town is home to some internationally renowned spas.

The Romans first discovered the twelve healing thermal springs that lie below Baden Baden, but the town shot to international prominence in the mid 19^th century when it became a favourite destination for various European royals, including Napoleon III and Queen Victoria. In their wake, it grew hugely popular with many of the continent’s wealthy and famous, who travelled in numbers to take in the warm climate and soothing waters. The town’s population would more than double during the summer season.

Hitting its peak during the Belle Époque period around the start of the 20^th century, and largely undamaged during WWII, Baden Baden has never lost its reputation for glamour and sophistication. During the 2006 World Cup it was the base for the England football team and the high-profile wives and families that came with them.

Naked – or not

To take advantage of the hottest and most mineral-rich waters in Germany, visitors have two options: the Friedrichsbad and the Caracalla Spa. Which you pick will depend on your budget, your taste and your modesty!

The Friedrichsbad is located in grandiose 19^th century buildings and requires visitors to enjoy the fairly rigorous 17 step sequence of treatments, designed to leave you feeling better in mind and body, and be entirely naked. The Caracalla is a much more modern affair, featuring indoor and outdoor pools, a rock grotto, a salt inhalation room and other facilities in a glass fronted building and perhaps importantly, bathing attire can be worn.

Playing host to the continent’s great and good necessitated giving them an opportunity to relax in luxurious surroundings after a hard day’s spa treatments. Hence Baden Baden also boasts the most opulent casino in Europe, located in the Kurhaus. Designed to outdo the palace at Versailles, this oldest casino in Germany features crystal chandeliers, detailed portraits and other luxurious decorations. Marlene Dietrich once called it ‘the most beautiful casino in the world’. It is also the reputed setting for Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler.

The casino offers blackjack, poker and roulette, as well as slot machines. Not surprisingly, given the nature of the surroundings, men are only allowed to enter if they are wearing a jacket.

In a joint bid with a number of other spa towns in Europe, including Bath and Vichy, Baden Baden is aiming to achieve UNESCO World Heritage status. Without doubt it offers a slice of glamour and a glimpse of how Europe’s elite lived a century and a half ago. – Mark Arrol

The Neckar river is most commonly associated with Heidelberg, long a very popular destination, but before it reaches there, it flows through the beautiful city of Tübingen, around 20 miles south of Stuttgart.

The city has a population of around 85,000, almost a third of which are students at the prestigious 500 year old University of Tübingen, which counts former Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger among its alumni. The presence of so many students has led to Tübingen having the lowest average age of any city in Germany. The youthful and vibrant feel is reflected throughout, but no more so than by the river.

Very similar to Oxford and Cambridge, punting on the Neckar is a long-established tradition. The first ever reference dates from the 16^th century and there are reports of student societies indulging in it for recreation in the 19^th century.

The boats, known as Stocherkahn, are a regular feature on the river during summer months. However there is a competitive edge to this otherwise very relaxing activity, when, on the third Thursday of every June, student societies take part in the Stocherkahnrennen, with over 50 boats competing for a trophy that was first won in 1956.

That year only eight boats took part, but over the years the event has grown to become one of the highlights of the summer term, with the river bank packed with students cheering along the boats. In keeping with the light-hearted nature of the event, before it gets underway, the crew sporting the best fancy dress also win a prize.

Hand to hand combat

The race takes place over a roughly 1.5 mile (2.5km) course which circumnavigates the Neckarinsel and finishes at the Neckarbrücke, and lasts about 20 minutes. Rules are rather vague, but crews consist of eight, with only one allowed a pole, the rest having to power the boat and ward off competitors with their hands. The winning team are presented with their trophy and a keg of beer donated by the city and thereafter lead the rest of the day’s (inevitably bacchanalial) festivities. Members of the losing team are compelled to drink a half litre of beer and organise the following year’s event.

The best vantage point to watch the proceedings is obviously the Neckarinsel, which can be reached by steps from the main bridge spanning the river. This is a beautiful spot offering fantastic views of the houses, all in different pastel shades, which front onto the river, with the truncated tower of the Collegiate Church of St Georg in the background. The island features the picturesque Planatenallee, an avenue lined with plane trees.

For post-event hospitality with an ongoing view of the river, the best place to be based is  undoubtedly the huge Neckarmüller Brauerei, which has a large terrace on the river bank and offers traditional Swabian fare and beer brewed on the premises.

The river isn’t the only attraction in the city. The picture perfect Markt, featuring the half-timbered Rathaus, the Schloss Hohentübingen, offering views of the river, and the Hölderlin Tower, one time home of the 19^th century poet, are all equally impressive. When considering the Neckar region, vibrant and lively Tübingen is definitely worth a visit. – Mark Arrol

Nuremberg is a city with a long and illustrious history. It was the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, hosting the Imperial Diets, and was a major trading centre on a number of pan European trade routes. However all this has been rather overshadowed by the city’s more recent past when Germany was governed by the Nazi Party.

Precisely because of the association with the Holy Roman Empire and its rail links with the rest of pre-war Germany, it hosted the first Nazi Party Rallies in 1927 and 1929. These were rather small-scale affairs, as the party had yet to come to national prominence. However the rally that took place here in 1933, after the Nazis had come to power, was the first of what were to become increasingly grandiose events.

The Nuremberg Rallies subsequently took place each year until the start of World War II and were a huge part of the Nazi propaganda machine. Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous Triumph of the Will, which depicted Hitler as a Messiah coming to save Germany, was filmed there during the 1934 Rally. The following year the Reichstag was convened during the Rally to pass the laws which removed German citizenship from the Jewish population, known as the Nuremberg Laws.

The size of the whole complex, known as the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, which was designed to last for 1,000 years, is truly breathtaking. It comprises the Zeppelin Field, the Kongresshalle and the Große Straße (Great Road)

The size of a dozen football pitches, the Zeppelin Field is where Hitler delivered his speeches to hundreds of thousands of his supporters. It is possible to stand in the exact same spot on the tribune and take in the same view as he had.

The Kongresshalle is the biggest remaining building left from the Nazi period and is listed for its historical significance. It was never properly completed but the North Wing now houses the excellent Nazi Documentation Centre which charts the rise of the party and how it maintained its grip on power. The permanent exhibition Fascination and Terror looks at the causes and consequences of national socialism.

Between these lies the Große Straße which was designed to act as a parade ground for Wehrmacht soldiers, but was only finished in 1939 as war broke out and was never used for its intended purpose. Symbolically it is directed towards Nuremberg’s castle to highlight the link between the Holy Roman Empire and Third Reich.

Other parts of the site were either destroyed by intensive Allied bombing or were demolished after the war. Some, such as the Deutsches Stadion (German Stadium), which was designed to hold 400,000, never made it much beyond the planning stages.

Downtown

Nuremberg has a somewhat ambivalent attitude to these close links with the most notorious period in German history. For many years the city authorities were loath to spend the money required to maintain the complex, which was hardly a source of civic pride. However 250,000 domestic and foreign tourists visit the Rally Grounds every year and those numbers are hard to ignore. As a result a major programme of restoration was agreed by the city and federal government.

With the educational nature of the Documentation Centre and the rather eerie atmosphere around the Zeppelin Field and tribune, a good balance has been struck between preserving Nazi monuments and using them as a means of ensuring the horrors and megalomania of that period are not forgotten.

The sheer size of the Documentation Centre and Rally Grounds means that their location is very convenient, sitting just south of the city centre. Many visitors to downtown Nuremberg find plenty to do in the form of the castle, the Altstadt, the museums and of course the Palace of Justice, which hosted the post-war Nuremberg Trials. In addition, Nuremberg’s Christmas market is one of the most celebrated in Germany. – Mark Arrol

Ingolstadt is a pleasant city on the banks of the Danube, half way between the big city tourist destinations of Munich and Nuremburg. Despite its riverside location it attracts far fewer visitors than its neighbours, or indeed some of the similarly sized but much more architecturally significant Bavarian cities such as Würzburg or Augsburg.

Admittedly its location isn’t on the most scenic stretch of the river, unlike Regensburg or even Passau, but Ingolstadt has three big claims to fame that should ensure its lasting legacy.

First it is the home of Audi, the third of the famous car marques that call southern Germany home. Less well known than the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart or BMW Welt in Munich, Audi has its own visitor centre at the Group HQ in Ingolstadt, the Audi Forum, which attracts 400,000 visitors a year. It offers both tours of its production facilities and there is the Audi Museum Mobile, charting the development of the company and its cars.

Unlike its competitors, the presence of the firm in Bavaria is something of an accident, a legacy of the historical settlement that concluded World War II. Before the war, Auto Union had its headquarters in the Soviet zone, but following the expropriation of the company’s plants in occupied Chemnitz and Zwickau by the authorities, the newly-named Audi relocated to Ingolstadt and has been there ever since.

The importance of Audi to the local economy cannot be overstated. It employs over 40,000 people and either directly (or through its supplier network) accounts for over 50 percent of regional output. Ingolstadt now has a third railway station, Ingolstadt Audi, a €15m joint project with Audi and Deutsche Bahn, which allows 3,000 daily commuters to get to their place of work more conveniently.

Frankenstein’s monster

Ingolstadt’s second big claim to fame is its lasting place in the pantheon of horror fiction as the literal birthplace of Frankenstein’s Monster. Touring southern Germany in 1818, Mary Shelley decided to use the University of Ingolstadt, and its well known scientific research centre, as the setting for the young scientist Viktor Frankenstein’s decision to create a new animate creature.

The city operates a Frankenstein tour through the Altstadt, calling at locations which feature in the original novel, and makes good use of its setting as the location of one of the most enduring stories in European fiction.

Finally, Bavaria is synonymous with beer, and the first ever laws governing food safety, in this case regarding the ingredients that were permitted in the brewing of beer. Duke William IV proclaimed, in Ingolstadt in 1516, that beer could only be brewed with barley, hops and water. Initially this was the Bavarian Purity Law but it soon came to apply to the whole of the country.

Despite some tinkering to allow for brewing with wheat etc, those essential three ingredients remain at the core of the German beer industry, and brewers still proudly state that their beers adhere to the Reinheitsgebot of 1516.

So instead of passing through Ingolstadt en route to Munich from Nuremburg, it’s worth stopping off to consider the lasting effects that the city has had on European industry and culture.  – Mark Arrol

Travel isn’t always about pleasure; occasionally a destination can be a gruelling and yet still a worthwhile experience. A visit to Dachau concentration camp (officially known as the KZ Gedenkstätte Dachau) falls into this category.

This camp, in an otherwise pleasant suburb in the north-western outskirts of Munich and easily reached on the S2 train, is without doubt one of the most educational and informative places you will ever visit, and yet each passing exhibit and story just adds to an unrelenting sense of gloom and misery, a hint of what the camp was like when it was operational.

The first concentration camp to open in March 1933, immediately after the Nazi Party took power, Dachau processed around 240,000 prisoners over the following 12 years, 41,000 of whom died. Unlike the death camps in occupied Poland, such as Auschwitz Birkenau, this was a prison and labour camp, initially designed to hold ideological opponents of the regime. Then once World War II was under way, it deployed a much wider spread of inmates as forced labour to contribute to the war effort. Thus the Dachau ovens were not weapons of extermination, but a means of disposal of bodies of those who died from overwork, starvation and disease.

The camp re-opened as a memorial in 1965 and expanded further with the conversion of the former maintenance building as a permanent exhibition in 2002. It is here that most of your time will be spent, learning the history of Germany between the wars, leading to the Nazi seizure of power. That is followed by a detailed history of the camp and its development from 1933 onwards, broken down into three periods (1933-39, 1939-41, 1942-1945), each representing a separate phase of operation.

During the course of this there are multiple very harrowing testimonies about life in Dachau, told by inmates of the camp. There is also considerable focus on all the different types of prisoners, not just  Jews, but those other minorities persecuted by the Nazi regime: homosexuals, Communists, Roma and Sinti gypsies, Czechs and Jehovah’s Witnesses among others.

For the defense of peace and freedom

Once through the permanent exhibition (and it is quite difficult to read and take in all the exhibits, such is the extent of the documented suffering and deprivation), there are further memorials outside, the most celebrated of which is the international monument bearing the following inscription, in four languages: “May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 and 1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men”.

Visitors also have the opportunity to walk through a reconstructed barracks, the security installations and the crematorium area, not to mention the infamous camp gates with the legend ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (work will set you free) set into the ironwork. All told the visit will take two to three hours depending on how much you can take in.

A visit to Dachau cannot be recommended enough, if only to grasp the true scale of Nazi repression and the calculated planning that went into how to incarcerate and exploit opponents of the regime. It is impossible to come out unmoved by the suffering and the horrors that its inmates must have experienced.       – Mark Arrol

There’s a Mediterranean flavour to the former capital of Bavaria. Could it be the tall narrow streets of Regensburg’s old city, which could easy have been transported from Nice to give shade from the midday sun? Or the plazas and piazzas surrounded by ice-cream parlours, which could so easily be somewhere on the Italian Riviera? Or even the robed Dominican, Benedictine or Carmelite figures fluttering down cobbled alleys, reminiscent of Rome’s Vatican city?

In fact Regensburg was once the seat of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, an empire which – despite the name – was much more to do with central Europe than it was with Rome. It was the power base for Emperor Charlemagne, and it remains essentially medieval in its layout. The city has 1,400 buildings of serious historical significance still standing, many of them more than 500 years old. The Porta Praetoria, one of the original Roman gates, is over 2,000 years old.

The best place to get a snapshot of this epoch-straddling place is out on the Steinerne Brücke, a magnificent bridge built back in 1130 and which for many centuries was the only Danube river-crossing between Ulm and Vienna. That bridge played a huge role in Regensburg’s growth, giving it unprecedented historical importance in trade, religion and politics. It remains a hefty piece of stonework, and from its centre, pedestrians can look back at a medieval skyline studded with towers, with the soft yellows and ochres of old walls producing a fading fresco on the riverbank.

Salt and sausages

A lot of those riverside buildings were originally storehouses for river-borne cargo, particularly salt, and all this trade imbued the city with a cosmopolitan spirit. The key salt-trading building, the Salzstadel right by the Steinerne Brücke, is this year hosting a new visitor centre marking five years since the city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Also down by the waterside, just along from the bridge, is what is supposedly the oldest restaurant in Germany. The Sausage Kitchen is a low stone cottage with a tall chimney, unmissable not because of its architecture – it looks like a Greek quayside taverna – but because of the all-pervasive smell of grilling Wurst, which are still homemade. Its customers are in good company, for Goethe, Mozart and Haydn all ate here.

Today Regensburg continues to produce its celebrities. The recently-retired Pope was mere Cardinal Ratzinger during his formative years as a professor at the university, and would have been a regular presence in Regensburg’s impressive Cathedral.

So also has been Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, one of the most controversial of Germany’s aristocrats. She still lives in part of the Thurn and Taxis Palace, a former monastery close to the heart of the city. The palace is almost a town in itself, with the outlying areas given over to museums, galleries, a brewery and restaurants. Between them its 500 rooms amass 14,000 sq metres of parquet flooring, several Gobelin tapestries and a crystal chandelier which weighs more than a ton. Every July the palace hosts a major arts festival, the Thurn und Taxis Schlossfestspiele, with concerts, opera, musicals and fireworks in the courtyards.

But despite the size and the grandeur of their home the Thurn und Taxis family does not have an immensely long tradition in Germany. They were originally Italians, which somehow seems appropriate for Regensburg.

Germany is the world’s leading health tourism destination after the US, and the Wellness industry here is growing by 9 percent a year. But ‘Wellness’ is usually taken to imply spa tourism – just making people feel better about life: giving them a nice massage, and a warm fragrant room to lie in, with soothing music. It’s like a gentle pat on the back. German Wellness is a lot more than that.

It can come in many distinctive forms. At the luxury end, there’s therapeutic fasting (pay a fortune to eat nothing) at places like the uber luxurious Buchinger Wilhelmi  by Lake Constance. Or else there’s upmarket ayurvedic therapy, for example in the Parkschloesschen by the Mosel river.

And then there are the more unusual local cures such as Felke, the application of ‘curative loam’ (posh word for earth) either in compresses or by the bathful; the mud-bath cure, as practiced at Bad Hindelang’s Prinz Luitpold hotel, good for rheumatism and back, muscle and joint problems; and the Radon gas cure, which involves sitting in a radon tunnel or even a mine, supposedly good for arthritis and various respiratory problems.

The big ones: Kneipp and Schroth

But there are a couple of big name cures that Germans used to be able to get on prescription, although this rarely happens any more. Kneipp is headquartered in Bad Wörishofen, a town dedicated almost entirely to therapy, about 80km west of Munich. Here clients – patients, holidaymakers, call them what you will – spend their days wading in cold water; putting their elbows in cold water, and having attendants hose them down, from thighs down to ankles, in alternate doses of hot and cold.

The key tenets of the philosophy are that our bodies exist in a world of water, heat, light, food, plants and earth, and our physiologies strive to be self-regulating to maintain a position in that world that is neither too hot or too cold, too hungry or too thirsty etc, etc. Things start to go wrong when we can no longer get back to that default position, that happy medium, either through illness or accident or bad lifestyle. So the treatments of Kneipp are intended to stimulate the system to encourage it to revert to centre by itself. And the application of cold water is the main instrument for that stimulation.

The cure is particularly intended for nervous disorders, high and low blood pressure and conditions like asthma and osteoarthritis, the sort of chronic stuff that clogs up a doctor’s waiting room and is hard to get rid of. It requires a fairly lengthy stay in places like the Sebastineum Kneipp hotel-cum-sanatorium in order to be effective; three to four weeks, suggests the resident doctor.

Meanwhile Schroth’s capital is the Alpine resort of Oberstaufen, tucked in by mountains in Germany’s Allgäu region, a two hour drive southwest of Munich. It is a pretty place; all window boxes and wall frescos, and lots of healthy-looking people who come here to hurl themselves at the hills on bikes and in boots.

Amongst them are other less healthy-looking people who spend their days being woken at 4am and wrapped in clammy sheets and hot water bottles.  The idea of the wrapping is to take your body at its lowest temperature – as it is at 4am – and drop that temperature a bit with the cold sheets to stimulate it to go into overdrive and thereby bring the heat up; amongst other things, this strengthens the immune system.

Schroth also focuses on very disciplined combinations of diet, activity and massage, and attracts customers who have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, and as a rule they come for two or maybe three weeks of doctor-controlled cures to stay in specialist hotels like the Lindner Parkhotel and Spa.

All of these treatments will sound a bit eccentric to an outsider, but many Germans swear by the likes of Kneipp and Schroth, and this is a nation which doesn’t often get things wrong.

Once a month, in five different towns in an obscure part of Bavaria, a select handful of householders hang out the six-pointed Zoigl star in front of their property. Then they throw open their front doors, and serve up home-brewed beer and home-made food to Zoigl pilgrims – which could amount to several hundred people.

These Zoiglstubes (informal inns) are the hangover from a long tradition that dates back to 1455, when home-brewing licences were first granted by a local count, who wanted to find a new way to raise tax. Back then 600 private households in the region signed up, but these days there are just 14 properties still maintaining the tradition, the majority of which are in the small town of Windischeschenbach and its even smaller satellite town of Neuhaus, in the Oberpfalz region, northeast of Nuremberg.

And despite big breweries trying to cash in on the trend by creating Zoigl beer, all of these real Zoiglstubes are part-time family-run places, including by the local butcher (at Roud’n), by the local undertaker (at Binner) and by the chimney sweep (at the beautiful Schafferhof with its adjacent tithe barn).

In recent years these venues have become something of a Holy Grail for beer fanciers, for whom savouring the distinctive handcrafted brews of the five Zoigl towns is the equivalent of tracking down an aromatic cheese in a remote valley in France. For although they start off their brewing in the local Kommunbrauhaus (the one in Windischeschenbach dates back to 1876) each brewer takes his wort home to finish off in tanks to his own recipe, so each brew is slightly different different – cloudy, nutty, and a bit darker than a typical German pilsner.  The whole thing is particularly inexpensive, and for a traveller, it makes an adventurous and all-year-round alternative to the Oktoberfest, particularly as Zoigl beer only costs just over a third of the Munich price. Like the Oktoberfest, going Zoigling is a convivial experience, with everyone talking to everyone, and sitting at communal tables.

This part of Bavaria (click here for tourist info) is not just a place to get pie-eyed; there’s plenty of outdoors stuff too, with Windischeschenbach set in a bucolic landscape of forest and rolling wheat fields, of orchards, woodstacks and walking tracks, along the banks of the wandering river Waldnaab. The closest big urbanisations are Regensburg and Nuremberg, each about 90 minutes away by car or a bit longer by train.

The Zoiglstubes open according to a published schedule, each one usually for 11 long weekends (usually Friday to Monday) a year, from around 11am until any hour of the night. If the Zoiglstern is hanging outside the building, it is open.

You will need somewhere to stay. In Neuhaus, the best option is the Hotel Zum Waldnaabtal, with half a dozen Zoiglstubes on the same street. In Windischeschenbach, the best place is the Gasthof Weißer Schwan. Both have rooms from €60 for a double.

Ludwig Lindner (0049 9681 1472) is a very knowledgeable Zoigl enthusiast and fluent English-speaker, based in Windischeschenbach.

You probably wouldn’t choose Mannheim as a stand-alone city break in Germany. The city itself, and particularly its immediate surroundings with Ludwigshafen, home of the chemical giant BASF, on the other side of the Rhine, are too industrial. However, if you are in this part of the country, a quick detour will be very worthwhile.

Located at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Neckar, Mannheim offers a magnificent Baroque castle, a beautiful art nouveau ensemble around a water tower, some of the best German shopping and a great choice of cafés and restaurants. That’s why the locals love their Monnem, as it’s called in the local dialect.

Mannheim is particularly famous for its ‘chessboard’ layout. The city centre and its streets between the Neckar and the castle were laid out in a grid formation in the 17th century. Cutting right through it is the popular shopping boulevard Planken, a wide pedestrian zone. At the end – or beginning, whichever way you want to see it – stands the mighty fine art nouveau architectural ensemble, the Friedrichsplatz square. Its water tower, the city’s landmark, was built between 1886 and 1889. Both it and the statue-rich fountains in front of it are particularly spectacular when they are lit up by night.

Go al fresco in art nouveau surroundings

The best way to enjoy all this is sitting al fresco in one of the cafés and bars around the Friedrichsplatz. As soon as the sun comes out, so do Mannheim’s rich and beautiful and the rest as well. Particular favourites amongst the cafés are ‘Dolceamaro’, featuring a baroque-modern interior and Mediterranean-inspired menu, and just next door ‘Café Flo’, a quirky little bistro-type place that is almost as famous in Mannheim as the water tower. And heading towards the Neckar from here, past the city’s green lung Luisenpark, there’s the ‘Bootshaus’, a restaurant and bar above the local rowing club, with a great terrace for a summer evening.

At the centre of Mannheim’s shopping mile is the Engelhorn department store at O5 on the Planken. Still family run, it can easily hold its own next to Berlin’s or Munich’s fashion emporiums. Apart from every possible type of men’s, women’s and kids’ clothing, there’s a fabulous accessories department and coffee bars dotted around on several floors. Right at the top, ‘Faces Lounge’ is a popular café and bar in the evening with a great terrace and views over Mannheim, plus, one floor above, ‘Le Corange’ offers fine dining with equally impressive views.

Perfect for shopping and culture

Mannheim’s cultural scene doesn’t disappoint either with the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum, the Technomuseum and the Kunsthalle art gallery as the stand-out locations. The Nationaltheater with its own ensembles for opera, ballet and theatre as well as the Rosengarten concert hall offer a varied programme.

And, of course, there’s the stunning Baroque palace right next to the Planken. It’s the largest of its kind in Germany and partly occupied by the city’s university. The building has been extensively renovated over the past years and is well worth a visit.

Meanwhile the latest urban development to watch out for is the redevelopment of an old granary on the Rhine right opposite Ludwigshafen. The ‘Speicher 7’ complex includes a chic boutique hotel and gourmet restaurant. So maybe Mannheim is worth a stand-alone city break after all.