Magdeburg, located on the Elbe halfway between Hamburg and Dresden, is one of Germany’s oldest cities, with its massive cathedral tracing its roots back to 937. However history hasn’t been kind to it, having been destroyed twice over, first in the Thirty Years War (when as a prominent Protestant city it was sacked by Imperial troops in 1631) and second when it was levelled by heavy Allied bombing during World War II.

As one of the largest cities in the German Democratic Republic, aka communist East Germany, the postwar reconstruction can be described as functional at best. The Elbe, such a popular attraction further upriver in Dresden and Saxon Switzerland, became little more than an industrial waterway as it passed through Magdeburg.

However the city now boasts one of the most individual buildings helping to revitalise the region. The Grüne Zitadelle is the last project designed by the Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Although not completed until 2005, five years after his death, this eccentric multi-purpose building reflects his philosophy of creating unique spaces for individuals, places not just ‘to be’, but also ‘to experience’. He saw structures as people’s third skin (after their actual skin and their clothing).

The perfect antidote

The original discussions about the development took place at the end of the 1990s, and the site was selected and the designs completed just before Hundertwasser died. The architect, whose style has been compared to Gaudí (responsible for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona), passionately advocated individual building design and rejected anything thought to be uninspiring.  Consequently post communist Magdeburg, with its abundance of extremely functional and utilitarian architecture, was the perfect place to host this project.

The architect’s famous multicoloured Hundertwasserhaus in his native Vienna has undulating floors, trees growing from inside rooms and a roof covered in earth and grass. The Grüne Zitadelle was designed and built in a similar style, but with a bright pink exterior thrown in for added measure. No two windows are the same, whilst trees grow out of the building and are planted on the roof, thereby furnishing the building with the green element in Grüne Zitadelle.

Functionally it has a variety of uses. The ground floor features shops, business premises and a café, the Alt Magdeburg. The ART hotel Magdeburg, with over 40 rooms and suites, is on the second floor, along with a theatre and a crèche (which uses the roof garden for its outdoor play area), whilst the top floor features 55 individually designed (naturally) apartments.

After the nearby cathedral, this has become Magdeburg’s second most popular tourist attraction. Guided tours (in German), lasting an hour will give a greater understanding about the man and his philosophy.

Meissen is a small town on the Elbe about 15 miles downriver from Dresden, with the prominent Albrechtsburg castle and Meissener Dom (one of the smallest cathedrals in Europe) squashed together on a patch of raised ground above the water. The town has existed for over 1,000 years and was the capital of Saxony until the 15^th century, when the royal court moved to Dresden.

Scenic though these sites are, what really makes the town special is its longstanding association with some of the finest porcelain manufactured anywhere outside China.

The first European porcelain was produced here in 1708. The key to the success of the manufacture of what was known as ‘white gold’ was the large deposits of kaolin (China clay) and potters’ earth to be found in the nearby hills. Two years later the first factory was commissioned by King Augustus the Strong of Saxony at the Albrechtsburg castle. In the mid 19^th century production was moved to the Triebisch valley where it has remained to this day.

With its trademark logo of two crossed blue swords, Meissen is possibly the most famous and recognised porcelain brand in the world. Sitting on a back catalogue of over 700,000 moulds and with over 10,000 colours the factory claims to have the most variety of any manufacturer worldwide. Famous for its figurines and tableware, the company’s products have been able to maintain their reputation for the highest quality for the best part of three centuries.

In the 19^th century its pieces were highly sought after among the ruling classes in Europe, which often built up huge collections. A Meissen porcelain chocolate pot from around 1780 formed one of the wedding gifts for Queen Elizabeth II.

During the period of the German Democratic Republic the Meissen porcelain works were one of the few businesses that operated profitably and continued to export internationally, thereby bringing in much needed foreign currency for the communist regime.

How to visit

The factory is open to visitors all year round (except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day) and offers daily guided tours plus a visit to the Meissen museum. As a measure of its international renown, the accompanying audio guide is available in 14 different languages. Visits start with a 30 minute tour of four studios where artists demonstrate base throwing, plate painting, figure moulding and glazing. The museum then allows visitors to appreciate historic pieces at their own leisure.

Whilst in Meissen visitors should include a walk up to the castle and its adjacent cathedral. The castle features an exhibit on the initial production of porcelain in the 18^th century, but the views from here over the Elbe are worth the walk alone.

The town is easily reached by taking S1 from Dresden, with trains running every 30 minutes. – Mark Arrol

Autumn is advancing all across Europe, and we’re all settling back into our normal existences. Most of the summery stuff we were wearing a couple of weeks ago has gone back into the box.

But even sitting at your desk and shuffling spreadsheets, as you undoubtedly are, there is a way of getting a taste of what you could be doing in Germany this season, thanks to that wonderful invention, the webcam. While many of them are basically hugely dull traffic-watchers, there are also some that will give you a good foretaste of what a place can be like.

Have a look, for example, at this set of cams in the Mosel Valley, a whole collection of them ranged up and down some of the most scenic bits of the river, where the vineyards are looking ripe for harvest. These cams are pretty state of the art, and allow a certain amount of spying, too. So if you’re a serial adulterer in Bernkastel, or Traben-Trarbach, you need to be aware that Big Brother (or Sister) could be following your movements.

Up in the Harz Mountains there’s no snow yet, so they are still using the toboggan run, the metal Rodelbahn. Elsewhere, the big summer attractions are falling quiet, with the rollercoasters of Europa Park looking a bit forlorn. And the North Sea camp sites are looking pretty empty. However you might catch a few swimmers in outdoor pools of some of the hot water spas, such as this one down in Bad Endorf in Chiemgau, the bottom right hand corner of Bavaria. A bit of a chill in the air isn’t enough to keep wellness-loving Germans away.

Meanwhile up in the mountains behind, the skiing areas are in transition. There’ll be people pisteing around on this grass in a few weeks’ time. If you want to see whether the snow has arrived in the Bavarian lowlands, too, then this is the place to do it.

Of course there’s some images that don’t change, whatever the season. There’ll always be trains in the yard, ships on the Elbe, and trucks on the road. That’s Germany.

Northern Germany is ideal cycling country. This landscape doesn’t detain many passing motorists, being too subtle to grab their attention from a speeding car and too widely-spread for walking, but it has big skies, no hills, immaculate cycle-only routes, and it rarely gets too hot. The routes here are well marked (many are cycle-only), there are frequent hire places, and the local train network is well used to people with bicycles.

Here, you’ll find yourself purring through a landscape that smells of wet hay and cow parsley, with foxglove and campion glowing by the side of drainage ditches. On a bicycle you can creep up on wildlife, and you’ll pass through fields full of lapwings, with nearby bushes exploding with starlings. There’ll be geese grazing in a distant meadow, and a curlew will flee away, shrieking, over the floodplains.

Of course there are some notable long distance routes, notably the Weser-Harz-Heide, starting down near Göttingen, running around the Harz Mountains and finishing on the Lüneburg Heath just south of Hamburg. Then there’s the Weser route, which starts in the same place but sticks to the river, running through Bremen and ultimately into the North Sea by Bremerhaven. And the Elbe route, which hugs the river bank all the way from Dresden in the east up to Hamburg, and is regularly voted one of the top long distance rides in Germany. All these have online route maps, cycle hire companies, good signage, cycle-friendly accommodation, and you can expect to travel along proper cycle-only paths for much of the way.

In Germany, bicycles have more traffic rights than in the UK

But northern Germany is probably best for family cycling, for dipping in and out of local places, and particularly recommended for this is the area between Bremen and Hamburg, including the Teufelsmoor – devil’s moor – where apple-cheeked farmers in baggy blue are usually out and about giving the shaggy flatlands a trim. A key attraction here is the small town of Worpswede, an island that rises 52 metres above the boggy flats. Its sense of grim isolation under moody skies has attracted a long history of artists like Udo Peters, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Maryan Zurek, who started a tradition of a kind of post-impressionist, pre-raphaelite Bloomsbury-in-the-bog. Today the village is full of galleries, studios, smart hotels and restaurants.

Worpswede can get clogged up with weekend traffic, although on a bicycle you can usually weave your way around anything. In fact, in Germany, bicycles have many more traffic rights than in the UK, something you need to be aware of as a driver. As a cyclist you need to be law-abiding, too: the pavements are carefully demarcated between cyclists and pedestrians, and you’re likely to be scolded if you stray!

Getting There: International airports are at Hanover, Bremen and Hamburg. International rail connections are via Cologne from Brussels (Thalys), which connect with the Eurostar from London. See our Travel page for airlines, rail and tour operators. There’s also a special listing of cycle operators.

Staying There: Our recommended hotels are here for Niedersachsen, including Worpswede properties, and here for Bremen. There is also an extensive listing of rural properties and ‘hay hotels’ here. 

Niedersachsen Tourist Board’s recommended cycling routes.