Germany, Berlin as a gateway and a whole country a few hours away by train.

Germany is, for a traveller from Spain, a country of short flights and long train rides: two and a half to three hours by air to Berlin or Munich, and from there a rail network that reaches almost everywhere. It is a country of cities with a great deal of recent history, of castles above rivers, of half-timbered villages, of lakes and forests, and also of cold beaches on the Baltic and mountains in the Alps. At Geocalia we organise it the way it is experienced by someone flying from Spain: one arrival city and, around it, day trips and getaways of one to three nights.

Berlin, the gateway to the east

Berlin has direct flights from Madrid, Barcelona and many other Spanish cities, and it is the best base in the east of the country. In the city, you will find the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Wall and Museum Island; note that the Pergamonmuseum is closed for renovation until 4 July 2027.

From Berlin, by train and in a day: Potsdam, the palaces of the Prussian kings, half an hour away (Cecilienhof Palace, site of the 1945 conference, is closed with no reopening date); the Spreewald, canals and punt boats, an hour away; Brandenburg an der Havel, a cathedral and lakes, 45 minutes away; Chorin and Niederfinow, a brick monastery and a pair of boat lifts; and Leipzig, Bach and the Peaceful Revolution, a little over an hour away by ICE.

With one or more nights: Dresden, the baroque city on the Elbe, with Meissen and its porcelain 40 minutes away and Saxon Switzerland on the other side; Stralsund and Rügen, Hanseatic brick and chalk cliffs on the Baltic, three hours away; and Quedlinburg, two thousand half-timbered houses at the foot of the Harz.

The south and the west

Munich is the other great gateway, also with direct flights from Spain: beer halls, art galleries and the Alps an hour away. From there, Berchtesgaden and Lake Königssee, and along the Romantic Road, Rothenburg ob der Tauber. To the south-west, the Black Forest; to the west, the castles of the Rhine Valley and the vineyards of the Moselle, closer to Frankfurt.

How do you get there from Spain?

By air. Berlin (BER), Munich (MUC), Frankfurt (FRA), Düsseldorf (DUS) and Hamburg (HAM) have direct flights from Madrid and Barcelona, and several also from Málaga, Valencia, Palma, Bilbao or Seville, depending on the season. Choose the airport by the area you want to see: Berlin for the east, Munich for Bavaria and the Alps, Frankfurt for the Rhine. Direct trains run from the airports to the centre and to other cities.

Car or train?

Train, almost always. The Deutsche Bahn network reaches every city and many villages, and regional transport works well; for the day trips from Berlin you do not need a car. Buy long-distance tickets in advance, because prices rise, and check the fare zone in the cities: in Berlin, for example, the ABC ticket covers Potsdam and the airport. A car makes sense in the countryside: Rügen, the Harz, the Black Forest or the Alps. The motorways have no tolls for cars.

When to go

From May to September, with long days, terraces, boats on rivers and lakes and gardens open. July and August are the German holiday months on the coast. December is the season of the Christmas markets, in Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin or Quedlinburg. In winter the museums open as usual, but it gets dark at four in the afternoon and many boats and cable cars stop running.

Practical information

Germany uses the euro, and Spanish visitors do not need a passport: a national ID card is enough. You can pay by card almost everywhere, although some bars and small shops accept only cash or a debit card. Many museums close on Mondays. Shops close on Sundays, but museums and restaurants do not.