Germany travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany, was built between 2001 and 2006. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the building already received several awards: Deutsche Architekturpreis 2005, Leipziger Architekturpreis 2005, Deutsche Architekturpreis Beton 2005, Best-Office-Award 2006 and a special award at Italian Premio Internazionale Dedalo Minosse architecture event. The exterior is not as interesting as its interiors. Among the signature elements are the 600 m long galleries where body-in-whites are transported to and from the paint shop. There a car production line passes over multilevel floor plates with platforms that function as open office spaces.
Continue reading Zaha Hadid design

Rugen is the largest of Germany’s islands, nearly 1,000 sq km with 570 km long wiggling coastline of steep cliffs and broad, shallow inlets. It is a picture-book paradise of white cliffs, wide sandy beaches, wood and moorland with romantic castles, old churches and old-fashioned towns of fin de siecle villas. Photo by: mario_65
Continue reading Rugen

Muskauer Park is an exceptional example of a European landscape park. The Park is located in the city Bad Muskau on the border between Germany and Poland. It covers 3.5 square kilometres of land in Poland and 2.1 in Germany. It lies along the river Nisa. Park Muzakowski was damaged considerably during WWII, so much of it has had to be restored.

The founder of the park was Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau (1785-1871), the author of the influential Hints on Landscape Gardening. It uses the techniques of ‘nature painting’ to create a harmonious garden-as-artwork. The site also features a reconstructed castle, bridges and an arboretum.

The park contains a high diversity of plant species and over 650 of them grow there. Designed as ‘a painting done with plants’, it uses the advantages of local plants and is an ideal place to take a charming walk.

On Juli 2, 2004, the UNESCO inscribed the park on the World Heritage List.

The silver of land, clinging to the west coast of the island of Rugen on Germany’s Baltic coast, has preserved all the charm that attracted so many famous early 20th century artists, writers and intellectuals to its shores including Einstein, Freud, Brecht and Thomas Mann. Photo by: me_youwe
Continue reading Hiddensee

Monastic Island of Reichenau lies in Lake Constance in southern Germany. It lies between the Gnadensee and the Untersee, almost due west of the city of Konstanz. The highest elevation on the island, the Hochwart, reaches 438.7 meters, or 43 meters above the lake surface. Today, these preserved areas are protecting species of plants and animals, which are typical for the region around Lake Constance.

Continue reading Monastic Island of Reichenau

From stylish hotels, retro-chic bars that resemble cold-war bomb shelters to boutiques that elevate kitschy East German goods to high design, Berlin is still divided. The city is a mixture of past and future. Take a stroll into the twisted backstreets and you might bump into building, a courtyard or a block that looks frozen in 1989. The art mile in the Mitte district, in drab contrast to the slick galleries and Ikea-fied apartments.
Continue reading Cutting Berlin

Schloss Linderhof Palace was built from 1869 by the King Ludwig II as a copy of the Palace of Versailles. Located in Germany, near Oberammergau in southwest Bavaria, it is the smallest of King Ludwig II’s fantasy castles and there are only six main rooms. Though much smaller, the architecture of the magnificent palace is extravagant with ivory candelabra’s and carpets made of Ostrich feathers. Set in wonderful gardens alongside a small lake, this palace is filled with gold.
Continue reading Linderhof Palace