Scenic routes in Germany

Romantic Road

For more than 50 years, the hallmark of the Romantic Road has been its combination of nature, culture and hospitality. Germany's most famous and popular tourist route runs for 350 km across a rich and varied landscape along the river Main and through the Franconian wine country to the Alps. This route leads through the charming Tauber Valley, the Nordlinger Ries situated in the heart of a giant crater, the Lechfeld plain, Pfaffenwinkel (Parsons' Corner) - a land of farmers, artists and monks in the foothills of the Upper Bavarian Alps - before finally ending up at King Ludwig's fairytale castles.

Castle Road

The Castle Road celebrated its 50th anniversary in March 2004. Fully signposted and running for around 1,000 km from Mannheim to Prague, it offers, historical sites and scenery peppered with romantic castles and fairytale palaces. The glorious past, still very much in evidence today, has left its imprint on many towns and villages along the route. As the river Neckar meanders through the Odenwald region, the Neckar valley reveals itself in all its grandeur. The Hohenlohe plain seems almost endless, but then come the rolling Franconian Heights, then the northern part of Franconian Switzerland.

Fairytale Route

Traveling to fairyland on the German Fairytale Route takes you on a magical journey from Bremen to Hanau, linking more than 70 towns and villages associated with the Brothers Grimm and the realm of fairytales, myths and legends. Footpaths and cycle trails whisk you away to a world where childhood dreams spring into life... to the land of daring princes, the seven dwarfs and their seven mountains, enchanting fairies, the Pied Piper and Little Red Riding Hood. Between Heiligenstadt and Gottingen you can walk the Frau Holle trail - Frau Holle could still be shaking out her featherbeds to "make it snow" and you will feel like Hans in Luck.

German Alpine Road

Driving along the German Alpine Road is a movie-style experience. This is one of Germany's longest-established tourist routes - 2002 marked its 75th anniversary. Full of twists and turns, the road covers around 450 km between Lindau on Lake Constance and Berchtesgaden on Lake Konigssee close to the border with Austria. This stunning route offers great variety - lush Alpine meadows, gentle hills, craggy mountain peaks, green forests, valleys and sparkling lakes follow one another in a steady march. Traditional farming villages alternate with historical towns against the majestic panorama of the Bavarian Alps. There are no fewer than 25 ancient castles, abbeys and palaces to visit.

German Clock Route

The German Clock Route is a circular tour of discovery. It runs for around 320 km through the most attractive and scenic parts of the Black Forest and Baar holiday regions, starting and ending at Villingen-Schwenningen. Rottweil, Waldkirch and Titisee are just a few of the places featured along the way. The route is the perfect introduction to the Black Forest clockmaking tradition and it has museums and places of interest along its length. Clock factories, clockmaking workshops and clockface painting studios all offer an informative insight into their daily work.

German Wine Route

The German Wine Route runs through the country's second-largest wine-growing region and offers 85 km of enjoyment. Whether Schweigen-Rechtenbach in the south is the start or the finish of the route is immaterial: many visitors enjoy it so much that, on reaching the German wine route gateway there, they simply do an about-turn and do the tour again in reverse, back up to Bockenheim. In winter, when prolonged spells of bad weather elsewhere in Germany are still depressing people's spirits, the countryside along the Wine Route is transformed as thousands of almond trees come into blossom.

Black Forest Spa

The Black Forest Spa Route is a 270 km circular route that takes you from Pforzheim to Bad Rippoldsau and back again. On the way you pass through the idyllic hills and valleys of the northern Black Forest at the confluence of the Nagold and Enz rivers, between the "gold town" of Pforzheim and Mount Kniebis near Freudenstadt, a plateau almost 1,000m high. No other region has as many hydrotherapy, climatic, thermal and mineral health resorts as the northern Black Forest, one of Germany's largest nature reserves. But leisure and recreation should be fun as well as about improving your fitness and energy levels, and there is something for everyone in the large choice of leisure activities - from walking, cycling, golf, climbing, paragliding and fishing to a wide range of winter sports.

Glass Route

The Bavarian and Upper Palatinate Forest is the home of the Glass Route. Glassworks here were creating works of art as long as 500 years ago, and they are still an important part of the local economy today. Glass from eastern Bavaria is highly sought after. Both utility glass by famous manufacturers and art glass pieces made in small workshops are in demand all over the world. The Glass Route runs for approximately 250 km - 300 km including subsidiary routes - from Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Europe's lead crystal capital, to the Passau Glass Museum where over 15,000 examples of glassware from a range of different eras are on display. There are also many treasures to discover here: rare and exquisite glass objects - some centuries old, some finished just a few minutes ago - in museums, galleries and glassworks. Quartz, lime, soda and potash are words that visitors will often hear in Bavaria, where glassblowing is a long and firmly established tradition.

(China Daily 05/19/2010 page20)