Germany

If there was a universal psychiatric center to provide therapy for the nations of the world---and, beloved reader, Let's Go is not for a moment suggesting that this would be a good thing---Germany would have been a guest on its couch long ago and immediately diagnosed with a hopeless case of multiple personality disorder. One day in the country is all you'll need to verify this assessment. Towering Gothic masterpieces stare down raver enclaves and glossy nightclubs; Roman ruins share horizons with the ultra-modern glass-and-steel homes of some of the world's most influential corporate headquarters; heart-rendingly picturesque half-timbered villages peer over placid green hilltops at World War remnants and hulking blocks of pre-fab Socialist architecture. Even the landscape can only be described as schizophrenic; majestic snow-capped Alps in the south are balanced by sandy beaches and mud flats in the north, with windswept heath fields, sprawling lake plains, the castle-dotted valleys of the Rhine and the Mosel, and enchanting forests like the legendary Schwarzwald (Black Forest) all jostling for attention somewhere in between. Grim-faced businessman, transacting the financial affairs of the world by day, give way to purple-haired ecstasy enthusiasts and Germany's assertive and party-happy gay population by night. Some of Europe's most intense hikers and bikers bump elbows at falafel stands and beer gardens with the huge Turkish minority. The nation's fractured psyche is only further disoriented by the legacy of Goethe, Bach, Luther, Beethoven, von Bismarck, and Atari Teenage Riot---but we think you get the picture. Make a house call. Discover Germany.