Autostadt at the VW automobile factory in Wolfsburg is a visitor experience attraction celebrating the car brands and history of the Volkswagen Group. Ultramodern architecture is used for the glass-and-steel buildings that house brand pavilions in a large park landscape. It is all glitzy PR but a fun trip with the ZeitHaus alone offering one … Read more
AutoMuseum Volkswagen is the official museum of the Volkswagen brand in Wolfsburg. It is a great visit, quite different from the nearby glitzy VW Autostadt. At the Volkswagen Museum, the historic cars rather than the branding and PR are the stars. The Volkswagen Museum is separate from Autostadt (and its ZeitHaus car museum) but in … Read more
Bargain shoppers save on brand-name fashion labels at the factory stores in the Designer Outlet Soltau village mall between Hamburg and Hannover in Germany. The outlet is directly off the autobahn A7 (exit Soltau Ost) making it an easy stopover to pick up bargains on designer clothes when traveling in northern Germany. The factory stores … Read more
Designer Outlets Wolfsburg offers big saving on fashion labels in a large factory shopping village mall in the center of the city near Volkswagen Autostadt. Nearly a hundred top German, European, and a few more international brands have factory outlet boutiques at the Wolfsburg designer fashion mall with savings up to 70% over high street … Read more
The free Museum in der Kulturbrauerei in Berlin explains everyday life in East Germany (Alltag in der DDR) and the influences of Communist party planning. The museum shows how the Socialist United Party was involved in every aspect of life in East Germany. It also illustrates how this collective approach came into conflict with individual … Read more
The Topographie des Terrors is a free documentation center, memorial and museum in Berlin on the regime of official state terror during the Nazi period. The permanent exhibitions focus on the period 1933 to 1945 when the headquarters of the Gestapo and SS were located here. The longest surviving piece of the Berlin Wall is … Read more
The Tränenpalast at the Friedrichstraße S-Bahn train station was the main departure point for travelers from the former East Germany to West Berlin. During the Cold War, travelers crossed the border here rather than at the far more famous Checkpoint Charlie. A free museum in the Tränenpalast – literally Palace of Tears – explains the … Read more
Flying between London and Köln-Bonn CGN Airport is the fastest and often cheapest way to travel to Cologne — Cheap flights also arrive from Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Low-cost airlines Easyjet and Germanwings are the only carriers flying between airports in London or the UK and Flughafen Köln-Bonn (CGN) in Germany. Germanwings also flies to … Read more
The marble throne and shrine of Charlemagne in the Aachener Dom can only be seen when on a guided tour of the historic Aachen Cathedral. The marble throne of Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse / Charles the Great), where 30 German kings were crowned, can be seen only on a guided tour of the Aachener Dom … Read more
Getting to Aachen is easy by car, train, bus and plane from other parts of Germany, the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Paris. Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) is in the far western parts of Germany close to the borders with The Netherland and Belgium. It is also the closest significant German city to Britain. Aachen is on … Read more