If i were to visit Germany... What would you do?


There is a chocolate museum in Köln (Cologne):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhoff-Schokoladenmuseum

For more culture:

If you want to see various traditional German martial arts, try these:

Berlin = http://www.twerchhau.de/

Offenbach = http://www.zornhau.de/

in other cities (qualities differ) = http://www.gladiatores.de/

My group (Krumphau) is very small atm. and maybe not worth the visit, but I would welcome you anyway and show you some mean stuff.

I know other groups in other cities too, if you are somewhere else and interested in our martial arts.
 
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Wally, what would I do if you went to Germany?, be upset you didn't pay for me to go as well. 
 
In Germany, now its cold, windy and raini, i ditnt like fall.. , but as in france its the same now...

A Clichee says, that in Great Britain, its rains a lot, and then its not that great, but all countrys of this would can have bad weather..
 
I wonder why nobody suggested the Rhine valley? It's one of the most beautiful parts of Germany (the part between Koblenz and Mainz). You can drive along the river, see nice (and crowded by tourists) villages and countless castles above. And there are old legends to be told about most places you come by. If you don't plan to stop anywhere for long it can be done in a day, but I guess there's enough to see to fill an entire week.
 
Yes, the "Rhein" is great, especcially for Tolkien fans - "Lord of the Rings" has it's roots there

*snip*
No it doesn't. Just because a ring plays an important part in the story doesn't mean that it has it's root there (eventhough they both make you invisible). Lord of the rings has it's roots in irish/anglosaxon folklore and also loads of other sources (trolls, ents, orc-like creatures etc from the northern/skandinavian parts for example). Sorry about nitpicking but this really annoys me, because there are so many misconceptions about the Nibelungenlied. I have just dealt with the whole thing professionally. While there are of course parallels to the original Nibelungenlied, Tolkiens story doesn't have any roots there. He did try however to imitate the epic style of narration and proportions of the ring saga. His intent was to create a folkloristic myth for the British people as he felt they were lacking an actual myth of their own, like the Nibelungen used to be to the Germans before the Nazis blew it all out of proportion with all the Wagner fetishism and supposed "true German nature of Siegfried". The problem Tolkien was trying to address can indeed be found at the core of the Nibelungenlied: Having no myth of creation/own folklore because it has been culturally displaced. The "Germanic" folklore that used to be told, was sort of lost when europe was christianized. They replaced the old myths, rituals and stories to make them compatible with christian teachings and folklore that is indeed quite foreign to these parts if you take a closer look. These old and archaic myths have thus vanished into fairytale and story books, when they used to constitute rules and morals, shaping society before the bible.  Noone back then had ever heard of egypt, pyramids and desert wastelands in these parts before the "good book" was forced on the people. I am not saying that believing in forest spirits and dwarves is better than believing in talking bushes, just pointing it out. 

Back on topic: You could come by Dortmund and crash on my couch, play my awesome naomi universal (neogeo mvs!!!!), there's a hackerlab like 2min walk from my doorstep where you could hang out with some fellow pandora owners and nerds. If you feel adventurous I could also take you down to the theatre (we don't show movies, it's an actual theatre ffs) where I work and you could watch a show or two. Also there is lots of other large cities in the vicinity like cologne, essen, düsseldorf where there is shitloads to do and see. You can reach everyone of these cities by train in 40 minutes or less from Dortmund. There is a couple mining museums as this area here used to be Germanies largest industrial area with a lot of coal and other ressources. Most of them are depleted now and the so called "Ruhrgebiet" of which Dortmund,Bochum and Essen are the centre, has gone through a lot of structural changes in the last 30 years. Quite interesting what came out of it and the process is ongoing. There is a ridiculous number of theatres (state and independent) within reach and loads of other artistic venues due to this, all very close together and if you don't like one city, you ride the train 10 minutes and check out the next one.
 
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I once went to sleep in the bushes outside an autobahnraststätte outside Dortmund. Woke up at about 3 in the night, realizing that I had 20-30 slugs (snails, whatever you call them) crawling over me. Sounds like I ought to go back and get myself some better memories :D
 
If you go sleeping in the bushes outside a German Autobahnraststätte, I'd say snails are among the better options of things you may find crawling on you at about 3:00 am :blink:
 
If you go sleeping in the bushes outside a German Autobahnraststätte, I'd say snails are among the better options of things you may find crawling on you at about 3:00 am :blink:
Hahaha, just what I thought. Sure you still have both your kidneys Moxie? The Ruhrgebiet itself doesn't offer that much as long as you are not interested in culture and mining history/recent German history, but since it is so close to the netherlands and cologne, it's a good place to be at if you are passing through.

All those immigrants bring their delicious food here, I just wish they could speak proper German more often at least after a few years living here. ^^°

What you can not see here most of the time as a tourist is German culture, though,

you have to go to less populated areas for this.
I do not at all share your opinions. First of all, immigrants don't come here as children but mostly when they are past a certain age and I would love to see you learn another language within a couple of years when you are over 25. Most people over the age of 30 are not able to learn a new language even fluently, let alone with proper grammar or accent free.

Back on topic:

Your second point is based on your subjective opinion of what German culture is and very arguable. I think Berlin is a perfect example for a city that has been multicultural and metropolitan in it's prime. For example in the 20s it was like that, the Nazis sort of destroyed that and when Germany was a war-ruin and divided into two, obviously Berlin wasn't as prosperous as it used to be. It took a while for it to grow back into what once made it great: Diversity. So actually I am convinced that it is more German now than it has been from 1933-1989

I do not think that rural towns are very German at all. They look a lot like most towns look in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and probably lots of European countries I've not been to yet. Of course you will see small differences in architecture (and there are the well known sites of castles, interesting churches or whatever you might find in the countryside), but that is already evident if you are travelling from the coast to Bavaria (where the houses are very similar to Swiss and Austrian architecture). Approaching the culture of a country by looking at small communities as a tourist, thinking that they are for some reason more authentic than the big cities seems a little strange. People who think they will see the locals in "authentic" traditional clothes will be disappointed. To see someone wearing Lederhosen you will have to go to Munich and places where you can find loads of Japanese hikers wearing authentic German traditional clothing.
 
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You just love disaggreeing for the sake of it (without asking ANY questions for a better understanding of each other), right?

One of the reasons why I often dislike my fellow country men...

Many people here do that all the time. -.-

Those know-it-alls love to single someone out in a negative way and let their destructibility flow.
 
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edit: discussion has become a personal pissing contest and is offtopic anyway.
 
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If you're hungry and thirsty I would definitly go to Upper Franconia. This region invites to go for "beer hiking". The basic idea is to walk from micro-brewery to another. The distance between is about 2-4 km only and the beer is fantastic and dirtcheap. No comparsion with the dishwater sold at the supermarket.

The only thing you have the worry about is public transport... Therefore you can go directly to Bamberg. There are 9 breweries in one city including the infamous smoked beer. BTW it's only a 1,5 hours drive away from Ingolstadt...

To get an idea of the massive amount in this region:

http://www.brauereitouren.info/liste.php?t=b
 
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