Since I was a child, I dreamt of visiting Schloss Neuschwanstein (even though I could never pronounce the name ). I finally made the trip last year and wasn’t disappointed (shame about the weather though). A true fairytale castle!

I’m sure Schloss Linderhof would be beautiful in spring and summer but it’s definitely not worth visiting in winter. When we went last November, all the fountains were dry, all the statues bordered up, and the trees and flower beds bare. To top it off, we arrived late in the day and the castle was already closed to visitors.

The only good thing was the surrounding scenery which was extremely beautiful. Lakes, mountains, and fresh air…

I’d love to go back in the summer months when I’m sure the fountains and gardens are stunning.

I read that Bamburg is one of Germany’s most beautiful cities and while it’s definitely pretty in the winter (when I visited) I’m sure it’s nicer to visit in spring or summer. It is a nice little city to walk around and our 2 nights here were more than enough to see everything. Although it’s great to just wander around, there are also many museums and art galleries if you are into that kind of thing.

What I remember most about Bamburg is that the hotel we stayed in would turn the heating off at 1am meaning by 3am I was freezing and had to have a hot bath to try to warm up. Why would you turn the heating off in the middle of the night in the middle of winter? So that was a strange experience but that’s nothing against the city obviously. Here are some of my photos from the old town:

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a small Medieval town on Germany’s Romantic Road. It’s a really cute little walled town with typically German houses (well what I think of when I think about Germany) and cobbled streets. There are lots of adorable cafes to sip hot chocolate and relax but I’m not sure I can recommend the schneeballen, the specialty sweet of the town, they are awful! It’s funny that we chose to go to Rothenburg over other towns because we had heard such great things about the schneeballen but none of us liked them.

My parents came to visit in November 2007 and the weather was amazing. We were able to walk a lot and see lots of things around Paris. Last year though, it was freezing making it really difficult to go outside. We had planned to drive around Germany and visit as much as we could in 3 weeks. When I knew it was going to be cold I thought about heading south instead but in the end we decided that seeing we had our own car it would be ok. I really regret it now because you couldn’t stay outside for more than 5 minutes without freezing. We still saw a lot but I love to walk and explore places slowly which just wasn’t possible that trip. We were always rushing so we could get back in the car or back to the hotel. This year we’ll definitely be heading south.

Just outside of Berlin is the small city of Potsdam. The main thing to see there is the Schloss Sanssouci. We made the trip, even though it was snowing, and were surprised by the how small castle was but the formal gardens were lovely. Ok, so it wasn’t exactly Versailles but that’s to be expected. I’m sure it would be prettier in spring and summer but my advice is to give it a miss if you’re thinking about going in winter.

Another thing I love about Germany is that you can buy hot chips on the street from shops that sell nothing but chips! I love those places. For around 1 euro you get a huge serving of chips topped with your choice of sauce. Why can’t you get that here in Paris? Maybe I should open a chip shop… These ones are from Augsburg in Bavaria, not far from Munich.

I don’t really like French cakes which is probably a good thing seeing I would be tempted to have them every day if I did. Without a doubt they look amazing but they’re just not tasty in my opinion. German cakes on the other hand – creamy and delicious! Not to mention German cakes are twice the size and half the price of cakes here in Paris.

Thankfully there is one good German bakery in Paris so if I ever get a craving for a kase sahne torte (cream cheese cake with mandarin) I can just head over to the 17th rather than heading across the border.

Some German cakes we had in Berlin last year including the biggest cream puff I’ve ever seen in my life: