It may sound like a paradox, but it is true: since 2018, Frankfurt is proud of its “new old town”. As part of the DomRömer Project several streets and squares, which were destroyed during the Second World War, were reconstructed. By using more than 60 spolia, original components of the historic buildings, a new quarter has been created – with museums, cafes and shops.

The beguinages of Flanders and the Netherlands are always oases of calm and stillness, where you might still expect to see an old beguine mumbling her prayers in a doorway. Two of Ghent’s three beguinages have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Although the Old St Elizabeth Beguinage, in Begijnhofdries in Ghent, is no longer enclosed by a wall, making it simply part of the city, it still has a unique atmosphere. Today the Old St Elizabeth Beguinage is known as ‘holy corner’, a place of religious tolerance, because it has no less than three different churches: one is Roman Catholic, one is Orthodox and the other is Protestant. From bleachfield to orchard This open beguinage grew into something of a ‘beguine city’ in the 13th century, with a church, the ‘Grootjuffer’s House’, an infirmary, a chapel, more than a hundred houses for beguines, a bleachfield (a field where linen was laid out to bleach) and an orchard. After the French Revolution, with increasing industrialisation, the inhabitants moved to their new beguinage in Sint-Amandsberg in 1873.

One of Germany's most beautiful hiking trails runs along the banks of the Elbe to Blankenese. The former fishing village is now a prosperous suburb to the west of Hamburg, located right on the Elbe. Picturesque lanes, winding stairs and houses standing close together: with its Mediterranean feel, the Blankenese Treppenviertel is reminiscent of a resort on the Riviera. Blankeneser Bahnhofstraße is like a small city in itself, with its church, weekly market, many well-stocked shops, restaurants and ice cream parlours.