Bed spaces galore: Our new accommodation section

In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve got a big new section on GermanyisWunderbar. Although we’ve carried recommendations for hotels and other forms of accommodation on our individual pages before, we haven't had a fully-fledged Where to Stay, which was a bit of an oversight for a discriminating website about Germany. Anyway, that’s rectified now, after some fairly exhaustive research, and with the help of colleagues at Wundersames Deutschland. 

The new section has some 150 different properties, ranging from castles to manor houses to local inns and boutique hotels. We’ve tried to suit every budget, and we think there’s some particularly good stuff in there, from a wine-barrel in the Black Forest, to a fairytale castle in Hesse (pictured left).The section is organised by city, and by region, and we hope to see it grow considerably, with input from your travels, and from ours. So do let us know of any places that you’ve stayed in that you think deserve a mention here.

Hurrah for autumn: It’s the Lederhosen time of year

OK, so we’ve had one rather big event this summer, but now it’s time to think about another, and this one happens every year, not every four years, and yet it still manages to attract twice as many visitors as the Olympic Games. Yes, it’s time to bring out the Dirndls and the Lederhosen.

These days there are hundreds of Octoberfests all around the world, but there’s nothing quite like the real thing (22nd September to 7th October, in Munich). It’s massive. Huge, elaborately decorated marquee-hangars packed to the rafters with ravishingly pretty girls, extremely ugly guys, and everything in-between, surrounded by an enormous funfair.

The beers are mass-ive, too (aficionados will get the joke) and the noise level is such that it is impossible to talk, so you might as well sing. Ein Prosit, ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit, etc etc, although just Ein Prosit will do. It comes round often enough. If you tried to have a similar alcohol-fuelled event anywhere in the UK, it would end up as a riot, especially at turfing-out time (surprisingly early, at 10.30 onwards) but here it remains incredibly good-humoured. You start the evening thinking ‘what a strange thing is the human race’, and end it thinking ‘what a wonderful thing is the human race’. There’ll come a stage when a pair of pink bunny ears, preferably flashing, becomes essential. How you get home afterwards is a miracle.

It’s very good fun. And just to get you in the mood, here’s a very topical piece of magic from Simon Piero. 

Some essential information: Lufthansa operates to Munich from Heathrow, London City, Birmingham and Manchester, flights from £89 return. Reserving a seat in one of the tents may still be possible, and although reservation is free you will have to purchase vouchers for beers and food. You can get into the tents on the day, but you will probably have to queue. Beer costs around €9-9.50 for a Maß, and is at least 6 percent proof. You can, of course, drink wine, or soft drinks. For an account of the lighter side of the fest, see Barbara’s blog. 

Medals table: So how did Germany do at the Olympics?

At number six in the medals table with 11 gold, 19 silver, 14  bronze - three more medals than in Beijing - there should be reason to celebrate. However, not in Germany where expectations were particularly high for London 2012.  A couple of days before the end of the Games, internal targets were released and revealed that 86 medals had been predicted. Officials now regret giving the go ahead for this information release, because now, instead of celebrating what has been achieved and the improvement on four years ago, Germans are all discussing why the nation fell so short. Oh dear.

At least there's one very positive German image from London 2012 that has become a favourite in all the picture round-ups: discus thrower Robert Harting (above) ripping off his shirt after winning the gold medal, putting the German flag over his shoulder and embarking on a spontaneous celebratory tour over some hurdles. Priceless, we think. And who cares about targets anyway.