Madrid may be a sprawling, energetic city today, but it was an unlikely choice to be named Spanish capital in the 16th century—and nobody was more astonished than the residents themselves. In 1561, it was a small provincial outpost, hardly larger than a village, when King Philip II sent a letter announcing his royal court’s imminent arrival. Local Castilian aristocrats had to scramble to purchase enough banquet food just for their monarch’s table, and they (like the rest of Spain) were baffled to learn that Philip decided to remain permanently.

Unlike the great cities of Toledo and Seville, Madrid had no cathedral, no grand avenues, no university; it didn’t even have one of the new-fangled printing presses, considered a symbol of progress at the time. But what it did have was its central location; from Madrid, letters could reach any point in Spain within five days. King Philip was a devout Catholic, painfully shy and austere; he had no talent for leading armies into battle and he also disliked traveling, so had decided to run the ever-expanding Spanish Empire by royal decree. A prince among bureaucrats, it was said that he would deal with 400 complex documents a day. As soon as the news was out, the once-sleepy Madrid was flooded with wealth of the court and its noble hangers-on; the city quickly became an enormous construction site, resulting in the ornate palaces and majestic and fabulously wealthy convents that we see in the historical center today.

Philip’s rather dull, methodical nature did not make Madrid a quiet place—far from it. Hordes of artists and writers seeking wealthy patrons followed the aristocracy, as did as con-men, petty criminals, prostitutes, and famous picaros, Spanish adventurers who lived on their wits. The atmosphere resembled a free-wheeling Wild West town. One writer, Antonio Liñan y Verdugo, penned a guidebook in 1620 for gold-digging Spaniards flocking to the city, called Guide and Advice to Strangers Who Come to the Court. His description gave a more vivid idea of Madrid than history books. He suggested that Madrid had become a vice-ridden “Babylon” filled with tricksters and illusory wonders—”dreamed-up marvels, fairy-tale treasures and figures like actors on a stage.”

Nobody remains impassive when they first see Picasso’s painting Guernica in the Reina Sofia Museum of Madrid: Some viewers gasp in recognition, others are stunned, a few older Spaniards even burst into tears. The enormous canvas, where twisted abstract figures cascade across an exploding landscape in agony and confusion, is the West’s most famous anti-war statement. It also captures the tragic history of Spain’s bloody civil war, which raged in the late 1930s and still resonates today. The Spanish-born Picasso was living in Paris when Spain’s Republican government asked him to create a painting for the 1937 World’s Fair. In last April he read a newspaper report of the bombing of Guernica in the Basque Country. This town was considered a socialist stronghold by Spain’s right-wing Nationalists, who were supported militarily by the German Nazi Government. On April 26, the German air force swept down on the town, raining bombs upon its civilians indiscriminately. Guernica’s men were fighting on the front lines, so the attack caught mostly women, children and the elderly; planes strafed refugees mercilessly with machine gun fire. Picasso was deeply affected by the account and threw himself into painting Guernica. The 25-feet-long canvass captured all the barbarity of the attack and it became an instant icon.

After the World Fair in Paris, the painting toured the United States. By 1939, Europe was engulfed in the Second World War, so Picasso asked that the painting remain safely at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and not be returned to Spain until the Nationalist leader, General Francisco Franco, had been removed from power. This change took far longer than anyone could have guessed. The sinister dictator not only won the Civil War, he controlled the country until his death 36 years later, in 1975. Democracy was finally restored in Spain the following year, and with great fanfare, Guernica traveled home to Madrid in 1981. It has never left.

Germany is a country with rich history, quaint towns & modern cities. On a vacation to Germany, any traveler will be amazed by these breathtaking views!

Berlin is, perhaps, Germany’s most famous city. Don’t miss these sights in this great city on a vacation to Germany!

Stroll along the famed Unter den Linden avenue to the old town, known as Nikolai Quarter. Then continue to the Gendarmenmarkt, considered Berlin’s most beautiful square. Ask your Local Host about this and other walking routes around town.

Gemäldegalerie

The name means Picture Gallery, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better painting collection than these offerings from the 13th to 18th centuries by such luminaries as Bruegel, van Eyck, Rubens, and Rembrandt. Designed by Munich architects Hilmer & Sattler, the building is a work of art in its own right.

New National Gallery

A must for lovers of modern art.

Ku’damm – shopping

Take advantage of great shopping and fine restaurants on the Kurfürstendamm, or stroll along the Tauentziennstrasse. Visit the Europa Center and Europe’s largest department store, the KaDeWe.

Prater

Enjoy an hour beneath shady chestnut trees in Berlin’s oldest beer garden. Prater has many other areas as well, including a theater.

Türkenmarkt

The local market overflows with fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh-baked breads, and culinary wonders. Since it is located beside a canal, strolling through here is relaxing, and there’s a cozy park nearby.

Riesling, Beers, Bratwurst, Sauerbraten, Dumplings

Try German specialties, fine white wines, and delicious cream pastries.

Berlin nightlife

Stroll the Oranienburger Strasse, a popular place at night and an artists’ meeting point with plentiful cafes and restaurants. For good live music, visit a local Biergarten or Biersalon, or take in a show.

Americans with Central or Eastern European roots have a good chance of finding an ancestor or two in the emigration history of Hamburg. Between 1836 and 1914, 4 million people set sail for America from Hamburg’s Elbe River ports. Mostly from the lands of Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, these were the true huddled masses—poor, unwashed, uneducated. Perfect targets for xenophobia.

In 1892, a cholera epidemic killed 10,000 people in Hamburg, causing an outcry against emigrants crowded into the filthy sleeping barracks on the America pier. Whether the epidemic started there or not, the foreigners were blamed and their numbers capped. Businesses that lived off the emigrant trade protested, and shipping magnate Albert Ballin hammered out a deal to build Hamburg’s version of Ellis Island.

On Veddel Island in the Elbe River, a quarantine complex was built in 1901 to shepherd emigrants hygienically from the Old World to the New. It had a train station, church, music pavilion, clean latrines and sleeping halls, and dining rooms with white table cloths. Pleasant surroundings, but a nightmare for the emigrants, who were interrogated, examined, tagged, and disinfected in gruff, military fashion.

Today, Hamburg preserves this link with America at the new BallinStadt, a museum and genealogy research center on Veddel Island. Like Ellis Island, BallinStadt recreates the emigrant experience using a restored sleeping barracks, artifacts ranging from antique toys to suitcases, and personal stories told through photographs and letters. Its emigrant database is linked to the U.S. census.

Oktoberfest in Munich is the mother of all drinking festivals. It might just also be the origin of a slew of clichés about Germans and their culture.

Take Lederhosen. It just wouldn’t be Oktoberfest without men in short leather overalls celebrating under the massive blue and white Oktoberfest tents. Lederhosen are a traditional costume tied to the German-speaking Alpine regions since the Middle Ages. Outside of Bavaria, the occasional Lederhosen-wearing gentleman may appear in public, but it’s rare and the man is probably over 60.

Oom-pah music played by a band of tubas and trumpets while beer drinkers link arms and sway to the oom-pah beat is another must-have at Oktoberfest. Does that mean Germans from Berlin to the Black Forest break out the tuba at the first opportunity? Hardly. Schlager is the music of choice when Germans gather to celebrate. These syrupy pop hits from the 1950s to today are branded into the minds of most Germans who sing along once the beer is flowing.

Speaking of beer, the beer stein is a favorite souvenir from Germany. The stein with its hinged lid was a 15th-century Bavarian attempt to keep the flies away during plague times. But today, if Germans aren’t drinking their beer out of the bottle, they drink it out of a glass, so finding a classic stein outside of a souvenir shop or selected areas of Bavaria is hard.

On a vacation to Germany, Munich is a must see destination. Make sure to include these sights on a vacation to Munich!

Museums

Munich has over 50 museums; Here are some ideas:

Alte Pinakothek

This glorious museum has an immense collection of paintings from the greatest European artists of the 14th through the 18th centuries, including Dutch and Flemish masters. See a self-portrait by Rembrandt and a Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci.

Deutsches Museum (German Museum)

Families and the technically minded will enjoy a fascinating few hours viewing the master works of science and technology.

Stadtmuseum

Wander the themed rooms of the Stadtmuseum. The collections include puppet theaters, thousands of musical instruments from around the world, more than 500,000 photographs, and a history of brewing.

BMW Museum, BMW World

For automobile fans and lovers of this classic car.

Villa Stuck

Paul Klee, referring to the Villa Stuck, called this museum mansion, designed by the artist and owner Franz von Stuck, “frighteningly wonderful.” Stuck’s unique design, which incorporates floors, ceilings, and walls into a single beautiful work of art, was celebrated immediately—even the furniture, which won a gold medal at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900.

Old City Walk

Take a fascinating walking route through the Old City and step back in time.

Asamkirche

The brothers Cosmas Damian & Egid Quirin seemed divinely inspired when they created a baroque church for themselves, which turned out so magnificent that their 18th-century compatriots forced them to make it accessible to the public. From the ornate façade to the ceiling fresco of St John Nepomuk, nearly every inch is a delight.

Schatzkammer der Residenz

See the former royal palace of Bavarian monarchs and stroll through the Schatzkammer (Treasury) halls. You’ll see lavish crowns from generations of monarchs, scepters and ceremonial swords, table wear, and extravagant crafts from China, India, Iran, Mexico, and Turkey.

Beer Steins, Cuckoo Clocks, Wood Carvings

It’s hard to imagine leaving Munich without a traditional German beer stein. Other traditional souvenirs include cuckoo clocks, wool clothing, and carved wood items.

Beer Gardens and Specialties

Countless beer gardens populate the city, and it’s a great chance to relax with the locals. There’s a wide variety of beers to choose from, and seats beneath shady trees are plentiful. Try German specialties including sauerbraten (marinated beef dish), dumplings (maybe ask for the lighter semolina dumplings), sauerkraut, some of the many different kinds of sausage, potato dishes, one of the famous white wines, or the milder radler or speze….and don’t forget gingerbread and delectable cream pastries.

Concerts and Opera

To round off a perfect day, experience a local concert or a night at the Opera.

Germany is a beautiful and vibrant city with rich history and culture. Whether you’re seeking enchanting Christmas markets, raucous good fun at Oktoberfest or uplifting religious architecture, Germany has it all. Don’t miss the quaint metropolis of Heidelberg or the breath-taking Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, which was the inspiration for Disney’s infamous Sleeping Beauty castle.

But first, let’s begin our guided tour of Berlin! Here we’ll discover all that Germany’s largest and most noteworthy city has to offer. The center of both German conflict and reunification, this majestic capital is rife with religious and historical landmarks. We’ll experience the instability evoked by the unconventional Holocaust Memorial and revel in the stately elegance of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a remnant of the Prussian era.  No visit would be complete without seeing the Brandenburg Gate, which will welcome us to ancient Berlin and rests just blocks from where the infamous wall once stood.

From Berlin, our vacation will bring us south to the bustling metropolis of Munich, the capital of Bavaria. The Marienplatz, a city square where medieval markets and tournaments were once hosted, will likely be our first stop. And if we’re lucky enough to be touring during the legendary Oktoberfest, we’ll be sure to take part in the 200-year-old celebration by indulging in delicious German food and Bavaria’s finest beer!

No matter where our journeys take us, Germany is sure to deliver unexpected adventures and unforgettable memories.

You may be wondering while winter is hitting the United States what the weather is like in Rome, Italy. Here are the monthly average temperatures you can expect on a vacation to Rome.

January: 53˚F

February: 56˚F

March: 61˚F

April: 66˚F

May: 74˚F

June: 81˚F

July: 88˚F

August: 87˚F

September: 81˚F

October: 72˚F

November: 62˚F

December: 55˚F

Source: www.weather.com

While wandering the superbly preserved streets of Pompeii, keep an eye out for the cauponae, early fast-food restaurants loved by the ancient Romans. Located on several corners and looking like open-air bars, these one-room establishments were where busy citizens could grab a quick meal and glass of wine on the run. They were identified by colorful signs over their doors (one place excavated in Pompeii had a Phoenix; another sported an elephant and pygmy). And like modern coffee bars in Italy today, customers stood at an L-shaped brick counter to order. There were jars full of hot and cold food, as well as amphorae of wine, which they could consume on the spot, take out to a few wooden seats provided on the street, or, in some cases, to a small back garden.

The atmosphere at these take-out joints was casual. Dining out was only for the plebs; wealthy Romans ate at home, their banquets prepared by private cooks. The cauponae were mom-and-pop operations. For example, we know that the stall on the Via dell’Abondanza was owned by a certain Vetutius Placidus and his wife, Ascula. The décor also was simple. There were usually a few paintings of gods on the wall—often of Mercury, god of commerce, or Bacchus, the cheery god of wine.

The menus were straightforward. Favorites included fried fish, pork sausages, partridge stew, fried eggs, and boiled green vegetables, which diners would saturate with a pungent fish sauce called garum, a condiment the Romans used as often as ketchup. Coarse bread was available, and garnishes included raw garlic and fresh figs. The wine was cheap and quite sweet by modern standards—Romans drank it mixed with water.

And not everyone rushed off after the quick meal. Locals would hang out for hours to gossip. Many fast food bars even doubled as gambling spots, where men crowded around tables playing dice. The upstairs was sometimes used as a brothel, which implies an ambiance raunchier than the average fast food emporium today. Even in Roman times, customers fretted about the quality of fast food. There were rumors of human flesh, even fingers, being found in cauponae meals.