German holiday route Alps – Baltic Sea
The German Alps – Baltic Sea Holiday Route (DFAO) is a holiday route and runs from Berchtesgaden ( Königssee ) to Puttgarden ( Fehmarn ). It is 1,738 kilometers long and crosses five federal states . It is the longest of the signposted tourist routes in Germany .
Federal states
The DFAO leads first through Bavaria, first in a northerly direction, then in a westerly direction, before turning north again in Baden-Württemberg and heading towards the Baltic Sea through Hesse , Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein .
Landscapes
On this route you get to know Germany with its different landscapes : the alpine peaks and the hilly foothills of the Alps , the large and small rivers, the green, sometimes rugged, sometimes gentle low mountain ranges , the heathland and finally the vast plains of the north. In detail these are:
- Berchtesgadener Land alpine region
- Chiemgau
- Hallertau
- Inn Valley
- Altmuehltal
- Hohenloher level
- Neckar Valley
- Odenwald
- Spessart (first Bavarian, then Hessian Spessart)
- Lahn valley
- Wetterau
- Vogelsberg
- Crunch
- Weserbergland
- Eichsfeld
- resin
- Lueneburg Heath
- North German Plain
- Baltic Sea
Attractions
Palaces and castles can be found everywhere on this holiday route, as well as picturesque villages. Baroque architecture dominates in southern Germany . Princely and ruling houses, but also monasteries and churches are exemplary witnesses of a splendid time. The middle section of the German Alps – Baltic Sea holiday route can be described as romantic. In narrow towns, surrounded by towers and gates, the half-timbered gables crowd around the highest point, the mountain with the castle . The lonely courtyards, villages and cities of the north, on the other hand, offer a dreamy landscape.
Particularly noteworthy are:
- Berchtesgaden with the salt mine and Königssee
- Wasserburg am Inn , the pearl of the Bavarian Middle Ages
- Baroque, episcopal and university town of Eichstätt
- Dinkelsbühl with its medieval townscape
- Europe's only ivory carving center and museum in Erbach
- The famous moated castle in Mespelbrunn in the Spessart
- The Prince's Palace in Büdingen
- The half-timbered town of Homberg (Efze)
- Bad Sooden-Allendorf with its medieval half-timbered townscape and the salt pans
- The university city of Göttingen
- The Hanseatic City of Lübeck
- The Wallnau bird sanctuary
- Puttgarden on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn