Performers at Insomnia, one of Berlin's most famous nightclubs. Photo by Cindy Lou Dale.

What I love about Berlin is its unique and irrepressible ambience which exudes from each building and every citizen; one of acceptance and freedom, tolerance even; embracing all things decadent.

There is an air of unpretentiousness amongst Berliners who are open-minded and non-judgmental. As such the city is a magnet for non-conformists and creative minds drawn by the bizarre nightlife. 

Europeans have a healthy outlook on one of life’s remaining pleasures - Berliners especially so; and flirting with a little irregularity myself I succumbed to the promise of bearing witness to the city’s uninhibited erotica scene. Read More

Lederhosen, Wheat Beer, and an Old World Attitude: Augsburg, Germany

In the Southern part of Germany lies Bavaria, where most things associated with Germany originated. Munich, the largest city in Bavaria, holds one of the most renowned festivals in the world - Oktoberfest.

Lederhosen, wheat beer (or weiss beer), and the pragmatic conservative nature of Germans are prevalent here in Bavaria. Early in December I visited the third largest city in Bavaria - Augsburg.

The Romans invested enough money and time into the area next to the River Lech to make Augsburg the most powerful military camp in the new empire under Augustus.  The seed of Italian influence was planted during this time and gave Augsburg the tools to bear some of its global contributions.  Read more

Muenster Germany: Watch out for Militant Cyclists!

Underneath the cobblestone streets of the Old Town, a medieval Muenster has been put to rest. Fortunately the citizens and town officials have refused to let its revered history remain in the past.

Biergarten in Bavaria. photo by Ginger Warder

During World War II, bombing leveled over ninety percent of Muenster's old town, but the town has rebuilt and takes pride in its past. A native of the city put it to me this way: "You can't toss out the ash in order to carry on the fire."

Located in northwest Germany, Muenster is a city in the North Rhine-Westphalia state. You can get to Muenster by bus, train or airplane. A flight from Frankfurt will take under an hour, and will drop you off at the Muenster-Osnabrucke (FMO) airport. This airport services both Muenster and Osnabruck. Read More

Visiting Upper Bavaria: Hospitality With a Heart

On my first trip to Germany more than 10 years ago, I fell in love with Bavaria: the romantic castles and onion-domed churches, the fabulous food and frothy beers, and the cable cars that take you into the clouds and the snowy Alps above them.

My best friend and I rented a car in Munich and hit the autobahn for a driving tour that proved to be an incredible adventure. At our first gas stop, we purchased a popular souvenir, a stuffed cow in Alpine garb that yodeled when you pressed his tummy. Read more


Traversing the Spreewald: Even mailmen and deliverymen come by boat in this part of Germany

This gondolier didn't croon arias, he mumbled in Sorbish, the local language. His Germanic gondola…the punt…held twenty-four passengers. Plaid cushions covered wooden benches, and small bouquets decorated the narrow tables between the seats

The sound effects were an unintelligible murmur of Sorbish, German and Polish. This is the Spreewald, home to a Slavic-Germanic minority with their own linguistic and cultural identity. The region is an eclectic mixture of canals, forests and wetlands, one hour south of Berlin near the town of Luebbenau.  Read more

Bike path in Dusseldorf.

Düsseldorf's Old-Style Beer Culture: A Copper Gleam by the Rhine

It is a Thursday night in the old-city section of Düsseldorf, Germany. Inside the busy Zum Schlüssel brewery, arriving guests pour themselves into nooks, their jackets dappled with raindrops.

One group of two dozen, unaware of their odds in this clubby, noisy place, funnels into an alcove to wait. At least they're inside one of this city's premier breweries, they must be thinking, out of the rain and just minutes from platters of leberwurst or Schweinshaxe, mounds of whole wheat rolls and glasses of the hoppy, copper-colored beer being pulled from a wooden keg. Read more


Behind the Wall: A Guide to Berlin’s Cold-War Era Landmarks

The former East Berlin has become a thriving city center filled with Cold War era historical sites.

Once again the capital of a unified Germany, the new Berlin is still very much a work in progress. The Pearl on the River Spree still bears scars from the devastation of the Second World War, and from nearly 40 years of division brought about by the Cold War and the construction of the Berlin Wall. These scars still mar both the physical and mental landscapes of the city.

With the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (a.k.a. East Germany, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or DDR) and reunification with the West, the two halves of Berlin were once again whole and the city began a long and difficult healing process, which still continues.

Today, Berlin struggles to embrace it’s turbulent past while preparing itself for a promising and exciting future as one of the central cities of the European Union. Read more

A Little Bit of Germany In Venezuela

If Germany were in the tropics and had a pleasant climate year-round, it would be exactly like the Colonia Tovar.

If not for the occasional palm tree and the people who speak Spanish as they walk down the street, you might forget you're in Venezuela. Off-white buildings framed out by dark wood and covered with red tile roofs line the streets.

A church of similar architecture with a big, round stained-glass window that glistens in the sun overlooks the town's main plaza. And every afternoon a gentle fog creeps up the mountainside, blurring the lush, green mountains and farms that lie beyond the city limits. Read more

In Search of Comfort Food in Germany and Austria

On a driving trip from Munich to Salzburg, my friend and I soon tired of eating baguette sandwiches in the car, and longed for a good, hot meal reminiscent of American diner food in both taste and price.

As the golden arches are to America’s favorite fast food chain, so is the giant yellow chicken to Germany and Austria’s favorite breakfast and late-night nosh place, Wienerwald. Although the name might suggest a hot dog emporium, it really means Vienna Forest. I’m not sure what that has to do with the chain’s specialty, chicken. In fact, for a long time, we thought Wienerwald meant “world of chicken”!

Wienerwald, Germany’s oldest multiunit restaurant company, is actually more like a Bavarian Denny’s than a McDonalds.Read more