For you car lovers, Dingolfing is the place for you. Since 1967 Dingolfing has been the home of the Bavarian Motor Works, better known as BMW to the rest of us. Besides being a boon to the town’s economy, over a quarter of a million cars (the 5, 6, and 7 series, the M5 and M6 respectively) are produced here in their largest plant.

For history lovers, Dingolfing sits on the Isar River and is only a good hour from Munich. The Isar separates the new from the older more historical section of the town.

The town has plenty of historical sites to visit, including Duke Castle from the 15th century which now is a museum.

Dingolfing is home to quite a few medieval and more modern churches — all are worth exploring and all are beautiful in their own way. The Old Parish Johannes Church, dating back to the 15th century, was built having ten side chapels and the church’s crucifix dates back to 1522.

The town itself dates back to the 9th century, but wasn’t given municipal rights in 1251. Dingolfing was fortunate enough to grow during the Middle Ages, having prospered in trade, fishing, and wool production.

Sadly, for as prosperous as the previous centuries were, the 18th century was quite to the contrary. Disease, crop failures, and war all had their hand in the town’s destruction, while countless historical records were ruined by fire.

It was the dawn of the age of the railroads, and the new tracks built from Munich to Prague that saved Dingolfing by bringing new industry to the area. Today, a thriving Dingolfing offers visitors and residents their own spectacular open-air swimming pool and ice rink among many other wonderful places of interest to see.

The town also plays host to the annual folk festival on the third weekend in October.

History, cars, sports, and parties, now that’s living!

Schkeuditz, famous for being the actual site for the Leipzig/Halle Airport [LEJ], sits on the Weiße Elster and right in the middle of Leipzig and Halle.

What can you say about the town of Schkeuditz, except that it’s resilient. Since it’s creation in the year 981, the town has been marred and scarred, yet somehow manages to rise each time just a tad more lovely.

During the turbulent times of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Schkeuditz had been pillaged nine times and burned twelve. It was also a tiny town along the Pilgrim Route, for those Christian travellers on their way to Santiago de Compostella in Spain.

After the Second World War, it was under East German control. It’s now a modern industrial city with little treaures for you to explore around town.

One of Schkeuditz’ more modern sights is the Toy Museum that has over 3000 “tiny” exhibits of toys (including toy trains) from the turn of the 20th century through to the 1960s.

Even more modern is the Astronomy Center, a planetarium built in 1978, that receives 500 visitors per month. It’s funny, it doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s only open on the last Sunday of the month!

Schkeuditz’s Urban Musuem is quite the opposite of modern. It’s a collection of history and artifacts of the area, with some “finds” from the area dating back to prehistoric times. The Urban Museum itself is history, as it’s housed in an old mill and also filled with books and colorful stories of Saxon princes and Prussian history.

Another great place to visit, believe it or not, is the Old Cemetery. It’s a unique meeting place for local artists and where many concerts and local art exhibitions are held.

After that, head over to Kind Kapella for daily activities with the kids (games, art, and sports). Even the local pub, the Golden Deer Pub, has been around since around 1789 and makes for an even better time in Schkeuditz!

What can you say about a town that celebrates the discontinuance of its train service, except welcome to Tettnang!

Having been around since the 9th century, Tettnang’s six districts are conveniently located within Upper Swabia, near Lake Constance as well as the borders of Switzerland and Austria.

It’s famous for its hops and with great hops comes great beer. It seems maybe those hops are partial to the local landscape. I don’t blame them, Tettnang is really quite special…

You’re able to learn more about what makes Tettnang’s hops so special with a tour of the Crown Brewery and the Hops, Fruit, and Hunting Museum on the town’s touring “Hop Loop.” The musuem has a petting zoo, exotic animals, including monkeys and llamas. If you come on a Sunday, you’ll enjoy the tour with coffee and homemade cake.

Another great museum to learn about Tettnang’s history is the Montfort Museum. There isn’t any cake or coffee served at that one, but at least admission is free!

No trip to Tettnang is complete without visits to the town’s castles and churches. At the Gate Castle, the oldest parts of the castle are built right into the town’s fortification walls. Its Holy Cross Chapel was built in a polygon shape and added right onto the main tower.

The Old Castle was built in the 17th century and now houses the town hall. The New Castle isn’t so new, having been built in the 18th century.

If you like to visit old churches, head over to the Parish Church Gall having been built in 1400, this Gothic church was bombed in 1944.

After a day of sightseeing or enjoying one of the town’s festivals, you might want to make the Watchtower your last stop, since not only is one of the town’s original watchtowers, it houses a tavern dating from the 16th century. Then maybe you’ll really appreciate those Tettnang hops! ;-)

With Finsterwalde’s literal translation of Dark Forest, you might expect some dark and foreboding place.

You’ll find it quite the contrary — a cheerfully delightful place with years of history blended with a modern day feel.

Finsterwalde prides itself on a tradition of singing and is quite famous for its Singer von Finsterwalde. With all that singing, it would be hard to imagine that the Dark Forest, isn’t anything but! In fact, the Singers Monument stands for the town’s ideal that singing unites all classes of people.

Finsterwalde is a picture perfect, medieval town, about 2 hours south of Berlin, with some 19,000 residents.

One sight that proves te medievalism is the market square built in the Middle Ages. The Baroque-style Town Hall built in 1739, some 60 years after the original Town Hall built in 1492 was destroyed by fire. That same fire in 1675 also destroyed the town’s archives.

Don’t forget to visit the Trinitatiskirche, a true Reformation style church that dates back to the 1594.

The town itself, by the way, dates back to at least 1282, although some accounts (maybe forged) date it back to at least 1199.

The Schloss Finsterwalde dates back to the 1280’s and was overtaken and partially destroyed by the invading Swedes in the Thirty Years’ War. Those invading Swedes pillaged the town of Finsterwalde in 1643 and 1645, taking decades for the town to recover. In 1958, the Local History Musuem opened at the Schloss and some repair work was needed to it in the 1990s.

For sure there’s plenty else to see in Finsterwalde. Definitely be sure to visit the Fairy Tale House, built in 1928, this building shows scenes from Grimm’s fairy tales built into the brick. There’s also the Watertower, rising some 54 meters (over a hundred feet) above the Dark Forest fairy tale city.

Wildeshausen in Lower Saxony is a town that knows how to party, yet has still maintained a feel of the Middle Ages since there are many medieval buildings scattered throughout.

Once part of Sweden and part of an even older trade route, this town has been inhabited since 3000 B.C.

A few centuries later, the Alexander Church from the 9th century was founded. The grandson of a Duke brought the relic remains of St. Alexander, a 1st century Christian martyr, to the Wildeshausen area. The original building was a monastery used as a mission, and the church itself wasn’t built until the 13th century.

Since it became an important area for pilgrims, the town did very well economically. Most in the area consider the Alexander Church to be the best art in the town. There’s a statue of Waltbert on Westerstrasse dedicated to the man who brought St. Alexander’s relics to the Wildeshausen.

Even Wildeshausen’s marketplace is full of history. When the town fell to Münster in the early 1500s, the Mayor, a Mr. Jakob Lickenberg, was killed here and a stone by the market fountain (Market Brunnen) stands as testimony to his tragic death.

The Church of St. Peter stands as a symbol of religious persecution and freedom. After the time of the Reformation, the Alexander church was no longer being used for Catholic services, only Lutheran ones. And for more than 100 years, the Catholics were not allowed to build another church.

It wasn’t until 1810 that Catholics were allowed the religious freedom to practice their religion and build another church. St. Peter’s Church was completed in 1824 and the tower added in 1910.

After all the sights in the old section of town, head over to the Kurpark, the open air park with a wading pool. The summer concerts at the concert-shell start at 11am Sunday mornings, so you better get there early. It’s also where they kick off the Gildefest, a weeklong festival starting on Pentecost Sunday since 1403.

Besides all the inner citz stuff, Wildeshausen has many hiking and biking trails available for you along the Kleinenkneter Steine. Visit the tourist center in the old Rathaus (town hall) for all the different tours of the area. This is the only one of its kind preserved in all of Europe.

Schwalmstadt in the Schwalm-Eder-Kreis of Hesse, between Kassel and Marburg, lies in the Knüllgebirge, a low mountain range.

The city of Schwalmstadt only exists since 1970 when the areas of Treysa, Ziegenhain, Ascherode, Rommershausen, Florshain, Franenhain, Allendorf an der Landsburg, Ditteshausen, Michelsberg, Niedergrenz, Roeshain, Trutzhain, Loshausen, and Wiera were united.

Don’t let the fact that Schwalmstadt is actually only 40 years old fool you. The area of Treysa dates back to the 8th century and was given town rights sometime in the 13th century. The Martinkirche is now known as the Totenkirche (Church of the Dead) and dates back to 1230. When the last Count of the area died in 1450, Treysa was passed to Hesse.

There is plenty of history here, with the village’s half-timbered houses, town parish church, the town hall and Johannisbrunnen (a fountain). There’s even the Hexenturm, also known as the Witches’ Tower, that’s well worth to take snapshots from.

Ziegenhain was granted town rights in 1274 and the the castle located here was turned into a stately home in 1470. In 1537, the home was then fortified, including its very own moat.

Rommerhausen also dates back to the 13th century, though it’s name today ONLY dates back to 1419. You can learn about the area at the Local History Museum located in Ziegenhain. Rommershausen is famous for the iron meteorite that fell in the town on April 3, 1916.

Although most of these villages date back to the dark days of the Middle Ages, Trutzhain has its fair share of darker days during the years of the Second World War. It was home to Stalag IX-A, the prisoner of war camp. One famous prisoner of war was Francois Mitterand, who later became the French President. The Gedenkstätte und Museum (Memorial and Museum) is located here in Trutzhain.

One great thing about all the Schalmstadt, besides all the history, is the plethora of festivals and markets within all these communities. You’ll enjoy street festivals, sports festivals for the kids, the Johannisfeuer (or, the John’s Fire Festival — a mid summer festival), and the Fun and Christmas Markets.

Probably the most fun, since besides cars Germany’s famous for its beer, would be the Bockbieranstich, or the Bock beer tapping festival in Treysa. If that’s not reason enough to visit Schwalmstadt!

Let me provide you with a little background of Bremervörde right away since it’s so interesting…

Sometime in the early 12th century, Lothar of Supplingenburg (who later went on to become king of the Holy Roman Empire) built the Castrum Vorde, the area just known simply as Vorde. Lothar certainly knew what he was doing when he strategically positioned the castle between the Elbe and Weser Rivers.

Eventually, Henry the Lion came to possess the castle in the 13th century and then later the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, forever changing the town’s name of Vorde, to Bremervörde.

Since the area dates back to the Middle Ages, there’s plenty of history in the area for you to see.The Parish Church Liborius dates from 1651, after it was redone after war had destroyed it. The Holy Cross Church in Brevern dates back to the 1880’s in a Late Gothic style.

The Brook Man Museum and the Stuhmer Museum are a wonder on the local history of the area, not too shabby for only 1 Euro!

The Brickyard Pape, gives an inside look into the lives of the worker’s accommodations and daily life, while the Stone Time Village, gives a glimpse of life in a hut village. The House At The Lake is a romanticized Lower Saxon Farmhouse, with Vörder Lake nearby. The farmhouse has a restaurant and cafe!

Oh, Bremervörde isn’t all history! It’s quite a bicycle and walking-friendly city with plenty of trails for those who are beginners to the quite advanced. It’ll be nice to experience the great outdoors at Bremervörde’s Nature Park and the Delphino Baths Spa. For only about 5 Euro (family plans are available), you can enjoy both the indoor and outdoor pool (with the huge slide) at Delphino’s.

Once you come to Bremervörde, you’ll just know you’ve found a terrific spot!

Mayen and its five village boroughs, in the Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate state, sits on an ancient volcanic area, known as the Vulkaneifel — a pre-region of the inscrutable Eifel.

Some 13,000 years ago this area was shaped by volcanic activity but the town itself isn’t quite that old, having only been recognized officially as Mayen in 1041.

The Romans weren’t the only ones to understand the economic significance of the town and the area flourished from the 3rd century up until the time of the Middle Ages with the establishment of local potteries and quarries.

And as the town thrived through the centuries, the townspeople built the obligatory castle and church. The Genovevaburg, the 13th century castle, now houses the Mining Museum and Eifel Museum giving insight into the life of a mining town. You’ll be handsomely rewarded with a great view of the town from the top of the castle’s tower.

The original St. Clemens Parish Church had to be rebuilt in 1945 with legend telling that the devil himself twisted the church’s spire, but no matter if there’s truth to the legend or not, the twirl just adds just enough of a whimsical touch.

In a mix of ancient meets modern, Mayen and its Grubenfeld is part of the German Volcanoes Route. For not a lot of Euro the whole family can take one of the guided hiking tours for a real educational experience of living with volcanoes and the history of the area.