Book Description
The Rough Guide to Germany is the definitive handbook to this fascinating country. It features a full-colour introduction to Germany''s highlights, from the beer halls of Munich to the hiking trails of the Bavarian Alps. There is lively and detailed coverage given to the full range of attractions, from the spas of Baden-Baden and castles of Bavaria to the jazz clubs of Munich. For every city, town and village there ae discerning reviews of the best places to stay, eat and drink, in all price ranges. In the final ''Contexts'' chapter, incisive discussion is given to topics as diverse as the Oberammergau Passion Play and the occult figure of Johannes Faust.
Customer Reviews:
Very Good Guide.......2006-10-25
I first picked up the "Rough Guide to West Germany" in 1990, and have bought every update since. The key to remember is that the guide is written for the average tourist, not for someone that lives in Essen. Having said that, I have lived in Europe for 8 years, and find the guide indispensable. The beginning chapters provide you with all the essential information you need to plan the trip, including tourist office addresses, best prices for airlines, reminds you to purchase Eurail passes while still at home, etc. The guide itself is written in a slightly irreverent way, giving a wide berth to commercial tourist attractions in favor of historically significant areas. It lists accommodation (sp?) for all price classes, and even directs you to a good meal in individual cities. The guide stands as a good read, even if you aren't traveling. It gives you everything as advertised, and then some.
good, but not wonderful.......2005-02-24
Good: Excellent writing, great pictures, and would recommend it for anyone who wants to know a little bit more about German culture and history. Alo liked the fact that it was in color.
Not Wonderful: A bit on the snobish side, not very user friendly, no immediate translations of german terms into english, the hotels are not broken up into categories, and one must do a lot of going back and forth between sections to find out particular german words and other codes. Moreover, it is geared for travelers from english speaking countries (Australia, NZ, Canada, US, UK and Ireland). Actually ommited some sights in Berlin like the new holocaust victims memorial.
Recommendations: if you want to learn more, buy this book. If you want to travel, buy Lonely planet, since it is much easier to use, has more information on sights, facilities, embassies and consulates from other non english speaking countries plus emergency medical services. Both books are good, though.
AW
Best of three guides to Germany I've used.......2005-02-17
I've lived, studied, and travelled a lot in Germany, and I've used three guidebooks: Let's Go (2003 edition), Lonely Planet (the two most recent editions), and this edition of the Rough Guide. The Rough Guide is the best of them hands down. For starters, it contains more text than the others: though I don't have the Let's Go on hand for comparison, the Rough Guide is almost 300 pages longer than the most recent Lonely Planet Germany, which comes in at about 800 pages. (Because of the thinner paper, however, it is almost exactly the same size as the LP.) The print is also denser and finer, so that the Rough Guide contains probably twice as much actual text as the LP. Legibility suffers a little, but it's a fair trade-off.
More words, of course, isn't necessarily better. Where the The Rough Guide beats the others is in detail and quality of information. For example, where the other guides tell you that the Frauenkirche in Dresden was the most important Protestant church in northern Germany, was destroyed in the firebombing of March 1945, and is now being rebuilt, the Rough Guide tells you also that they are doing the most painstakingly accurate restoration ever - where possible each piece has been dug up from the pile of rubble that was left as a "memorial" after the war and put back where it originally was, and only 10% of the total masory is new. That information adds a lot to your appreciation of the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche. That's just one example. Consistenly, the Rough Guide is more detailed and more authoritative on art, architecture, music, wine, you name it. The LP is by no means bad (although the Let's Go, at least the 2003 edition, is a pretty mediocre effort), but I see no reason to carry any other guide when the Rough Guide is so clearly superior.
UPDATE: I wanted to add to my original review and also address some points made by another reviewer:
- The reviewer says the RG is a well written but a bit snobbish. You could call it that; I say that the RG is not afraid to come right out and say that a sight, restaurant, or entire town is a total tourist trap, or that a place just isn't worthwhile. That's their opinion, of course, but I've found that their opinions are often very well founded. Compare to the LP, which tries to be more balanced and is less opinionated. Given that most travelers have limited time and money, I think they are well-served by the RG's more opinionated approach.
- The Holocaust memorial in Berlin (which is an artistic failure, in my opinion) was unveiled in the spring of 2005, a year after the RG was published and probably nearly two years after it was researched. RG can't be faulted for failing to include this sight. More generally, although there's much overlap between the two guides in what sights are included, RG includes some worthwhile ones which LP overlooks (the Deutsche Bahn Museum in Nuremberg being one good example).
- One thing which travelers often prefer LP for is the inclusion of travel details such as EXACTLY where and when trains depart from, how often they run, how much they cost, or the EXACT prices of hotel accomodation. RG is not as specific and gives just general information (e.g. Berlin to Hamburg, x hours, x times daily) and approximate hotel prices (on a scale of 1 to 9, with ranges given for each). LP's details can be useful, but as often as not I've found that they were outdated or plain wrong. Train/bus services and prices change all the time, and it's very risky to rely on a guidebook which was, say, published a year or two ago and researched another year before that. In any case it's very easy to get all the details from the Deutsche Bahn's excellent website or at the station, so the space in the guidebook should really be reserved for something more useful. As an example, the LP tells you that the ICE train between Nuremberg and Dresden pulls into Zwickau into the center of town, away from the main station. As far as I've been able to tell this was never the case, and in any case since the flood of 2002 the line has not been operated with ICE trains. LP should have gotten this right for the 2004 edition, but it didn't. Better not to include such details at all.
Amazon.com
France is known as a place that will delight the senses--and this Rough Guide will help you bathe in them all, from eyefuls of architecture to the sounds of la mer lapping against the shore, the touch of designer fabrics to the smells and tastes of some of the most renowned cuisine in the world. As authors Baillie and Salmon put it, "The pleasures of the palate run from the simplest picnic of crusty baguette, ham and cheese washed down by an inexpensive red wine through what must be the most elaborate take-away food in the world, available from practically every charcuterie; such basic regional dishes as cassoulet; the liver-destroying riches of Périgord and Burgundy cuisine; the fruits of the sea; extravagant pastries and ice cream cakes.... If you feel inadequate in the face of all this choice, never be afraid to ask advice, for most French people are true devotees, ever ready to explain the arcane mysteries to the uninitiated."
In France: The Rough Guide, the country's attractions are written up with creative flair and insightful advice, and the honest reviews of food and accommodations offer something for every traveler's budget. The coverage is complete with sections exploring history, cuisine, wine, literature, architectural terms, art, festivals, and politics. Bon voyage!
Book Description
The Rough Guide to France covers every corner of one of Europe''s most visited countries from Parisian cafes to the chic resorts of the Cote d''Azur. A full-colour introduction includes the pick of the sights and activities with over 50 colour photographs. The guide gives lively reviews of the best places to eat, drink, shop and party, wherever you are and whatever your budget. For every region, there are also practical tips for exploring the French countryside from the peaks of the Alps to the fertile Loire Valley. In the ''contexts'' section, the team of experienced writers provide insider coverage of French culture, wine, festivals, history and film and some language essentials. All this, and over 40 maps and plans.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing and somewhat out of date.......2006-06-10
I purchased this book to use for an upcoming trip. I purchased the newest edition which it the 9th.
I found that some of the information has not been checked or updated. For example, there is a aquarium called Nausicaa where the book info was about 5 years out of date.
Other complaints:
1) The writers seem to be extreme leftists in their opinions. If you are a gay vegan tree hugger this is the book for you.
2) Not enough info for people travelling by car. I realize that this isn't Rough Guides focus, but I found the coverage in Rough Guide Italy to be much better.
3) Minimal coverage for people travelling with families.
Positives:
1) Good coverage of camping
2) Breakdown by regions is helpful, as is summary of region in opening paragraph of each chapter.
I still intend on using the guide, although if I had to do it over I would probably buy a different guide.
Good resource, and I live in France.......2006-02-23
I live along the border of France and Switzerland. I like to take excursions around France and needed a dependable guide. So far, I have found this one to be pretty good, with straightforward basics about how to get around, where to stay and with pretty accurate opinions. I would recommend it overall, but bottom line, the very best resource is Michelin. If I were to buy just one guide I would make it the Michelin green guide, or of course for restaurants, the red guide.
The BEST practical guide.......2005-10-29
This is THE BEST practical guide for visiting France. It's well-organized, with highlights at the front of each chapter, and practical transportation information at the end of each chapter. In addition, their evaluations of a site's merit have, thus far, been right on. While their lodging and dining sections might focus on the lower-end, the accuracy and comprehensiveness of their information more than makes up for it.
Look No Further!.......2004-07-22
If you are looking for a small book to fit in your back pocket, The Rough Guide France is not for you. If you are looking for a guide that lovingly describes even the smallest French town in careful detail and clear format, then this IS the guide book you should be looking for.
The Rough Guide to France does an excellent job in several areas where many guide books fail. For example, smaller attractions are often overlooked in favor of the larger cities, such as Paris or Lyon. Rough Guide ensures that for those who want to go provincial, they won't be going in blind.
Another merit of the guide is in it's clear, concise format. Not overburdened with irrelevant maps/illustrations (a pet peeve of mine), Rough Guide has clean, simple directions and mapping. This is a vast improvements over Guides like Lonely Planet, where I often feel the editors publish more with an eye towards their own self-satisfaction than towards the serious traveler.
The resturaunt/hotel features are adequate, frequently include useful maps, and will not tax anyone's checkbook too harshly.
Perhaps the greatest strength of this guide is the seeming conviction of the editors to tell you that which you NEED to know for that trip to France. Michelin might the cultural ask-all, DK may have lots of lovely photographs, but Rough Guide is for when you're ready to get serious about your trip to France.
Well-written, informative, with a clear and honest style that should impress both casual and budget traveler alike, The Rough Guide France should be your FIRST PICK in guide books.
A must for a vacation in France... Balance with 2nd book.......2004-04-10
What I like best about the Rough Guides is that they give critical reviews. They will point out the tourist traps and will give negative reviews. I find that Frommer's and Fodor's rarely point out the negatives to a particular hotel or site. The rough guide is very critical and is a great balance to these other guides. I would balance your trip to France with a Fodors (or Frommers) book because the maps and illustrations are often better and there are more higher-end hotels listed.
This book will help you decide where is best to spend your vacation in France. There are clear critical descriptions of all the regions and great general info on getting around in France.
If you aren't interested in "roughing" it and staying in lower priced hotels.. the guides are still very useful in rating attractions, and areas in which to stay... but you will need another book to look at more moderate and luxury hotels.
I would definitely read this book before going to France.
Book Description
The Rough Guide Map Germany combines clear modern mapping and bang-up-to-date research and is the essential companion to anyone travelling around this fascinating and varied country. Whether you''re exploring the snow-capped peaks of the Bavarian Alps or the valleys of the Rhine, the Rough Guide Map provides invaluable information to help you find your way. It is printed on waterproof and rip-proof Polyart™ paper and includes detail on everything from road numbers and railways to National parks and airport locations. Â
Book Description
Nowhere in Berlin is more than a stone''s throw from a bar or coffee-house. Whether you''re after ''kaffee und kuchen'' or something a little stronger, the Rough Guide Map will point you in the right direction. There''s full coverage of the beautiful parks, lakes and canals on the city''s outskirts and, if you stay out late, you''ll still be able to find your way back to your hotel as, like every map in the series, the Berlin map is designed to be clearly legible under streetlights.
Customer Reviews:
Too Large and Clunky.......2005-11-27
This map is one of those maps that you need to pull open and spread out. It's complete and of that sturdy material that doesn't rip, but if you are looking for something that you can pull in and out of your bag for a quick look where you are, this is not it. The Streetwise Map is excellent and much more convenient.
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Most people visit Vienna with a vivid image of the city in their minds: a monumental vision of Habsburg palaces, trotting white horses, old ladies in fur coats and mountains of fat cream cakes. And they're unlikely to be disappointed in this city that positively feeds off imperial nostalgia - High Baroque churches and aristocratic piles pepper the old town, or Innere Stadt, monumental projects from the late nineteenth century line the Ringstrasse, and postcards of the Emperor Franz-Josef and his beautiful wife Elisabeth still sell by the sackful. Just as compelling as the old Habsburg stand-bys are the wonderful Jugendstil and early modernist buildings, products of fin-de-siècle Vienna, when the city emerged as one of Europe's great cultural centres. This was the era of Freud, Klimt, Schiele, Mahler and Schönberg, when the city's famous coffeehouses were filled with intellectuals from every corner of the empire. In a sense, this was Vienna's golden age, after which all has been in decline: with the end of the empire in 1918, the city was reduced from a metropolis of over two million, capital of a vast empire of fifty million, to one of barely more than one-and-a-half million, federal capital of a small country of just eight million souls.
Given the city's twentieth-century history, it's hardly surprising that the Viennese are as keen as anyone to continue plugging the good old days. This is a place, not unlike Berlin, which has had the misfortune of serving as a weather vane of European history. Modern anti-Semitism as a politically viable force was invented here, in front of Hitler's very eyes, in the first decade of the century. It was the assassination of an arrogant Austrian archduke that started World War I, while the battles between Left and Right fought out in the streets of Vienna mirrored those in Berlin in the 1930s. The weekend Hitler enjoyed his greatest electoral victory in the Reichstag was the day the Austrians themselves invented Austro-fascism. In 1938, the country became the first victim of Nazi expansion, greeting the Führer with delirious enthusiasm. And after the war, for a decade, Vienna was divided, like Berlin, into French, American, British and Soviet sectors.
The visual scars from this turbulent history are few and far between - even Hitler's sinister Flacktürme are confined to the suburbs - but the destruction of the city's once enormous Jewish community is a wound that has proved harder to heal. Vienna's Jewish intellectuals and capitalists were the driving force behind much of the city's fin-de-siècle culture. Little surprise then, that the city has since struggled to live up to its glorious past achievements. After the war Vienna lost its cosmopolitan character and found itself stuck in a monocultural straightjacket. Since the end of the Cold War, however, this has begun to change, with the arrival of a second wave of immigrants from the former provinces of the old empire. Whether Vienna will learn to accept its new, multicultural identity remains to be seen.
For all its problems, Vienna is still an inspiring city to visit, with one of the world's greatest art collections in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, world-class orchestras, and a superb architectural heritage. It's also an eminently civilized place, clean, safe (for the most part) and peopled by a courteous population who do their best to live up to their reputation for Gemütlichkeit or "cosiness". And despite its ageing population, it's also a city with a lively nightlife, of late-opening cafés and drinking holes. Even Vienna's traditional restaurants, long famous for quantity over quality, have discovered innovative methods of cooking and presentation, and are now supplemented by a wide range of ethnic restaurants.
Customer Reviews:
Slightly disappointing.......2002-04-02
I find the Rough Guide to Vienna not particularly "rough" - except as far as some of the information it contains is inaccurate or outdated. Other than that, it mostly concentrates on the tourist spots and does not even attempt to give readers or visitors the greater picture of things. It's not a bad guide, but it gives you only a very limited picture of what this city is all about. I was quite disappointed.
Buy the TimeOut Guide to Vienna instead.
Informative, fun, and opinionated.......1999-07-03
I found this book to be highly valuable in my trip to Vienna. I found the restaurant and hotel descriptions, short, useful, and (at least for the restaurants that I went to) spot-on. The guides to the various sites (Belvedere, Schoenbrunn, etc.) are also informative, and somewhat opinionated, which different readers will find either useful or irritating. All in all, definitely worth the money.
Simply the best........1998-12-23
I planned a recent trip to Vienna w/ this guide & it proved indispensable. Sharp, concise, fun & up-to-date - The Rough Guides are the best.
Book Description
Fully revised and updated, this 7th edition provides entertaining coverage of all the city''s attractions from the powerful Richstag and world-class museums to cutting edge galleries and the latest on the lively club scene. With critical listings of the best places to eat, drink, sleep and party Â- for all budgets Â- the guide gets under the skin of this dynamic city. There is practical advice on trips out of the city including Potsdam and Park Sanssouci. Finally, the contexts section includes informed coverage of the city''s turbulent history.
Customer Reviews:
BERLIN, rough guide........2005-11-02
This book is very biased. It does not deal with the post war history of Berlin at all well. It will not meet the needs of any visitor to Berlin who wants to see the sights and sounds of the old east. This is a great pitty, because this is one of the most interesting and unique features of Berlin - a place where East and West met head on. The book has such a strong pro US stance that I am left wondering if it might have been written by the CIA.
Average customer rating:
- Lots of outdated info
- a must have in berlin...
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The Rough Guide to Berlin 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
John Gawthrop , and
Jack Holland
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
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Berlin (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
ASIN: 1858286824
Release Date: 2001-01-11 |
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Das gibts nur einmal
Das kehrt nicht wieder
Das ist zu schön, um wahr zu sein!
It happens only once
It will not come again
It is too beautiful to be true!
Seemingly in a perpetual state of transformation, Berlin is an extraordinary city. For over a century, events here have either mirrored or determined what has happened in the rest of Europe, and, more than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city is on the move again, working furiously to re-create itself as the capital of Europe's most powerful country and as an international metropolis on a level with London, Paris or New York.
The speed of change has been astounding, with a complete shift in the city's centre of gravity. The area around Zoo Station, the very heart of Berlin when the Wall was in place, has lost much of its lure - there's still plenty of shopping to be had, but the action, both daytime and night-time, is now firmly rooted in the east. Scores of trendy bars, restaurants, clubs and galleries have taken over once quiet streets and weekend nights now have a carnival-like atmosphere, the pavements practically impassable. Sleek chrome and glass has replaced crumbling brick throughout the neighbourhoods of Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain, yanking them out of a fifty-year slumber, while Potsdamer Platz, nothing but a barren field until a few years ago, is now a bustling entertainment quarter. It's an exciting, infectious scene and, for anyone familiar with the forlorn and unkempt eastern streets of the GDR, a slightly unbelievable one.
The relocation of government from Bonn to Berlin has played its part in this renaissance - a titanic undertaking with inevitably profound results, most notably, again, on the eastern side of the city. Not only has the physical demeanour changed, with both new and old buildings housing embassies and ministries to accompany the freshly domed Reichstag, but the influx of politicians and bureaucrats has changed the city's ambience, giving it a sophistication and gravitas that offsets the newly found vitality of the streetlife.
This recent regeneration of the city centre is merely the most visible layer of Berlin's dense and complex past. Heart of the Prussian kingdom, economic and cultural centre of the Weimar Republic, and, in the final days of Nazi Germany, the headquarters of Hitler's Third Reich, Berlin is a weather vane of European history. After the war, the world's two most powerful military systems stood face to face here, sharing the spoils of a city later to be split by that most tangible object of the East-West divide, the Berlin Wall. As the Wall fell in November 1989, Berlin was once again pushed to the forefront of world events, ushering in a period of change as frantic, confused and significant as any the city has experienced. It's this weight of history, the sense of living in a hothouse where all the dilemmas of contemporary Europe are nurtured, that gives Berlin its excitement and troubling fascination.
It was, of course, World War II that defined the shape of today's city. A seventh of all the buildings destroyed in Germany were in Berlin, Allied and Soviet bombing razing 92 percent of all the shops, houses and industry here. After the war, Berlin formed the stage for some of the most significant moments in the convoluted drama of the Cold War: the permanent division of the city into communist east and capitalist west, the Blockade of 1948, and, in 1961, the construction of the Berlin Wall. The city became the frontline of the Cold War, and the ideological schizophrenia of East and West is still visible in the city streets. West Berlin made a habit of tearing down its war-damaged buildings and erecting undistinguished modern ones, while East Berlin restored wherever possible, preserving some of the nineteenth-century buildings that had once made the city magnificent. Despite the current feverish construction activity in many parts of eastern Berlin, it's still easy to spot f!
acades scarred by wartime bullets, and common to turn off a main avenue onto a street that appears to have remained unchanged for a century.
Given the range and severity of the events Berlin endured, it's no wonder it emerged far differently from anywhere else in the country. West Berlin's unorthodox character made it a magnet for those seeking alternative lifestyles - hippies and punks, gays and lesbians, artists and musicians all flocked there. Vital to this migration were the huge subsidies pouring in from the West German government to keep that portion of the city alive - with money available for just about everything, Berlin developed a cutting edge arts scene and vibrant nightlife that continue to this day, long after the grants have dried up. Non-Germans came too, attracted by the city's tolerance. The large numbers of Turks, Greeks and Italians, who originally came as "guest workers" in the 1960s, make Berlin Germany's most cosmopolitan city by far - a fact reflected in the excellent variety of cuisine on offer in the city's restaurants.
East Berlin followed this pattern in a more modest way. Much less diverse and considerably less prosperous than its western twin, it was still, as the largest city in East Germany, a draw for nonconformists. No surprise then that it was here, in the late 1980s, that grassroots groups began to call for reform and help set in motion the opening of the Wall on November 9, 1989 - and the eventual collapse of the German Democratic Republic.
What Berlin will be like when the dust from the world's largest building project settles is anyone's guess. Older East Berliners still consider that the west got by far the better deal from unification, and everyone is suffering from an economy greatly weakened by the costs of pulling the two Germanys together. The long-promised financial benefits of a revitalized Berlin will undoubtedly make some residents richer, but will the majority be any better off? The transformation of the city into a vigorous cultural centre, as museums and art collections are shifted and reorganized to integrate facilities in the east and west is encouraging, but how much longer will it take, and how much more will need to be spent? Anxiety and optimism can be found here in equal measure.
Inevitably, the pace of change in Berlin, particularly in the eastern part of the city, means that certain sections of this book are going to be out of date even as you read them. New cafés and restaurants open (and close) daily, traffic is rerouted around building sites, and the public transport system is being radically revamped.
One great advantage of unification is that, for the first time since the 1930s, the area around Berlin can easily be visited. Potsdam and the magnificent palace of Sanssouci is the obvious day-trip, and it's easy to get into countryside dotted with small towns and villages that preserve a "lost in time" feel.
It's a bracing time to see Berlin. As it seeks to keep its bearings even as its entire foundation has shifted, the city is again making history.
Customer Reviews:
Lots of outdated info.......2001-12-30
The Rough Guide to Berlin sure is a convenient size, it fits in my jacket pocket. It also has one or two useful maps. That postive comment out of the way...
My wife and I bought this before we moved to Berlin in Sept. 2001. I think this was only a couple of months after the 2001 edition had been published. We've been let down numerous times by it since: four restaurants reccommended are out of business, prices for museums and other places are about 20% too low, and other small facts are frequently just inaccurate enough to make planning hard.
Sure, budget priced places in Berlin come and go daily, but we've figured out that much of this edition wasn't updated since 2000, including the info about standard tourist attractions and well-known restaurants. Visitors budgeting activities based on prices in this book might be dissapointed.
Finally, an information design complaint. Restaurant maps are numbered with the restaurants in alphabetical order, not according to location. So, if you're standing in Kathe Kollwitz Platz, and you really want Chinese, you have to look at a map, find the numbers on the map in the neigborhood, then look through the whole alphabetical list at each one to see if you want to eat there. Believe me, that's frustrating in the dark on the street.
Better would be to forgo alphabetical listing at all, and list places by proximity. Who says, well, Akbar Pizza is closed, but lets try Amrit for indian since it's next on the list? No, you say, Akbar Pizza is closed, so what else is in the area? You can't easily answer that with the Rough Guide.
a must have in berlin..........2000-02-04
Berlin is a huge city which can, at many times, be very intimidating. The Rough Guide Series takes some of that alienation and fear away as it gives you a very thorough and concise view of the city of berlin.
Aside from giving almost 100% accurate advice on where to eat, sleep, and party, this guide also keys readers in on some of Berlin's very vivid history. Taking Berlin, district to district, it is very detailed in letting the reader know where's what and how to get there.
Without my Rough Guide, I would have been lost in Berlin. I wouldn't even have known where to mail my postcards from. The detailed maps and subway layout are excellent as well. All in all, this guide is great for a first time visitor (like me) or someone who is already familiar with all the Berlin has to offer.
Average customer rating:
- The Rough Guide to Germany by Gordon W. McLachlan
- A helpful volume
- Comparitively good
- I hated this book!
- Rough Guides Rule
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The Rough Guide to Germany
Gordon McLachlan
Manufacturer: Rough Guides
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1858283094 |
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Germany has always been the problem child of Europe. For over a millennium it was no more than a loose confederation of separate states and territories, whose number at times topped the thousand mark. When unification belatedly came about in 1871, it was achieved almost exclusively by military might; as a direct result of this, the new nation was consumed by a thirst for power and expansion abroad. Defeat in World War I only led to a desire for revenge, the consequence of which was the Third Reich, a regime bent on mass genocide and on European, indeed world, domination. It took another tragic global war to crush this system and its people. When the victors quarrelled over how to prevent Germany ever again becoming dominant, they divided it into two hostile states; the parts held by the Western powers were developed into the Federal Republic of Germany, while the eastern zone occupied by the Soviets became the German Democratic Republic.
The contest between the two was an unequal one - the GDR, never able to break free from being a client state of the Soviet Union and forced to adopt a Communist system at odds with the national character, had fallen so far behind its rival in living standards that in 1961 the authorities constructed the notorious electrified barbed-wire frontier, with the Berlin Wall as its lynchpin, to halt emigration - the first time in the history of the world that a fortification system had been erected by a regime against its own people. Thereafter, the society settled down, but the GDR was a grey, cheerless place whose much trumpeted economic success was a mirage, and bought at the price of terrible pollution problems.
On the other hand, the Federal Republic - which was seen as the natural successor to the old Reich, if only on account of its size - had not only picked itself up by the bootstraps, but developed into what many outsiders regarded as a model modern society. A nation with little in the way of a liberal tradition, and even less of a democratic one, quickly developed a degree of political maturity that put other countries to shame. In atonement for past sins, the new state committed itself to providing a haven for foreign refugees and dissidents. It also became a multiracial and multicultural society - even if the reason for this was less one of penance than the self-interested need to acquire extra cheap labour to fuel the economic boom. A delicate balance was struck between the old and the new. Historic town centres were immaculately restored, while the corporate skyscrapers and well-stocked department stores represented a commitment to a modern consumer society. Vast sums of money were lavished on preserving the best of the country's cultural legacy, yet equally generous budgets were allocated to encouraging all kinds of contemporary expression in the arts.
Officially, the Federal Republic was always a "provisional" state, biding its time before national reunification occurred. Yet there was a realization that nobody outside Germany was really much in favour of this. "I love Germany so much I'm glad there are two of them", scoffed the French novelist François Mauriac, articulating the unspoken gut reactions of the powers on both sides of the Iron Curtain. German division may have been cruel, but at least it had provided a lasting solution to the German "problem". Such thinking was rendered obsolete by the unstoppable momentum of events in the wake of the Wende, the peaceful revolution that toppled the Communist regime in the GDR in 1989, leading to the full union of the two Germanys less than a year later. Yet initial euphoria has been quickly replaced by concern about the myriad problems facing the new nation as it attempts to integrate the bankrupt social and economic system of the GDR into the successful framework of the Federal Republic. While Germany may officially be one again, it will certainly continue to look and feel like two separate countries until the end of the century - and probably well beyond. Moreover, international pressure has ensured that, far from being a re-creation of the old Reich, it can be no more than the nineteenth-century concept of a Kleines Deutschland ("little Germany"), excluding not only Austria but also the "lost" Eastern Territories, which are now part of Poland, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation.
In total contrast to Germany's intrinsic fascination as the country which has played such a determining role in the history of the twentieth century is its otherwise predominantly romantic image. This is the land of fairy-tale castles, of thick dark forests, of the legends collected by the Brothers Grimm, of perfectly preserved timber-framed medieval towns, and of jovial locals swilling from huge foaming mugs of beer. As always, there is some truth in these stereotypes, though most of them stem from the southern part of the country, particularly Bavaria, which, as a predominantly rural and Catholic area, stands apart from the urbanized Protestant north which engineered the unity of the nation last century and thereafter dominated its affairs.
Regional characteristics, indeed, are a strong feature of German life, and there are many hangovers from the days when the country was a political patchwork, even though some historical provinces have vanished from the map and others have merged. More detail on each of the current Länder, as the constituent states are now known, can be found in the chapter introductions. Hamburg and Bremen, for example, retain their age-old status as free cities. The imperial capital, Berlin, also stands apart, as an island in the midst of the erstwhile GDR where the liberalism of the West was pushed to its extreme, sometimes decadent, always exciting. In polar opposition to it, and as a corrective to the normal view of the Germans as an essentially serious race, is the Rhineland, where the great river's majestic sweep has spawned a particularly rich fund of legends and folklore, and where the locals are imbued with a Mediterranean-type sense of fun. The five new Länder which have supplanted the GDR, and in particular the small towns and rural areas, are in many ways the ones which best encapsulate the feel and appearance of Germany as it was before the war and the onset of foreign influences which were an inevitable consequence of defeat.
Customer Reviews:
The Rough Guide to Germany by Gordon W. McLachlan.......2005-10-03
Really a quite excellent source of information covering off the beaten track, for the self-exploring traveler, advice, regarding accommodations and tourist sites. Recommendations I gleaned from this guide provided me with a truly memorable vacation in Southern Germany such as attending a dragon festival that had its origins in the 14th century Bavarian forest village of Furth-im-Wald. If you like your traveling independence, but only wish you had a friend who lived in the neighborhood who could makes some suggestions, you'll love this book.
A helpful volume.......2003-09-22
I have no ability to ascertain what the average person looks for in a travel book, but this volume fufilled all of the basic needs that I had. It gives the reader information about the many areas of the country, including prices, popular attractions, and practical information such as how to use the public telephones (not obvious!), etc... My favorite aspect of the book is that it gives detailed listings ofresturants and eateries within a wide price range. I hesitate to give this book a better rating, simply because the introductory history is somewhat biased and maybe unecessary ( unless you have no familiarity with german histoy. ) and the book is narrated in a fashion that I found slightly vague and irritating. ex; the book mentions that there is always plenty going on in Goettingen, but neglects to say what... but thats trivial, really, and it will answer your basic travel concerns.
Comparitively good.......2003-02-23
I don't understand the very negative reviews. The book may not be perfect, but there is no better German travel guide out there. Believe me, I've looked through bookstores and have not found anything close. I used an older edition (along with "Let's Go Germany") while living in Germany in '98 and use the updated one for frequent return trips. This book's strengths:
1. It was written by a Brit a with a sense of humor, honesty, and a good grasp of German history. If a tourist spot is lame, he is open about it.
2. It has good coverage of quaint, off-the-tourist-track towns which are not covered in other resources. These are the best places to visit because they tend to be attractive, less touristy, and inexpensive.
3. I have found this book's hotel recommendations to be superior. The lists of accomodations are extensive and accurately described. Good recommendations for low/medium priced bed & breakfast type places.
For the most part, I've been pleased with this book and recommend it over anything else currently on the market.
I hated this book!.......2002-07-21
I was living in Germany at the time and this was my least favorite guide book. I really disliked the way it was formated and the fact that some of the info was wrong. Yucky book!!!
Rough Guides Rule.......2000-05-16
I first picked up the "Rough Guide to West Germany" in 1990, and have bought every update since. The key to remember is that the guide is written for the average tourist, not for someone that lives in Essen. Having said that, I have lived in Europe for 8 years, and find the guide indispensible. The beginning chapters provide you with all the essential information you need to plan the trip, including tourist office addresses, best prices for airlines, reminds you to purchase Eurail passes while still at home, etc. The guide itself is written in a slightly irreverant way, giving a wide berth to commercial tourist attractions in favor of historically significant areas. It lists accomodation (sp?) for all price classes, and even directs you to a good meal in individual cities. The guide stands as a good read, even if you aren't travelling. It gives you everything as advertised, and then some.
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
The Czechs and Slovaks have rarely been in full control of their historical destiny. The Nazis carved up their country in 1938, only twenty years after its foundation; the Iron Curtain descended just ten years later; and in 1968, Warsaw Pact tanks trampled on the country's dreams of "socialism with a human face". Even the break-up of the country was cooked up by the intransigent leaders of the two main political parties, and went ahead against the will of the majority of the population, and without even a proper referendum.
Yet the events of November 1989 - the Velvet Revolution - were probably the most unequivocably positive of all the anticommunist upheavals in Eastern Europe. True to their pacifist past, the Czechs and Slovaks shrugged off 41 years of Communist rule without so much as a shot being fired. In the parliamentary elections the following summer, the Communists were roundly defeated, and Václav Havel, a playwright of international renown with an impeccable record of resistance against the previous regime, was chosen as president. The euphoria and unity of those first few months evaporated more quickly than anyone could have imagined, and just three years after the revolution, against most people's predictions, the country split into two separate republics.
In contrast to the political upheavals that have plagued the region, the Czech and Slovak republics have suffered very little physical damage over the last few centuries. Gothic castles and Baroque chateaux have been preserved in abundance, town after town in Bohemia and Moravia has retained its old medieval quarter, and even the wooden architecture of Slovakia has survived beyond all expectations. Geographically speaking, the two republics are the most diverse of all the former Eastern Bloc states. Together they span the full range of central European cultures, from the old German towns of the west to the Hungarian and Rusyn villages in East Slovakia. In physical terms, too, there's enormous variety: Bohemia's rolling hills, lush and relentless, couldn't be more different from the flat Danube basin, or the granite alpine peaks of the High Tatras, the beech forests of the far east, or the coal basins of the Moravian north.
More accessible today than at any time since the 1930s, the major cities are now buzzing with a cultural and commercial diversity, and fail to conform to most people's idea of Eastern Europe. At the same time, the remoter regions are more reminiscent of the early twentieth century than the twenty-first. Prague has withstood a whole decade of Western-style tourism, and now has the facilities to cope. In the remoter regions, however, facilities are only slowly being upgraded. Inevitably, the continuing pace of change in both republics means that certain sections of this book are going to be out of date even as you read them, such is the volatility and speed of the current transformation.
The break-up of Czechoslovakia
The sharpest division in the country before 1989 was between Party member and non-Party member; nowadays, the most acute problems are between ethnic groups - Czech and Slovak, Slovak and Hungarian, Slav and Romany. The Czechs who inhabit the western provinces of Bohemia and Moravia are among the most Westernized Slavs in Europe: urbane, agnostic, liberal and traditionally quite well-off. By contrast, the Slovaks are, for the most part, more devoutly Catholic and socially conservative. Though their peasant way of life is slowly dying out, the traditional, agrarian codes of conduct remain embedded in the Slovak culture.
Throughout decades of peaceful coexistence, the Czech-Slovak divide remained one of the distinctive features of the country: Czechs and Slovaks rarely mixed socially, visited one another's republics only as tourists, and knew little about each other's ways, relying instead on hearsay and prejudice. Yet despite this, and the constant rumblings of discontent in Slovakia, few people predicted the break-up of Czechoslovakia. During the summer of 1992, numerous attempts were made by the Czech and Slovak federal governments to reach a compromise that would preserve the federation while giving the Slovaks a degree of autonomy to satisfy their national aspirations, but for whatever reasons, no agreement emerged.
Events were soon overtaken by the elections of June 1992. A sweeping victory by the nationalists in Slovakia and the right wing in the Czech Lands quickly propelled the country towards disintegration. The new Czech administration, intent on pushing through free-market economic policies inimical to the Slovaks, and a Slovak government that had pledged to declare Slovak sovereignty, finally agreed to disagree, and on January 1, 1993, after 74 years of turbulent history, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist.
To begin with, both sides seemed keen to help preserve at least some of the numerous personal, political, economic and cultural ties of the old federation. In the end, very little has survived: both countries have separate currencies and formal border controls, and dual citizenship is not permitted. Predictions of a post-Yugoslav scenario have proved unfounded, though the issue of Slovakia's Hungarian minority remains potentially volatile, and both republics have witnessed an upsurge in nationalism and racism, much of it directed against the large Romany population they share.
Customer Reviews:
Did They Really Visit?.......2005-01-17
I purchased this book before a three-day trip to Liberec. Literally nothing that was written about the city was on target. Their opinion that the place was unattractive was, IMHO wrong. The recommended restaurants didn't exist; were incorrectly located on the map; or were absolutely terrible! The opening/closing times for the Bohemian glass museum in a nearby town were inaccurate.
Too bad I can't return it.
I'm planning on going back to the CZ. I'll take Lonely Planet instead.
lots of detail but hard to navigate.......2004-06-03
This book is chock full of details, with history and facts impressively presented for sights throughout the Czech Republic and Slovakia, places small and large. The dense pages are hard to navigate as they are formatted, making it difficult to find information quickly. Also, the author seems to have traveled by car and the book lacks practical information on public transportation, such as how long it takes to travel from one place to another and how much bus or train tickets cost. This book will provide you with great background information once you are already there, but for practical trip planning, I found I needed to refer to the Lonely Planet.
Outstanding guide.......2003-08-26
This is an outstanding guide. It's absolutely chock full of detail. In fact it's almost TOO detailed. I lived in the Czech Republic for an entire month this summer, traveling mostly on the weekends, and I found myself simply unable to see most of the stuff in this guide, even in Prague. It covers virtually every single museum in the country, and a lot of other interesting sights besides that often don't get into the dorky little travel guides most tourists buy (stuff like breweries and wine cellars). The eating section here is tremendous. It even lists Icelandic and Greek restaurants in Prague! The book has also got a great entertainment section, listing places like nightclubs, jazz bars, opera houses and similar venues of a cultural nature. The shopping section will tell you where to find places like English-language bookstores. And of course, it lists all sorts of accomodations (not just hostels and campsites).
The guide is also extremely detailed about what to see outside of Prague and Bratislava. Kutna Hora, Cesky Krumlov, and the Tatras obviously make it in, but you'll also find information about pokey little towns out in the sticks (heck, it's even got a section on notorious East Moravia, which a Czech friend of mine memorably described as the "a--hole of the country").
Finally, although you don't have to be a real outdoors kind of person to buy a "rough" guide, if you do like the outdoors, this is definitely the guide to buy. It has tons of information about hiking in the mountains, boating on the Vltava, places to camp, etc.
So basically you can't go wrong here. Light-weight, too. Five stars.
An excellent guide for an independent traveller........1999-10-24
My continued use of lonely planet guides is indicative of the quality I find. It is an excellent guide for us. We travel by car and lp is a plus for us as we can get to more remote area. It was right on target with the Czech & Slovak Rep guide. We found a wonderful place to visit and stay called Telc with their recommendation. My only criticism is that the binding did not hold up and the book came loose from it. It was difficult to turn pages because of occasional pages becoming loose.
Full of essential info for all types of travellers........1999-04-21
Information ranging from the cheapest bus to get from the airport to the city, to the locations of the finest restaurants in town. More than adequate chapter on Prague, but the book really comes into its element talking about tiny exquisite villages in Slovakia's back of beyond!
Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Of the many strongly individual regions of France, Brittany and Normandy rank among the most distinct. Each sustains its own proud identity, in terms of culture, peoples, landscape and history. A journey through the two regions enables you to experience much of the best that France has to offer: wild coast and sheltered white-sand beaches; sparse heathland and dense forests; medieval ports and relics of the prehistoric past; fine cities and museums; and, every bit as important, abundant seafood and (especially in Normandy) a compelling and exuberant cuisine.
Highlights in every area are detailed in the chapter introductions throughout this book. While step-by-step itineraries are not specified - much of the fun of exploring consists in rambling off on side roads - the text is structured as far as possible in continuous routes. If you read this before you decide how to travel, consider cycling; both provinces are ideal for cycle touring, with short distances between each town and the next. Otherwise, a car is probably the best alternative; public transport options tend to be very limited.
Customer Reviews:
Info...liberally seasoned with author's high self-opinion.......2004-02-29
I bought this book in anticipation of visiting Normandy. On first glance, it looked ideal for my purposes (traveling alone with lots of time to meander). Once into the book, I saw that few of the towns have maps--even maps of cities'-centers would be helpful.
More than that, though, was the condescending tone he used when discussing holy places (i.e., referring to the devotion to Saint Thèrése of Lisieux as "a cult"). The author's inflated sense of self was reflected in nearly every section of this book, and I soon relegated it to the bottom of my suitcase: I wanted information; not editorializing. For the rest of my trip, I did quite well with small town maps (free at any tourism office).
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