My City.

Six Munich on the feeling in Germany's southernmost metropolis to live.

 

Non-covered Munich to the Bavarian metropolis many clichés one. Is the city actually an amalgam of Bussi-Bussi, FC Bayern and folkloric costumes for tourists? Six celebrities explain what it means for them, on the Isar to live:

Secret oases of merchants.

Hidden behind walls of Paradise: The Gardens of the noble city of Amsterdam Villas are usually inaccessible to tourists. Only for a few days in June, the most beautiful gardens open their doors - and surprise even the locals with stern baroque art.

 

Amsterdam - All is quiet in the garden of Jan LM Meulendijks. Twitter tits, a fountain splashes there, behind the magnificent city palace from the 17th Century on the noble Herengracht in Amsterdam. In the gardens are in bloom from March until the October. "Some people said that this was one of the most beautiful gardens on the Herengracht," says the retired Meulendijks. Once a year the house will open the doors to its green oasis.

In the Open Tuinen Dagen, 19 to 21 June 2009 - the days of the open gardens - Shares Jan LM Meulendijks the joy hidden in his city green with guests from near and far. More than 30 gardens will be the visitors at the Open Tuinen Dagen get to see - private as well as the green gardens of some museums. Gardens in the strict Japanese style are among them, but also the colorful world of flowers actress Barbara Gozens. It is the garden of her house on the Keizersgracht near Amstelfluss this year for the first time.

Ancient trees between multi houses

"In recent years, I was even a few times as a visitor to the garden on weekends," says the actress. "I thought that was very fascinating, this surprising insights to receive." Surprisingly, and full of secrets - this makes the charm of the Open Tuinen Dagen from.

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If you are a visitor to the Dutch capital on the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht stroll past, the suspects between the high-rise buildings hardly cared for the garden green with centuries-old trees. No gate opens the view, not a curious passage gives only a small piece of dormant world behind the elegant villas and town houses priced Kontorhaus.

Houses and gardens date from the 17th Century, the Golden Age of the Netherlands. Then came many of the Amsterdam East India Trading Company to wealth. The boats of the nots merchants brought coffee, spices, porcelain and silk fabrics from Ceylon, India, China and Indonesia into the country.

"Dagen TUIN OPEN IN AMSTERDAM

Private gardens and temporary museum entrance gardens

The tours through the private gardens start at the Open Tuinen Dagen, 19 to 21 Each June at one of the four following addresses:

Bijbels Museum (Herengracht 366-368), Huis Marseille (Keizersgracht 401), Museum van Loon (Keizersgracht 672), the Museum Willet-Holthuysen (Herengracht 605).

At these places there is also information on the characteristics of individual gardens.

Tickets cost 15 euros and are valid for the gardens and the taxi boat.
The opening times are from 10 clock and 17 clock.
For wheelchairs and prams are the garden tours because of the many entrance stairs is not suitable, dogs are prohibited.

The gardens of the Museum van Loon, the museum Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis (both at the Keizersgracht), and the Willet-Holthuysen Museum (Herengracht) are for the visitors throughout the year.

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Since 1996, there is the weekend of open gardens Amsterdam. Some owners participate in each year of the action, others in this June for the first time. Some rise times for one or two years, and then into the circle of the hosts back.

Garden art from the Baroque to the Modern

A good half a year, the Amsterdam garden designer Saskia Albrecht with the preparations for the weekend deal. She speaks the owner of the green oasis, it gets so much time on their gardener or caretaker contacts with new prospects. "That may be hard to believe as a stranger: But the inhabitants of the canal belt are well interconnected. Many of you might know personally of exhibitions and concerts," she says. "Every year we try some ten new gardens to present."

Friends of the garden art that is repeated on the green weekend travel to Amsterdam, can always hope for new discoveries. In the past year touched 7500 visitors through the hidden gardens, and were impressed by the works of art from the Baroque era, the Renaissance or even of modernity. The guests came from Germany, Belgium, Britain, France and Italy - and even from Japan and Finland.

Those who see all the open gardens, you should be good to walk. About ten kilometers long is the route along the canal ring that looks like a semicircle in the city center of Amsterdam surrounds. "The best we rented a bicycle. This is with us in Amsterdam anyway the movement's number one," says Saskia Albrechts. "If you do not grow on a bike might be a special taxi boat through the canals and channels to some of the gardens can go."

Dolce Vita hourly.

How much Rome fits in a day? For tourists can walk on the search for the Dolce Vita, as it is from Fellini films knows. You will experience a city rich in ancient treasures - but sometimes has trouble in arriving today.

 

Rome - Finalmente! After a painfully long week full of noise and hectic everyday life takes on the Tiber at last weekend up. If Peter is now tilted in St. Peter's and the sunlight wraps, then you can start the day, as he always should start with a cappuccino and a sweet-filled cornetto.

Whether museum and cinema, shopping or an extended trip to the Roman restaurant with an aperitif in advance - all but really wants to be moody begun. And even if the "Dolce Vita" of Federico Fellini with a light layer of dust covered the history and the Rome of Pier Paolo Pasolini in the past: to stroll and enjoy the Eternal City invites always.

So, what was with the cappuccino in the cafeteria at the top of the Terrazza Caffarelli with the view of the Palatine hill? At the bottom of the Piazza del Campidoglio by Michelangelo collects a wedding party, which still varies between composite and joyful countenance.

Espresso with a view

The army already attracts international tourists up to the treasures of the Capitoline Museums to admire. Since, the Romans rather not snake, but are straight on to the terrace on the smallest of the Roman hill and looks reverently - with a cup of espresso in his hand - on the mild morning mist in Trastevere neighborhood is on the right side Tiber.

Such a view invites further to stroll, the city is manageable and provides enjoyment of art in all corners and ends. Certainly, Rome is not a metropolis of boulevards such as the Seine-Paris.

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The "Eternal City": Center of Rome is easily explored on foot - with the car to get ahead but only poorly

But Rome is littered with gems from the ancient and later times - such as the Quirinalspalast inhabited by President Giorgio Napolitano and only a short walk away from the cafeteria. In the former Stables - the Scuderie, which is now a museum - the art encounters interested trotter on works from the brilliant time, most recently about the high Renaissance masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini. And that is certainly not just a magnet for tourists Rome.

Before lunch with a light antipasto and a glass of Frascati wine sits the money yet not so loose. The shopping spree, to a vertrödelten day in the capital of Italy in any case, may be good but we still put the afternoon - perhaps in the Via del Babuino between Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps, that is, below the Villa Borghese, on the northern edge of the historic center . Severed with the New York's Madison Avenue, the street lined with boutiques trend known only as names, from Jil Sander to Tiffany's.

Too modern for Rome?

Before lunch, but still waiting for the Emperor Augustus on the banks of the Tiber a "buon giorno" - his Peace Altar and the Ara Pacis museum "are at least talk again in Rome. Because the post-new mayor Giovanni Alemanno likes the strictly contemporary building just do not know that the American star architect Richard Meier to protect the plant was designed. My favorite would have torn him Alemanno. So you have to hurry, the hyper-modern piece of architecture of glass and steel of the "Ara Pacis Augustae" to pay tribute.

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Because actually doing it but the city with the past, overwhelming everything quite well, now and then a step to venture into today.

Now is the enormous appetite but "spaghetti all vongole" or rather the Involtini (rolls) on Roman Art? Let's see what "Il Gusto, near Augustus around the corner on the card. The well-known faces from the Roman cultural life are already there, it is a day when you outside on the terrace on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore place and that they can sit back. Herrlich!

"Il Gusto" is a gastronomic magnet concept in style and seems to have no end: Osteria and cafe, pizzeria and wine bar, cheese shop and shop with fine kitchen utensils - it's all that yes, the "Dolce Vita" in the 21st Century. Well, Fellini Via Veneto is the sterile realm meeting stunted, and Anita Ekberg increased today in the Trevi Fountain, and would rubberneck Carabinieri quickly on the spot.

Above all, Rome is no cinema metropolis of rank, as well helping the young, previously little-known film nothing. The Kinofan needs during his afternoon stroll but not go so far to get the latest Woody Allen movie in its original version to be able to see. Because there is the one the movie "Metropolitan" on the Via del Corso, a hotspot for cinema friends, from the outside it looks like a classic cafe with tables and bar

As an alternative, in the historical center would remain the "Nuovo Olimpio" in the small Via in Lucina. Popular with all that but on the Roman noses look is still hidden in the Trastevere, the "Nuovo Sacher", one of the director Nani Moretti equipped meeting place for cinema lovers of all nations. After the visit to the cinema loads a movie nearby bookstore to browse, as well as for brunch.

Buffalo mozzarella and balsamic Modena

About the cinematic debates would smooth the shopping list for the delicatessen shop in oblivion can. When does "Roscioli in the Via dei Giubbonari near the Campo dei Fiori is actually sealed? Well, lucky again, and as soon as look at the showcase will run one's mouth water: buffalo mozzarella and parmesan are matured well here, and the aged Edelessig "balsamico from Modena is also available.

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Now the legs tired from the city running, it will be time for an aperitif. While the Romans usually a wide arc around the Piazza Navona tourist magnet, is in addition to a very silent street hidden "Caffe della Pace" - since time immemorial, it seems - an attraction of intellectuals and those who like to keep. The tired walkers opted, however, but now for the canapés in the "Salotto 42", the equally as cozy chic resort on the charming Piazza di Pietra to the Chamber of Commerce.

How does the evening? Another leap in the multi-museum before dinner - or maybe more after that? Indeed, following an equally successful as long renovation invites the Palazzo delle Esposizioni on Friday and Saturday for the late visit.

The magnificent building on the Via Nazionale moves only because of its magnificent architectural stockings interested in the arts - and the evening is not just a special atmosphere, one is also not on the feet. As for the exhibitions, there is the enormous bandwidth, and they sometimes threaten the general store to be. After a Mark Rothko retrospective in his high holy halls of the Palazzo bestach last example, with a large Etruscan review.

So it only to the museum and then "Perilli in the Testaccio district, the scene of Rome, the audience for some time for themselves discovered. Inconspicuous on the broad Via Marmorata located, is "Perilli" to those taverns to the "good old days" remember and thus for the day's finale almost obtrude. Lamminnereien or the traditional oxtail stew: The choice is difficult.

At the final chord Kastanienmus feel of a stroll then, as the day was exhausting. The dance in a disco-Testaccio falls flat this time - and the diary is full anyway.

City tour with a fitness factor.

Hechelnd by Salt City: When Sightjoggen Lüneburg run by tourists to the sights over and find out where the expression "vermöbeln", as the old Hanseatic their anger at the church said - and as house walls may be pregnant.

 

Lüneburg - now just do not stumble. On cobblestones is slightly uphill from the valley, below the 30-meter depth is pure salt, the white gold that is rich in medieval Lüneburg made, the traders and their noble magnificent half-timbered houses and brick owe.

Although Jürgen Thies jogs while talking, the City durchtrainierte not out of breath. He has half a dozen inquisitive runners in tow. In an hour they want to explore the city and also something for their fitness to do so.

For the "Sight Jogging", apart from tourists interested primarily participants in meetings and business people. Gern ran even before the breakfast starts, says Thies. "They are otherwise two days here and have seen nothing from Lüneburg." It is shortly after 18:30 clock, a spring day comes to an end. The evening sun bathes the lovingly restored facades of the old town in western golden light. Previously here was the lower middle class at home. "A nice atmosphere, almost like in the Middle Ages," says Thies.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a choir student

On the beams of a house in the Lower Ohlingerstraße a character falls into the eye: "Lord protect me and live here before the planners and Kulturbanausen the 1991st" This is clearly not historically, but the manuscript of the working group Lüneburger old (ALA). This citizens' initiative prevented in the sixties, the demolition of the historic Lüneburg and continues to pursue the preservation of old buildings.

While the runners shuddering to imagine that a hair concrete flat roof and the sins of the city had robbed the soul, appears on the gables of the tower of the church on Michaels. There was Johann Sebastian Bach Choir for two years pupils. Perhaps he also has the iron bar in the house walls noticed at the entrance of the alley "In Techt".

Between these systems spanned the residents in the Middle Ages chains at night to prevent possible attackers on their ride through the city to stop. 80 of these chain points to defend, there was once in Lüneburg. "And up from the first floor are the women then furniture on the attackers heruntergeworfen" says Thies. Someone was vermöbeln such dictum.

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The runners are now facing their first test: The Kalkberg, which despite its name from plaster, is a good 55 meters the highest peak Lüneburg. Slightly out of breath, the Group enjoys the view over the city - like the country gentlemen in their Luniburg the 1371 self-confident citizens destroyed. Thereafter, as the mountain Gipsbruch excuse. Meanwhile goats graze here - the countryside. The habitat is protected.

Locker is downhill, back to the lower area up to the "gateway to the underworld" in the Frommestraße. Two goalposts in the 19th Century show the effects of salt until 1980 operated mining. Through the movements in the soil are the posts already immigrated successive 1,20 meters. On the adjacent land investor plans a modern glass cubes. The residents fear that the excavation by construction could continue to worsen. Many houses in the area have cracks or should be. Over the past 100 years had Lüneburg even demolish some buildings, including a church.

In the near-ground Love can not tarnish the idyll. On the attachment, once outside the city walls was cavort like the couples in the Middle Ages. Walkers enjoy the chirping birds. Of the six city gates today, none more. Over the twelve-meter-wide rest of the oak-lined walls, the group returned to the Old Town. "If the city would still maintain, it would surely have long Lüneburg world," says Thies. But still adorns the Unesco.

This change also allegedly oldest row houses in Germany nothing. In the year 1558, they were for the armed Ratsdiener horse servant in the street were built, with dark brick facade, arms and artfully filmed "Tausteinen", a Lüneburger invention.

"Pregnant walls from plaster

On the market around the elongated runners City Hall. Its bricks are 800 years old - no German city hall is longer in operation. Compared to the scale road curves a centuries-old threat to the outside facade. It is the most famous pregnant wall "of the city, says Thies. "This is the cast of Kalkberg, burnt for too long, and then pours it through heat and cold like a dough."

At the church along Nicolai is back in the alleys and streets of the old town with its splendid trading houses. Some grimace schaurige äugt of a Renaissance portal on the culture of athletes down. In the street tree has Thies on the half-timbered house with the number 3 from 1538. The former owner made his anger against the Catholics with rough carvings air: There are a monk with a wine bottle in his hand and a nun who bared.

Runners jog on, the water district, to the smelt, the former port. Today there are bars and restaurants. A historical Holzkran invited once the salt in the Ewer. On Stint is also the oldest water tower in Germany, the Abtswasserturm of 1530. It also saves water for the once 80 breweries - an impressive figure for 14,000 inhabitants. The "Plempe" was popular, not only in the sweaty salt servants, in large salt pans of boiling brine had.

To an isotonic drinks are now also the runner is no longer a long wait. At the last piece of its seven-kilometer-long tour across the oblong space on the sands. Here is John's Church, a prime example of North German brick Gothic. Here are also the oldest pediment of the city, where the nobles gathered in ballrooms to the roaring celebrations. "As you can imagine, like 500 years ago the Post abging," says Thies and sets up a brisk pace.