Germany's Medieval Heartland

Proud cathedrals and small country churches, defiant castles and peaceful monasteries – they all bear witness to the deep-rooted fear of God, yet also to the most mysterious eras in history: the medieval …

Passion Play 2010: Tickets for Sale

A play of life and death, promised in a moment of mortal threat - so began the history of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1633. In the middle of the Thirty Years War, after months of suffering and death …

High Speed Mobility with ICE Trains

Germany certainly has not become smaller but distances between cities are shrinking fast – at least if you take the train. Due to extensive investments in railroads and tracks, new ICEs connect German Cities with a travel speed of up to 160 mph. With the German Rail Pass, the ICE offers high speed mobility at a very competitive price …

Historic Lodging

Muenster. Tipped off by a European Union investment scheme, 14 castles, monasteries and manor houses in North Rhine Westphalia have started to run Bed & Breakfast services – providing both, remarkable historical authenticity and a high grade accommodation.
Hotel-turned-castles include, amongst others, Schloss Diersfordt (built 1432), 14th century country house Hertefeld or Schloss Ossenberg with its unique Rococo style architecture. Vacancies can be checked by online booking requests…

Dresden. – Nowadays only can be speculated how August the Strong would have commented on the fact that Dresden is about to loose its status as a world's heritage site just because of poor city planning. However, there is no denying the fact that Dresden owes this honor given by the UNESCO first and foremost to the legendary Saxon elector: The city would have definitely looked different without him and his architectural heritage.

Dresden is not only the political and cultural center of the Free State of Saxony but simultaneously the city of the baroque era and a metropolis surrounded by nature. The composition of baroque and modern architecture, nature and cultural treasures, cosmopolitanism and provincialism add to the fact that Dresden belongs to the most superb cities in Europe. Accordingly, the city on the Elbe River is worldwide known as a tourism destination and counts annually approximately seven million tourists. Nevertheless, Dresden consists not only of the Church of Our Lady and Semperoper, Zwinger and Neustadt, restoration or trendy districts.

The metropolis situated on the Elbe River is as well the location of one of the state-of-the-art Chip factories of the world and established itself long ago as a major city of research and industry. Hardly any other city facilitates a half-hour walk from the Sistine Madonna to a vitreous automobile plant. Dresden has always distinguished itself with innovations: In 1936, the prototype of the initial single-lens reflex camera was produced. The Dresdner housewife Melitta Benz invented the coffee filter. Moreover, in 1892 the first bear coaster was launched and only 3 years later followed the application for a patent for the bra. Nonetheless, Dresden is currently endangering its world heritage status with the current bridge construction in the Elbe Valley.