Christmastime From Budapest To Basel

Founded in 902, Bamberg remains a medieval-looking city known for its symphony orchestra and specialty “smoke” beer. Bamberg was also the first site in Germany of lithographic printing featuring movable type.

The city’s winding streets are filled with baroque patrician houses as well as the breathtaking 11th century cathedral of Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich II, which houses his tomb as well as that of Pope Clement II. Tour the 16th century Alt Residenz (Old Residence) and the 17th century Neue Residenz (New Residence), both of which were bishop’s houses.

The second largest city in Switzerland, Basel is spread out on both sides of the Rhine river. The left bank is called the Grossbasel, and the part of the city located on the flatter right bank is Kleinbasel.

Due to its location on an important strategic river and bordering both Germany and France, Basel developed at an early date into an important trading centre. This development is still evident in the many international trade fairs and congresses held here. Basel is not only a city of trade, but it is also known for its production. Indeed, some of the world’s largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies are located here. It is quite natural that Basel plays an important financial and political role. Delegates from major industrial countries come to Basel to discuss the world’s monetary and geo-political situation. Meetings regularly occur in the elegant tower of the Bank for International Settlements (BIZ); yet Basel, also
has reason to be proud of its intellectual and cultural importance. The first university in Switzerland was founded here and Basel famously became the centre of humanism inspired by the visionary Erasmus von Rotterdam. Throughout modern history, great scholars have taught here including the physician Paracelsus and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. A city of enormous appreciation for the arts, Basel boasts 267 museums, a grand new theatre as well as folkloristic gatherings and numerous civic festivals. The biggest event of the year is the Basel Fasnacht when the whole city takes part in the three days of high-spirited celebrations.

The capital of Hungary, Budapest was formed by the unification of two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River. This sparkling eastern European capital has culture, nightlife, gambling, folk art and fine cuisine to offer. More than 4 million tourists each year are drawn by such attractions as the Buda Castle quarter, over 200 museums, around 80 geothermal springs, the largest synagogue in Europe and more.

The Main is a river in Germany, 524 km (329 miles) long (including the White Main, 574 km (357 mi)), and it is one of the more significant tributaries of the Rhine.

Along its banks, you will often find picturesque Bavarian villages that would delight any photographer’s eye.

Nuremberg (German Nürnberg), city in south central Germany, on the Pegnitz River, in Bavaria, near Fürth. The city is a commercial and industrial center, served by railroads and the Ludwig Canal, which connects the Danube and Main rivers. Nuremberg is widely known for its toys and honey and spice cakes (Lebkuchen); other products include motor vehicles, electrical and electronic equipment, office machinery, textiles, and precision instruments. Among the city’s points of interest are the Hauptmarkt, the main market square; the Gothic Saint Sebald’s Church (mainly 13th century); a castle (begun 11th century); the German National Museum; toy and transportation museums; the house (now a museum) where the artist Albrecht Dürer lived; and extensive parts of the old city walls (chiefly 15th century). A section of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg is in the city.

A perfect combination: an inviting skyline, impressive historic monuments, and legendary hospitality. Regensburg, Germany’s best preserved large medieval city, offers a harmonious scenario in every respect. Here, the heritage of major past eras is the spice in the soup of lively urban life.

Get a feeling for life in the days of old – by walking over the Stone Bridge, built over 850 years ago and the oldest of its kind in Germany. Or stroll through the Old Town lanes with their tall patricians’ towers; pass through the Roman Porta Praetoria at the Northern perimeter; and visit the Old Town Hall with historic imperial hall and the palace of the princes of Thurn & Taxis. Or take the time to listen to an uplifting choir concert in St. Peter’s Cathedral – Bavaria’s most outstanding Gothic structure.

Ride the boat across the Danube rapids, enjoy some of the many festivals, experience art and culture at historic sites, and treat yourself to Regensburg fried sausage at the historic Salzstadel.

The ancient capital of Alsace it is located in the northeast corner of France near the border with Germany. The city has exchanged hands between France and Germany during the World Wars. It is considered to be at the “crossroads” of Europe and is the home of the European Parliment. Visit the Palais Rohan, home of many famous paintings; La Petite France with its ancient structures; the famous Church of St. Thomas; and the Cathedral of Notre Dame, built in 1439 and the largest building of its type in the World.

How is it that Vienna’s mood manages to be at once so sanguinary and so sanguine? Somehow the city’s fondness for the morbid and the bizarre never seems at odds with its sunny stability. Rather, all Vienna works the way its graveyards and its Graben work. The order here is rich, organic, and complex. Death takes its place alongside life, the old alongside the new, the eccentric alongside the conventional, the mad alongside the sane.

Even the city’s geography is orderly in an organic, inspiriting way. Vienna is a series of concentric circles, or, more accurately, half circles, rippling outward from its center in the inner town (where Vienna began as the ancient Roman camp of Vindobona) to the Vienna Woods themselves, which are the ultimate foothills and fingerlings of the Alps. At the nucleus, the first district, you find this vigorous hodgepodge of old and new, sublimity and grotesquerie, urbanity and coziness. Around it, in a protective and officious circle, there is the Ringstrasse, a collection of public and private buildings, all planned nearly simultaneously (in the mid nineteenth century) on an enormous scale. The buildings are charmless but imposing, and they were all designed as though they were theatrical sets, with an eye to the illustrious past: fake Renaissance for the university, fake early Baroque for the Burgtheater (the Baroque being the period when common-
ers joined with the gentry in flocking to the theater), fake Gothic for the Votive Church and the Town Hall (since the medieval commune represented the source of Viennese government), fake Greek for the democratic institution of Parliament. At once expansive and forbidding, the Ringstrasse hems in the vibrant inner town and formalizes it. It
was built where the fortress walls of Vienna once stood, and even today it acts as a sort of wall, inside which the city carries on with the appropriate metropolitan bustle, and outside which Vienna can sprawl and relax and indulge itself. Small wonder that the next ring beyond the Ringstrasse, the Gurtel, is best known as the circle where streetwalkers ply their trade.

Beyond Gurtel, Vienna fans out into neighborhoods, pleasant, almost bucolic districts that retain the character of their past lives as quaint Austrian villages. There are workers’ regions (including the beautiful and still-functioning Karl Marx-Hof housing project, built during the utopian twenties, when the city was often referred to as Red Vienna) and posh residential areas. Good mansion viewing can be had in the nineteenth district, where you can and should visit the Gey-muller-Schlossel. Although its clock collection is its gratest draw, the Geymuller-Schlossel is one of Vienn’a most delicious repositories of Biedermeier furniture, the igenious and beautiful stuff made to amuse the upper middle class during the early nineteenth century.

Wiesbaden is located in west central Germany at the southern foot of the Taunus Mountains, on the Rhine River, near Frankfurt. It is popular for its 26 hot mineral springs and mild climate and tourism is vital to the local economy. Wiesbaden is a cultural center; places of interest are the former royal and ducal residences; the Kurhaus with its casino and its concert halls; the Colonnade, remnants of a Roman wall known as the Heidenmauer (“heathens’ wall”); and the Hessian State Theater.

Intersecting trade routes, a favorable climate, fertile soil and a primary waterway brought wealth to Würzburg from the early Middle Ages. Symbols of this wealth-and the artistry it bought-are what still attract visitors: the massive, medieval Fortress Marienberg that towers over the city; the Residenz, arguably the most ornate Baroque palace in Germany; St. Kilian’s Cathedral, with its Romanesque exterior and splendidly Rococo interior; and Neumünster Church.

Today, Würzburg, the northern terminus of the Romantic Road, is a surprisingly cosmopolitan Bavarian city filled with architectural and artistic treasures-and exquisite Franconian wine.

Those who make the trip to Würzburg are generally surprised by its warmth, charm and extensive variety of art, architecture and culture. Würzburg’s prime location on the Main makes for delightful strolls along the promenade, and riverfront cafes overflow in good weather. Sightseeing boats offer sightseeing excursions and trips to neighboring villages, and passenger ships plying the Rhine, Main and Danube make the city a prime stop.

Würzburg lies in the heart of Franconian Wine Region, and wine and wine-making are central to life in Würzburg. In autumn, the hills surrounding Würzburg and throughout Franconia are dotted with grape pickers, who fill baskets and dump them into waiting trailers.