Exploring Germany

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• Getting there and getting around

• When to go and what to pack

• Quick tips on where to sleep in every price range

• Savvy restaurant picks for all budgets



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GERMANY IS


Food

Sausage, sauerkraut, beer, coffee and enormous cakes come to mind as typical German fare. And, yes...sausages come in hundreds of varieties, while cabbage is consumed quite frequently, along with large quantities of potatoes. These stereotypical images are, as you might expect, only a small part of the picture. The reality is much more varied and adventurous.



There are some staple menu items: Kaffee und Kuchen -- coffee and cake -- is a favorite afternoon snack, with rich cakes, usually topped with mounds of whipped cream. Beer is found in a variety of forms, from Pilsner to Berlin's Weisse, a beer with a sweet syrup added to it. Local wine is  a welcome addition to a hearty German meal.



Quality and variety

Visitors are often surprised at how well prepared German food is -- and at its variety. A visit to the food halls in Berlin's giant KaDeWe department store or the elegant Alois Dallmayr store in Munich will bear this out.



German cooking is reputedly heavy, but the country's restaurant scene has recently been invaded by neue deutsche Küche -- nouvelle cuisine German style -- featuring creative and tasty dishes using traditional German ingredients.



Eating through the day

For most Germans, breakfast may include a boiled egg, granola and yogurt, but more probably bread with cheese, jam and/or cold meats. Lunch, the main meal of the day, could include a juicy Schnitzel (cutlet) -- usually pork -- roasted potatoes and a salad. Dinner is often a cold and lighter meal of bread, a larger variety of meats and cheeses than at breakfast, and, in colder weather, perhaps a soup or small stew. A popular stew is a combination of lentils and sausage. German desserts are almost always fruit- or cream-based dishes.

The amount of bread consumed by most Germans will astound visitors, and the variety and amount of textured, heavy, dark brown breads in the bakery is amazing. Try them all and decide which you like most.



Music

The homeland of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner and Stockhausen, among many other of the world's musical geniuses, Germany has a reputation for nurturing musicians and composers -- a tradition centuries old that survives today. Visitors will find a wealth of musical events, from the historic and classical to modern, up-to-the-minute rock.



Among the joys of a trip to Germany are evenings at the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatsoper of east Berlin, the Hamburg Opera and Munich's National Theater (home of the Bavarian State Opera), which offer some of the best orchestral sounds and operatic productions to be heard and seen anywhere in the world.



The music scene today

The numerous choirs founded earlier in Germany are still the springboard for much of the country's musical talent. Thanks to the nation's generous tax system, which includes a levy for churches, choirs are found in many small communities. At city, state, and national levels, huge subsidies for the performing arts and symphony orchestras help keep standards extremely high, and the cost of tickets for performances exceptionally low.



Visitors are always advised to plan ahead and reserve seats well in advance. However, as in most major cities, the concierge in the bigger hotels invariably has his own excellent contacts and will generally be able to meet your last-minute wishes -- encouraged, of course, by a generous tip.



During the 1950s, jazz -- totally suppressed by the Third Reich -- was effectively a copy of the American scene. By the 1960s foreign jazz musicians had lost their appeal to German youth, and the embryonic rock groups flourishing in Britain, most notably the Beatles, were invited to play in new clubs in Hamburg, Hannover, and West Berlin. Their popularity quickly spawned imitators such as the Rattles, who enjoyed great domestic success.



Particularly popular was the heavier, more introspective end of the rock spectrum, and artists such as Amon Duul and Tangerine Dream soon released albums -- rarely singles -- with huge sales, the latter conquering the international market. This  "progressive" music gave rise to the technically sophisticated and influential Kraftwerk, a band with a more definable German identity.



Health and Fitness

Good health is seen as an attainable goal, and Germans tend to take a positive, active approach to staying healthy.



The spa

The best place to study this pursuit of good health is at the Kurort, or spa town. Spas are dotted all over Germany, from seaside towns to the Bavarian Alps. Usually, they have a giant bathhouse where anyone can take the healing waters.



In most other countries in Europe, spa towns have become relics of the 19th century, but German spas are kept alive by the nation's long-standing tradition of allowing its citizens six-week vacations, in addition to normal sick days, etc.; employees are expected to use some of this time to rest and recuperate. A generous medical insurance scheme allows doctors to prescribe mostly free spa treatments for a variety of ailments, so people are often able to extend their stays with sick leave. Besides the baths, today's modern spa resorts offer such amenities as golf, tennis, horse racing, casinos, boating, and skiing -- something for every taste.



A typical spa treatment might include a mud bath or hydrotherapy, saunas and steam treatments, all followed by a wrap in warm blankets and a compulsory rest. A word of warning: baths in Germany are often not segregated by sex, so visitors who are uncomfortable with nudity should inquire beforehand to find out whether or not the facilities are suitable for them.



A trip to some of the large bathing and swimming centers in spa resorts can be a treat for all family members. Amenities often include wave pools, pools with currents, lap pools, and whirlpools. These giant complexes provide enormous fun whatever the weather, as they often have adjoining outdoor bathing areas.