With almost 40 million foreign overnight guests every year, Germany is one of the seven most visited countries in the world. There are 6,135 museums, 366 theatres, 34 leisure and adventure parks, 45,000 tennis courts, 648 golf courses, 190,000 km of hiking trails, 40,000 kilometres of long-distance cycle paths as well as holiday and theme routes available for use in tourism.
Business and congress tourism is of outstanding importance; Germany is the most important international trade fair location with several world-leading trade fairs: Caravan Salon Düsseldorf, CMT Stuttgart, etc. The Internationale Tourism-Börse Berlin is the world's leading tourism trade fair. Germany also has the highest density of festivals like Wacken, Rock am Ring,
Outstanding sights: Sanssouci Castle - Brandenburg Gate - Cologne Cathedral - Saxon Switzerland National Park - Wadden Sea - Hamburg Harbor - Brocken - Old Town of Hameln - Externsteine - Wartburg - Neuschwanstein Castle - Zugspitze near Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Rothenburg ob der Tauber - Königsee in Berchtesgadener Land - Old town of Bamberg - Imperial castle in Nuremberg - Mainau Island in Lake Constance - Lichtenstein Castle - Meersburg - Ulm Minster - etc.
We were traveling in the Taunus and that's how we came to Bad Soden, where you can still find springs in many places, including many warm and salt springs, so that Soden has now become Bad Soden.
After the carnivalists had slowly "withdrawn" from the Bad Camberg market square, peace and quiet was possible again to enjoy the excellently restored half-timbered buildings in the old town.
Since the 19th century, the official opening of the carnival session has taken place in many areas in addition to or separately from the start of the "normal" carnival season on Epiphany, January 6th, on November 11th, the "eleventh within the eleventh". took place, which of course we didn't have on our radar during our visit to Bad Camberg.
Rodgau is part of the Rhein-Main metropolitan area, one of the economically strongest areas in Germany, so it is not surprising that we were invited to a working lunch in the region.
For some time now, we have had business contacts in Wiesbaden, which, due to the really well-working Internet connections, could be managed by email so far.
There are numerous reasons to plan a visit to Naumburg, because not only is there an impressive old town with numerous historical buildings such as the Naumburg Cathedral, the Nietzsche House, the Marientor as rare Barbakane and the town church of St. Wenceslas, we can also see the vineyards and tasting the exquisite wines made from it.
We were out and about in Naumburg again, first strolling through the historic old town and then along the Marienmauer to the Marientor, the only remaining city gate of Naumburg's city fortifications, which used to have five gates.
The romantically decorated old town of Naumburg, a small but nice Christmas market and the unique Naumburg nativity scene with its larger-than-life wooden figures (we have already written an article about this) are now hoping for numerous visitors again, because the cathedral city is particularly attractive during Advent.
Who still knows them, the barrel organs, also known as barrel organs, which used to be pushed through many a city and then played in a busy location, much to the delight of many passers-by.
When we were looking for a workshop for motorcycles, we first came into contact with Tim, who referred us to his father Steffen, who has far more than just a knack for extraordinary motorcycles, especially for KTM, Ducati and others, what else still driving around.
Billroda was first mentioned in a document on May 30, 1148 - at least there is the first mention of a place as "Bilrieht", which would correspond in the description to both the time and the area of Billroda.
In addition to hiking and cycling trails, the Harz also offers a large number of stalactite caves that are worth visiting when the weather is not exactly inviting for hiking or cycling.
Of course, we had long since heard about the huge suspension bridge at the Rappbodetalsperre, and we were already familiar with the double rope slide almost parallel to the dam wall.
It was once again an intuitive stopover following a sign that brought us to the former Benedictine abbey, Kloster Drübeck, in the district of Drübeck near Ilsenburg on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains in Saxony-Anhalt.
Three centuries of mining have had a lasting impact on the region between Braunsbedra, Müchel, Oechlitz and Merseburg. Coal mining created work for many generations until 1993 when the last coal train left the mine.
In a local Sunday news-paper we had read about local events in connection with the upcoming Christmas markets, including the larger-than-life nativity figures carved from solid wood in Naumburg.
The symbol of the city of Naumburg and clearly visible from all sides is the late Romanesque-early Gothic cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in the episcopal suburb.
On our hikes along the Saale, we often noticed the paddlers, canoeists and boat tourists on the Saale, who particularly frequented the route from Saaleck Castle and the Rudelsburg near Bad Kösen to Freyburg, a type of leisure activity that we had wanted to do for a long time.
The small town of Memleben on the Unstrut gained great importance during the Ottonian period in the 10th and 11th centuries during the development of the East Franconian Empire into the German Empire.
Sometimes it's the noises, disturbing but then so interesting and impressive that you inevitably look up in the direction of the "noise". This is what happened to us at the end of our bike tour from Memleben along the Unstrut back to Wiehe, where a small but fine ice cream café lured us.