Destination: Germany
Don’t Mess with Bavarian Heritage: Cheap, Imported Lederhosen Dubbed ‘Yuppie Outfits’
by Valerie Conners | 09.24.08 | 11:23 AM ET
Better check your lederhosen and dirndls before heading to the Oktoberfest beer tents: If you’re not sporting a German-made getup you’ll likely fuel the ire of Bavarian purists.
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Yahoo! BuzzEast Germany ‘Ostalgia’ Going Strong
by Julia Ross | 09.11.08 | 2:35 PM ET
I loved the 2003 film Good Bye Lenin! for its darkly comic take on nostalgia for Cold War-era East Germany. Now it seems “ostalgia” has worked its way into Berlin’s tourism infrastructure: Time reports that the craze has spread to themed pubs, “Ostel” hostels and “Trabi safaris,” which ferry tourists around East Berlin in the much-maligned Trabant (pictured).
A German ‘Eco-Wander’
by Michael Yessis | 08.27.08 | 10:23 AM ET
Intriguing question posed by William Powers over at Slate: “If gigantic Germany could be green, couldn’t any country?” He adds: “You know, like the big one between Canada and Mexico.” To explore his query, Powers spent two weeks in Germany with a focus on green travel, accompanied by “eco-architect” Mymza Wever Azcui. Slate has his dispatches this week in another worthwhile installment of Well-Traveled.
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Expanding Auto Museums, Shrinking Industry?
by Eva Holland | 08.22.08 | 10:50 AM ET
The Globe and Mail’s Paul French has a run-down of several ambitious new expansions being unveiled at the shrines to BMW, Audi and Porsche in Germany. Ironic timing, all things considered.
Unearthing David Bowie’s Berlin
by Elyse Franko | 08.06.08 | 1:42 PM ET
Those wishing to experience David Bowie’s Berlin will find that the city has changed quite a bit since the 1970’s, when Bowie—at the peak of his career—spent three years living there with Iggy Pop, recording the three albums in his Berlin Trilogy.
Shteyngart on ‘New Berlin’: It’s ‘Easily Europe’s Coolest Metropolis’
by Michael Yessis | 07.30.08 | 12:29 PM ET
Yet “it’s still okay to be excited by things” there, writes Absurdistan author Gary Shteyngart in a fine story in the latest Travel + Leisure.
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Berlin Embassy: Critics Not Impressed
by Julia Ross | 07.07.08 | 11:27 AM ET
German architectural critics are having a field day with the new U.S. embassy in Berlin (pictured), skewering the design as “banal” and “monstrous.” It’s an unfair rap, says University of Maryland architectural historian Jane Loeffler.
Euro 2008: Germany, Turkey and a Conflict of Loyalties
by Elyse Franko | 06.26.08 | 4:41 PM ET
I spent the latter half of yesterday afternoon watching the Germany-Turkey Euro 2008 match in a Washington, D.C., bar with a bunch of Turks while maintaining a text message conversation with a German friend. It was an odd situation for me. I’m neither Turkish nor German, but I’m a self-proclaimed Turkophile with deep-seated connections to Germany. Being that I’ve spent two years out of the last five living in Germany and only five months in Istanbul, it would seem my loyalties should be painted black, red and gold. But it wasn’t so clear cut.
Bush-Bashing No Longer Entertaining for Germans
by Elyse Franko | 06.11.08 | 2:55 PM ET
The German tradition of protesting Dubya’s visits has died an unexpected death after six years. Apparently, they’d rather be tanning.
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
by Eva Holland | 06.06.08 | 11:59 AM ET
Forget about “How To ‘Green’ Your Travels” or “5 Ways To Stretch Your Holiday Dollars.” German newspaper Bild has taken the “How To” article to a whole new level, printing a guide to help its readers avoid British tourists abroad. According to the Independent, the guide was a response to a successful lawsuit by a British traveler, who sued his tour operator after finding himself at a resort full of Germans. Just another beautiful We Are The World moment in international travel.
Bid to Save Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport Fails
by Michael Yessis | 04.28.08 | 10:57 AM ET
Not enough people voted in a referendum to save Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport yesterday, dooming the iconic airfield to closure come October. Among Tempelhof’s claims to fame: The terminal, once the biggest building in Europe, was intended to be an awesome symbol of Nazi Germany. The airport also served as the hub of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49.
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Photo by martinroell, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Golf Courses, Bedsheets and the ‘Endless Search for the Peculiar’
by Eva Holland | 04.18.08 | 11:47 AM ET
“What constitutes a meaningful cultural difference?” That’s the question that The Smart Set contributor Michael Gorra is faced with after a bedsheet-shopping expedition in Hamburg. What follows is a thoughtful essay on the traveler’s search for differences, our inevitable comparisons to the familiar and our efforts to make it all add up in the end. Laced with references to the peculiarities around him (Berlin’s new golf courses, or the way cashiers in Hamburg make change), the essay left me reassessing the way I take note of the world around me when I travel. It also left me craving the “cool pilsner tingle” of a mug of German beer.
Switzerland Tops World Economic Forum Tourism Rankings
by Michael Yessis | 03.10.08 | 10:25 AM ET
Austria and Germany took the second and third spots in the annual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index. The index measures 14 factors in an attempt to pinpoint which countries have the most “conducive environments for developing the travel and tourism industry.” Here are all the rankings. (via Jaunted)
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German Nudists Ready to Fly Naked
by Michael Yessis | 01.29.08 | 12:39 PM ET
For only 499 euros you, too, can book a spot on the July 5 flight from Erfurt to the Baltic Sea resort Usedom. Passengers can strip down once on board; the crew will remain clothed for safety reasons. “I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. It’s not that we’re starting a swinger club in mid-air or something like that,” Enrico Hess, the managing director of the travel agency taking the bookings, told Reuters. “We’re a perfectly normal holiday company.”
Where Did I Buy This Bobblehead Doll? I Could Tell You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You.
by Eva Holland | 01.23.08 | 9:21 AM ET
In Washington D.C., visitors can go sleuthing around the International Spy Museum. In Berlin, they can look back on the reign of the Stasi at the DDR Museum. But in Canada’s capital, and my own hometown of Ottawa, tourists aren’t allowed even a spyglass-eye’s view of the top-secret Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) museum. And they most certainly can’t buy souvenirs.