In the new book “Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2019,” which was published on Tuesday, Germany ranks second behind Sri Lanka. Germany was last in the top ten countries nine years ago.

Among the reasons given in the travel book for visiting Germany in 2019 are the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and, above all, the centenary of Bauhaus.

“The anniversary of this midwife of modernity – founded in Weimar in 1919 and, after its heyday in Dessau, virtually banned by the Nazis in Berlin in 1933 – will be celebrated all year long,” it says of the Bauhaus School of Design and Architecture, which started an aesthetic movement whose reverberations can still be felt across the world today. “Glitzy new museums are opening in three cities and there are plenty of accompanying events and exhibitions throughout the country.”

In its chapter on Germany, “Best in Travel 2019” recommends a two week travel plan including a concert “at the stunning Elbphilharmonie” in Hamburg, parties in Berlin clubs as wells as stops in Dessau, Weimar, Munich and the Middle Rhine.

Visits to cities like Cologne and Frankfurt are also worthwhile because they are very individual but still united in their wide variety of cultural, culinary and historical offerings. “Germany enchants and surprises – even those who live here.”

Clambering between the cliffs of the Saxon Switzerland National Park near Dresden and the Bavarian royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Linderhof are in the “not to be missed” category.

In general, it says Germany exhibits a special “mix of tradition and vision.” “After all, in the small part of the Alps belonging to Bavaria, you can climb mountains in rustic surroundings, you can visit castles, cycle through vineyards further north, says cheers with a few beers in cosy inns and jump into cold waves in the North or Baltic Seas.” Not forgetting all those places where great minds like Beethoven, Einstein, Goethe and Marx worked.

Each year, the Lonely Planet selects the ten “best” countries, regions and cities. “Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2019” is the 14th edition of the travel book. Germany has rarely been represented before now. In 2018, Hamburg was the fourth placed city. In 2016, Bavaria was the eighth placed region. In 2010, Germany was the second placed country behind El Savador.

Copenhagen was chosen as one of the top cities this time behind Paris, Washington, Kotor, Bordeaux and Seville. Of the regions, the north Italian Piedmont around Turin leads in 2019. Leading the additional category “Destinations worth the money” are the southern Nile Valley in Egypt and Lodz, which is the third largest city in Poland after Warsaw and Krakow.

(Original text: dpa. Translation: kc)