Getting to Germany by trainby Brian Melican German philosophical novelist Thomas Mann argued after reading Einstein that the passing of time was inextricably linked to movement: I wonder what he would have made of the fact that, as of November 2007, Germany is 30 minutes closer to the U.K. by rail, and rumours and facts alike in both the press and the rail industry suggest that further time savings might well be implemented in the coming years. |
Solingen: an introductionby Brian Melican IndustrySolingen’s hard-earned and long-standing nickname of Klingenstadt, or ‘City of Blades’, contains a brief idea of how Solingen would have sounded a hundred years ago or so: klingen also means ‘to sound’, ‘to chime’ or ‘to clang’; and the streets of this industrial town would indeed have reverberated with the sound of metal on metal. Nowadays, the streets may be considerably quieter, but in German-speaking lands, the name Solingen remains synonymous with knives, as Sheffield does with steel in Great Britain. |
WetzlarWetzlar is a town in the German federal state (Bundesland) of Hesse, capital of the Lahn-Dill district. There are approximately 54,000 inhabitants. The town is situated on the Lahn river. |
Weimar (Lahn)Weimar is a community in the south of Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Gießen administrative region, Hesse, Germany. The community's administrative seat is the centre of Niederweimar. The municipal area stretches south from Marburg in the Lahn valley and west with the Allna valley on into the Gladenbach Highland and comprises an area of about 47 km². Other than Marburg, the community also borders on Ebsdorfergrund to the east, on Fronhausen to the south, on Lohra to the southwest, and in the far west on the town of Gladenbach. |
WeilburgWeilburg with approximately 14,000 residents is the third biggest town in the district Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany. The old town, built on and around a rocky hill almost encircled by the Lahn river, contains a castle of the 16th century, formerly the residence of the dukes of Nassau-Weilburg, and later of the grand dukes of Luxemburg. |
Bad ArolsenBad Arolsen (until 1997 Arolsen) is a small town in northern Hesse in Waldeck-Frankenberg district. The main town lies roughly 45 km west of Kassel. Bad Arolsen was from 1655 to 1918 the residence town of the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont and then until 1929 the capital of the Waldeck Free State. The town lies on the German-Dutch holiday road called the Oranier-Route, joining towns, cities and regions associated with the House of Orange. |
SteinbachSteinbach is a town in the Hochtaunuskreis that borders in the east on Frankfurt am Main. Other neighbouring towns are Oberursel, Kronberg im Taunus and Eschborn. It is in the German state of Hesse. Steinbach lies in the southern foothills of the Taunus. |
SiegbachSiegbach is a community in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The community of Siegbach lies in the Lahn-Dill Highland in the valley of its namesake brook, the Siegbach, which empties into the Aar to the south at Bischoffen. More than half of the municipal area is wooded. |
SchmittenSchmitten is a climatic spa in the Hochtaunuskreis in Hesse, Germany. Schmitten is the highest community in the Taunus some 24 km north of Frankfurt am Main within whose limits is the Großer Feldberg (881 m). |
