A complete list of all the places I consider worth visiting.
The Complete List
| Name | Type | Description | Score out of 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Düsseldorf | City | One of the most interesting cities in Germany to visit. The old-town lacks any specific destination, but is overall full of charm and things to experience. | 4 |
| Brauweiler Monastery | Monastery | One of the best preserved monastic complexes in North Germany. The late Romanesque church offers an incredible collection of original inventory, and the rest of the complex offers a number of preserved areas to explore. | 2.5 |
| Altenberg Monastery | Church | A beautiful cathedral in a beautiful natural landscape. Unique in Germany, as a French-Gothic church of this size set in a forest. The monastery complex did not survive, but the church and surrounding landscape is spectacular. | 2.5 |
| Xanten | Town with Church and Roman Museum | One of the best places to visit in the Lower-Rhine, Xanten offers a partially preserved old-town and a massive Roman archaeological part. | 2.5 |
| Brühl | Palace and Gardens | The Augustusburg Palace is on the UNESCO World Heritage list for a reason. Representing the pinnacle of the South German Rococo in the school of Balthazar Neumann, the palace and its gardens are spectacular. The town itself did not survive the war. | 2.5 |
| Monschau | Village | Monschau offers some of the stereotypical images of Germany, with its half-timbered houses perched on a cliff above a mountain stream. | 2 |
| Bad Münstereifel | Town with Castle and Church | A beautiful village with a number of interesting churches and a castle ruin. The town follows the course of the river Ahr and has a number of pretty vantage points. | 2 |
| Stolberg | Village with Castle | Stolberg was a castle of the Duchy of Jülich, and was later restored in the 19th century. The old town is full of pretty vantage points. | 2 |
| Bonn | City | Bonn is a mixed bag. Though not fire-bombed it was heavily damaged in the war, which destroyed virtually anything of interest. The cathedral is beautiful and worth seeing, but the main draw would be the massive 19th century villa and university districts. | 2 |
| Cologne | City | Cologne is not a city worth visiting, that is unless you are there explicitly to see the Cathedral or any of the other 12 Romanesque churches. There is nothing else to do here. | 2 |
| Gerresheim | Village with Church | A charming village on the outskirts of Düsseldorf with a beautiful late Romanesque church | 2 |
| Kaiserswerth | Village with Castle and Church | Once of the nicest towns on the Lower-Rhine itself, complete with romantic castle ruin and meandering old-town. | 2 |
| Kempen | Village with Church | A charming village with several well preserved streets and buildings dating back to the 14th century. The church and city museum have a rich inventory of artifacts. | 2 |
| Kevelaer | Village with Church | A beautiful town in the Gelderland famous as a pilgrimage destination. Complete with a 19th century cityscape and two small churches from the 17th century. | 2 |
| Kalkar | Village with Church | A remarkably well preserved village in the Gelderland with strikingly Dutch influence in the architecture. The church, along with the one in Kempen, has a complete inventory. | 2 |
| Zeche Zollverein | Museum | One of the best open-air industrial museums in Germany. Here you can explore the mining industry that propelled the industrialization of the Rhineland. | 2 |
| Blankenheim | Village with Castle | A cute village in the Eifel with a restored castle perched above the old-town. | 1.5 |
| Euskirchen | Town | A mid-sized town that was heavily damaged in the war. There are still large section that have been well preserved, especially around the old market. | 1.5 |
| Jülich | Fortress | This town simply ceased to exist during the war, and literally nothing has survived. The main reason to go here is the citadel of the old fortress, which has been, to some degree, faithfully reconstructed. | 1.5 |
| Knechtsteden Monastery | Monastery | A fantastic monastery complex, with an interesting Romanesque church and well preserved frescoes from the time of construction. | 1.5 |
| Burg Palace | Castle | A 19th century reconstruction of the ancestral capital of the Duchy Berg. The palace has original inventory from the 19th century. | 1.5 |
| Benrath Palace | Palace | One of the best preserved palaces in the Lower-Rhine, another expression of the German Rococo. | 1.5 |
| Neuss | City | An under-explored city, given the amount of surviving old-town exceeds that of most German cities. The main drawback is that Neuss wasn't very interesting before it was destroyed. Of interest is the cathedral and several well preserved streets. | 1.5 |
| Ratingen | Town | A village north of Düsseldorf with a partially preserved oldtown. | 1.5 |
| Krefeld | City | A city with a surprisingly large neighborhoods of preserved 19th century historicist architecture. | 1.5 |
| Uerdingen | Town | A small town near Krefeld with a preserved market square. | 1.5 |
| Kloster Kamp | Moanstery | One of the most important Cistercian Monasteries in Germany, but was largely destroyed in the 30 Years War. | 1.5 |
| Essen-Werden | Village with Church | A nice village with a large church dating to the late Romanesque. | 1.5 |
| Recklinghausen | Town | A city with a partially preserved old town, the only one in the Ruhr valley to have this distinction | 1.5 |
| Zeche Zollern | Museum | An interesting industrial museum with a number buildings from the art nouveau. | 1.5 |
| Mechernich | Village | A village in the Eifel with one of the most picturesque castles in the region. | 1.5 |
| Nideggen | Village with Castle Ruin | A small village with a rather extensive castle ruin. | 1.5 |
| Heimbach | Village with Castle Ruin | A small village beneath a large castle in a secluded mountain valley. | 1.5 |
| Hennef | Village with Church and Castle | A picturesque town in the forest with a monastery and castle ruin. | 1.5 |
| Schloss Dyck | Castle | A large palace built on the foundations of a moated castle. Very pretty, some preserved interiors. | 1.5 |
| Essen | Church | The only thing to see in the city itself is the Carolingian/Ottonian church, faithfully reconstructed after the war. There is also the suburb of Magarethenhöhe with its inter-war architecture and the Villa Krupp, but these are more special interest destinations. | 1.5 |
| Schleiden | Village | A small village that suffered greatly in WWII, there is an interesting church and a castle. | 1 |
| Hellenthal | Village | Really just a picturesque collection of houses with a castle | 1 |
| Kall | Village | A nice village in the Eifel | 1 |
| Simmerath | Village with Castle Ruin | Small village with a castle on a lake. | 1 |
| Mönchengladbach | Church | Not much to see here other than the late Romanesque monastery church, the reconstructed monastery itself and a couple of side streets. | 1 |
| Solingen | Museum | One of the more interesting museums about metallurgy in Germany is located here. The town is famous for its "Solingen Steel" Knives (and in previous centuries, swords). | 1 |
| Wuppertal | City | A large urban complex spread out along the Wupper River. Very little survived the war, but you can find glimpses here and there, of its pre-war splendor. | 1 |
| Linn Castle | Castle | A reconstructed castle museum, but back to its medieval state. Probably the only "Medieval" castle in the Lower-Rhine, to have interiors reflecting that time period. | 1 |
