The most beautiful cities in Germany

Germany’s most beautiful cities and towns stand among the best places to visit in the European Union. They span almost the full range of European variety. Raven Travel Guides Germany include:

• Cities with Roman origins and remains such as Trier, Cologne, Regensburg and Mainz.
• Medieval cities such as Nuremberg, Erfurt, Bamberg and Worms and the half-timbered Harz region towns of Goslar, Quedlinburg and Wernigerode.
• Renaissance showpiece cities such as Lübeck, Augsburg or Bremen.
• Cities with Baroque survivals, including Dresden, Heidelberg or Passau.
• Plenty of German cities have beautiful palaces on their streets or nearby, like Potsdam, Munich, Stuttgart, Würzburg and Weimar.
• The great cathedrals such as Cologne, Regensburg, Bamberg, Mainz, Erfurt, Worms, with countless other churches, sometimes in Romanesque but more commonly in the Gothic style. The münster of Ulm has the tallest spire of them all.
• Museums of culture and art among world’s best, including Deutsches Museum, Deutsches Nationalmuseum, Alte Pinakothek and the Pergamonmuseum.

All these places can be reached by train and bus (Quedlinburg is on a branch line). All offer a range of hotels, hostels, guest houses and other types of accommodation. All are very walkable and, like most German towns and cities, are really best seen on foot. But trams and buses help get people to and from hotels or attractions and for the bigger centres, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, there are fast regular options in the form of S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and light-rail transport.

Koblenz

The junction of the Rhine and Moselle rivers has to be a place of importance. Empires and kingdoms desired it as a strategic point and as a symbol. The spot was occupied by the Romans and fought over by the Germans and the French. The result is a landscape marked by fortifications, palaces, a long stone bridge and churches from all periods.

The spit at the river junction known as Deutsches Eck is the site of the triumphal Prussian monument Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal, an equestrian monument 14 metres high. Dominating the site from across the Rhine is Festung Ehrenbreitstein, one of Europe's mightiest fortifications and housing a regional museum. By the 19th century, a ring of fortifications surrounded the city, many remains of which survive.

Koblenz is an excellent base for exploring the middle Rhine UNESCO world- heritage area with its castles.