Places to visit in Germany

I asked in a German forum what places in Germany I should show a foreigner so that she/he would get a good impression of Germany - here are the answers:

• Remains of the Berlin wall and the Brandenburger Tor. That is German history!
• The Hamburg Habor - one of the largest in the world and very interesting to visit. You can go for a boat trip and visit older and newer parts. Besides you can eat great fish, visit the Reeperbahn (red-light district) and at Sundy morning very early you can visit the fish market.
• Burg Frankenstein
• Large cities like Frankfurt am Main - with a great skyline, lots of banks and a large airport (the largest in Germany).
• The diversity of Germany - large cities with skyscrapers like Frankfurt am Main, the Oktoberfest in Munich, the Black Forest - Schwarzwald between Karlsruhe and Freiburg - …
• The Lüneburger Heide - moorland - near Hannover (south) or Hamburg (north)
• Islands like Sylt (North Sea), Rügen (Baltic Sea) or Helgoland (North Sea)
• Cities at the Rhine like Köln - Cologne
• Cultural and historical highlights in Dresden and Berlin
• Ruhrpott - large industrial area former coal minig area around Dortmund, Essen, Bochum
• The Düsseldorfer Altstadt - Old Town
• The Münchner Biergärten - beer gardens in Munic or the Oktoberfest
• Wattenmeer - the wadden sea (North Sea)
• The Alpes - Zugspitze or Watzmann
• Europapark in Rust - a fun park
• A boat trip on the Rhein - Rhine - e.g. from St.Goar (Loreley) to Koblenz (Deutsches Eck) along lots of old castles and timbered towns like Boppard
• Classics like Heidelberg, Rüdesheim am Rhein or Rothenburg ob der Tauber
• The Elbsandsteingebirge (Sächsische Schweiz) near Dresden
• The Eifel - near Köln - Cologne - or Aachen
• The Harz - near Hannover, Braunschweig, Göttingen, Goslar
• The Externsteine, the Hermannsdenkmal, the Westfalian open-air museum - near Paderborn, Detmold
• Freiberg in Sachsen - Saxonia - with mining museum and chathedral with Silbermannorgel
• Fair-Town Leipzig
• The Thüringer Wald with great nature and cultur Weimar, Erfurt
• The Spreewald near Berlin
• The Brocken - highest mountain of the Harz, Quedlinburg and Wernigerode
• Berlin and Potsdam with its castles and parks
• The Müritz and the lakes
• Stralsund and Usedom (Baltic Sea) as well as Rügen and Hiddensee (Baltic Sea)
• Bodensee - the largest German lake - and Schwarzwald - Black Forest
• A reasonable pub in the Ruhrgebiet e.g. in Gelsenkirchen
• Perhaps a soccer game in Dortmund or "auf Schalke" (Gelsenkirchen) or in Munich - read my Germany and Soccer page
• old University towns like Heidelberg, Tübingen or Marburg
• great castles like Neuschwanstein near Munich, Burg Elz near Koblenz, the castles im Münsterland like Nordhausen, Raesfeld, Lembeck
• surely my wonderful :-) hometown Paderborn

Books about Germany

Die Fränkische Schweiz - Travelguide 2025 - HIGHLIGHTS: Freizeitführer für wilde Abenteuer - 13 fantastische Ausflugsziele, die Sie nicht verpassen sollten (Affiliate-Link),
Büttner, Thomas , , Kindle Ausgabe, ,

City Guide Germany: 175 City Tours (ADAC Reiseführer) (Affiliate-Link),
k.A., ADAC Medien und Reise GmbH, Taschenbuch, 3899052331,

Germany (Lonely Planet Country Guides) (Affiliate-Link),
Fallon, Stephen, Lonely Planet Publications, Taschenbuch, 0864427883,

Eat Like a Local- Berlin: Berlin Germany Food Guide (Eat Like a Local Travel International Guidebooks: Discover the Best Local Food, Restaurants, and Hidden Culinary Gems, Band 16) (Affiliate-Link),
Postma, Paige, Independently published, Taschenbuch, ,

Is it time to think again?: A travel-guide for life's greatest quest (Affiliate-Link),
Evans, Graeme, Graeme Evans, Taschenbuch, 0473465272,

Travel-Guide (Affiliate-Link),
Piet Andersen, Piet Andersen, MP3-Download, ,

Here I am in ... Mainz: Wolf Larsen in Germany (Wolf Larsen. The world in your pocket.) (Affiliate-Link),
Beate, Heusel-Hollemeyer, Wolf Larsen UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Geklammert, 394903420X,

Travelguide (Affiliate-Link),
Cleveland, WHITE MUSIC, MP3-Download, ,