Michele Herrmann
| Special to USA TODAY 10Best
First-timers to Germany may consider Berlin or Munich, but this country has many experiential destinations. “Historic Highlights of Germany” promotes 17 cities significant to Germany’s chronology, bringing much of the past to the present.
Four of them make for a multi-stop trip via the Deutsche Bahn. Here’s what to know about each location.
Osnabrück
Established as a settlement by Charlemagne, Osnabrück was a major trading post as part of the Hanseatic League. Also nicknamed the “City of Peace,” Osnabrück was one of two cities in Germany’s Westphalia region where negotiations happened to end the Thirty Years’ War.
Inside Osnabrück’s (Rathaus) town hall, at the old town’s Markt, the Peace Hall has a portrait gallery of the delegates in these talks. The building’s exterior has impressive details. Its entrance door has a handle adorned with a dove and is engraved with the German word for peace, “friede,” and 1648, the last year of the war. A statue of Charlemagne is positioned above, alongside ones of eight other rulers.
While in the old town, walk by the Romanesque St. Peter’s Cathedral, gabled townhouses and half-timbered homes, the Heger Tor gate and the Gothic…
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