A bit of background

I only ever took a handful of photos in all my trips to Germany, and these photos do not do the country justice! In my defense, I was young at the time, and unfortunately had no interest in documenting my travels. Therefore… in lieu of beautiful panoramas & vibrant cultural events, instead see below a blurry old photo of a German meal…

Cuisine & environment

Yes, there is a lot of beer and sausage! The German diet, at least from my experience, is generally a meaty (but tasty!) one. Also, don’t forget the wine, which I hear (although never sampled personally) is rather decent. I would say that Germany is somewhat of a hidden treasure, in that not many people would entertain the idea of going on holiday there, but there are actually some beautiful and even breathtaking parts of the country, at least from what I experienced in the southern and western regions. Think a mixture of mountains, rolling countryside, vineyards, and quaint old villages with pretty timber-framed houses. We even visited a cave… who knew!

Weather

I happened to experience one of my hottest summers ever in Germany, with the temperatures topping a scorching 40 degrees c back in 2003. I do remember that every time we visited Germany, the weather was pleasant, and the summers hot. My favourite place to escape the heat was an outdoor lido near Frankfurt – I have very fond memories of swimming, and “shadebathing” beneath the trees! I believe the weather on the European continent tends to run into the extremes more often than it does here in the UK – we are used to mild and damp as standard!

Driving

We found that car journeys in Germany can be somewhat nerve-wracking… we went at 120mph on the autobahn one time (just because you have to try it at least once whilst in Germany, right?) and saw a couple of rather horrific road traffic accidents too. My impression is that these accidents are far more lethal in Germany than they are here in the UK, due to the speeds that they can drive at on the autobahns, however I do not have statistics for how many accidents they have vs here in the UK (it could be far less – generally they seem to be sensible drivers!)

In conclusion

I would definitely visit Germany again in the future. I would say that my favourite region was Bavaria, since we were staying in a very pretty, traditional chalet in a mountain valley, were awoken by the sound of cow bells in the mornings, and listened to the dramatic rumbles of thunder echoing across the mountains in the evenings. Unfortunately, we didn’t visit Berlin or Hamburg during our time in the country, which are surely two of the most popular German cities to pay a trip to. I am open to recommendations from anyone who has been to these regions of the country – where would you go, and where might you leave out?