Anything else in Germany besides lederhousen?

Well, if you like beaches and need a soccer field and hate Lederhosen, you might want to go to the north, like Schleswig-Holstein or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, see http://schleswig-holstein.de/Portal/EN/Portal__nod... , http://www.schleswig-holstein.info/ and http://www.auf-nach-mv.de/home2.html

Both states have endless beaches, and along Schleswig-Holsteins west coast they even made the North Sea go away daily so you can see what's below all that water :-) And it's a Lederhosen-free zone ;-)

You'll be close to the city of Hamburg, home of two soccer teams, premiere league's HSV and second league's St. Pauli.

Hamburg is one of the largest harbours in the world, there are boat tours both through the new and the old parts of the harbour, as well as the numerous channels within the city. Lots of museums, theaters (they obviously play in German, though) and a rich city hall.

Plan two, maybe three days. See http://www.hamburg-tourism.de/en/ as a starting point.

From Hamburg it's just about two hours by train to Berlin, Germany's capital, which offers lots of classic sights from the Reichstag parliament building to the emperor's palaces in Potsdam near Berlin.

If you're going, you should plan a few days. See http://www.berlin.de/english/ .

Well, soccer stadium. There is the European Soccer Tournament this year in Austria and Switzerland in July. I highly doubt you'll be able to get tickets at this point though.

Beach is a bit of a problem. Germany has some very nice beaches in the north, the problem there is only that the wheather is a bit unpredictable. It can be warm and sunny, but also cool and rainy. It is impossible to tell beforehand and for a beach holiday I would not book anything at the North Sea or the Baltic Sea until about 1 week before I went there (at which point the bargains are all gone, but that's life!). In the south of Germany however you got plenty of lakes where you can swim. Lake Constance is the biggest, but there are others. Starnberger See near Munich, Neusiedler See near Vienna (Austria) and Wannsee and the whole plethoria of lakes in the Mecklenburger Seenplatte (Mecklenburg Lake Area) near Berlin, .

If you liked being on a cruise, check out the river cruises in Germany and Austria. IMO one of the best things to do as a tourist in Germany and Austria is to take a cruise from Passau to Vienna.

http://www.cruisecompete.com/search.php

http://www.vikingrivers.com/

If your hubby wants to sample German beer, a place to be aside Octoberfest is the International Beer Festival in Berlin. This year it is from Aug 1st to Aug 3rd. It might be a beer festival, but it is not the drunken madness the Octoberfest is. The objective is similar to a wine sampling session, it is to taste and sample the best beers from all over the world.

http://www.bierfestival-berlin.de/index.php?idcat=...

And if you want to get better ideas about what is there to see and do in Germany (aside from theOctoberfest) I can strongly recommend that you buy the Lonely Planet Germany. There are other guidebook series that are also good for independent travel in Europe (Rough Guide, Rick Steves) but for Germany Lonely Planet is best.

BTW, please don't scoff at Germany just bc of that German restaurant you have been to. What would you say if a German judged the whole USA by the US-restaurants we've got here in Germany? With McDonalds, KFC, PizzaHut and Dunkin' Donuts as the only examples of what American food is like? Wouldn't a German who complains about Americans not having ordinary restaurants be pleasantly surprised by a visit to the USA?

Don't let that stereotype ruin Germany for you. If you want to get the stereotype, you can, but there are certainly other options, and they are way easier to get than you think.

You need a soccer stadium for your husband? Well, there's the European Championship going on this summer, so why not check those venues, and what games are played where, and than go and check which area would suit both of you best when you're not watching soccer?

There are numerous beaches in Germany ("Ostsee" = "Eastern sea", with beautiful islands (think Rügen and the likes) and "Nordsee" = "northern sea", with famous islands like Sylt. THe term North/eastern sea is irritating, because the noth sea actually is in the West of Germany, and the eastern sea in the east. And there's a lake close to almost everywhere.).

Anyway, once you have decided wich area you like, why not check the city web-pages for the tourist information site? Most cities have English sites where you can get information that is much more detailed than anything you would be able to find in a travel book, and most tourist informations will send you info-material at no or little cost. That way you will have a truly unique vacation in Germany, and you can stay away from the (almost fake) humpta-Germany.

And don't worry: Germans nowadays hardly ever eat like you would at that German restaurant up the street.

Come on over and check Germany out for yourself. You'll like it.

Oh, and I must side with t_maja on the food-stuff. When I first went to the US to live there (I had never been there before, so that was a leap of faith!) everybody told me how horrible the food was, how much I would gain, and how little variance I would have in choosing food. Pretty narrow-minded, right?

And I found some of the tastiest foods in the US, with great restaurants, interesting recipes, "freaky" vegetables that I miss and can hardly get here in Germany (such as spaghetti squash <= spelling?), which made me buy american cookbooks, and when my "Homesick for the US"-mode kicks in, I cook something out of those. Even my parents, who spent a three weeks vacation in the eastern US are still in raptures about it, and they came to the US strictly to see me, not the country or "crazy" Americans. They now love the US and its people, politics not withstanding.

First of all: Soccer is a beautiful sport! Most kids like it here. It's mostly played on green grass, and not in huge stadiums. I think soccer is much underestimated in other countries: It's really a team sport, where only a team working together can achieve victory. I played it as a child, but never made it far. So what? It wasn't the purpose.

When you're in a hotel with cable tv, I bet you won't get your husband off the screen just watching soccer (which we call "Fußball", i.e. "football" here) over and over. The "Bundesliga" ("national league") is a must-see on weekends.

Well, that'll give you a chance to discover Germany all on your own, and find out that we're not in any way backwards. Germany is much misinterpreted as being the Alps and Bavaria only. I'm German; I must speak for my country, I can't help it. But, please: Just come here to see it and find out if you like it. There's nothing I can do to persuade you. I travelled some countries, and some I liked, and some I didn't. You'll never know if you don't give it a try.

That is the American idea of Germany, not the reality. Anymore, there are as many international restaurants as there are traditional German, and the same could be said for just about everything else. And what you described in *stereotypical* (not the reality) of only one place in Germany (Bavaria), not the whole country.

Your average German looks, dresses, and to a lesser degree eats a lot like your typical American. Lederhosen & Drindls are generally saved only for special occasions and/ or tourists.

Again, the mountains and castles are primairly Bavaria. As for that, I'd tell you don't knock it till you see it. The pictures don't even come close.

It's also worth noting:

---Hamburg has a theater scene to rival Broadway;

---The area near the Residenz in Munich is home to shops that you'd expect to find in Paris or London;

---Stuttgart is home to a few small companies you might have heard of--Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and a tiny little company called Porsche.

Please, Please, forget the stereotypes and take a chance on Germany. There is so much more to the country than what most Americans think. Go with an open mind and a positive outlook, and you might just find yourself having a good time. :o)

(And as for the music....? I heard the same stuff they play on the top 40 stations in the US, or classical. )

I suppose you like French Food?

If you go to Germany you will find some of the best pastry in the world. It is a regular practice to have coffee and a pastry in the late afternoon, 4:00-ish. Germany food in Germany is totally differnt formn waht you get un the US. I have never had any good German food in the US. Salads are very popular in the summer time. You can get the heavy gloppy food if that's what you want. But Modern German cuisine is every bit as modern and good as American food.

Actually, the only place where you will find this image of Germany that you portray in your question is... uhm, German restaurants in America.

Nobody, repeat: nobody in Germany is wearing leather trousers unless for special occasions such as the Octoberfest and even then, ONLY in Bavaria and some parts of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The darn umpta music again is more or less exclusively played in festive tents during the Octoberfest and one or two lousy TV channels aiming at a senior citizen audience.

It largely depends on where you go, so any travelling advice now would be misplaced. You'll find the German food to be ten times better, healthier and yummier than the American cuisine; you'll meet friendly, open-minded Germans who more or less all bothered learning a foreign language (English), wherever you go there'll be museums, galleries, architectural sights and much more to visit... the list is endless.

Nobody in Germany is wearing Lederhosen forget about those stereotypes :) (Well some weird bavarian people do but they don`t count).

i would recommend you to go to Hamburg, there you have two soccer stadiums and a kind of a beach :)

Another possibility would be Cologne which is close to the french border and it has a little faked beach near the Rhine (river) and a nice soccer stadium :) Well i can`t tell you anything bad about Cologne cause its my home :D

have fun and look forward to travel :)

Congratulations on your husband's idea! Apparently he wants to learn about the "real" Gemany. Lederhosen and Dirndl are sterotypes and as MG already wrote almost nobody is wearing them aside from events like the Oktoberfest. I would have worn my first Dirndl at a food fair in Houston (!), Tx, but I was able to avoid it!

Germany has a lot worth to see besides many world-famous castles - which are actually beautiful: A lot of good food (e.g. pastries, cakes, bread, beer, good chocolate), beautiful countriyside, mountains (Alps), cities which are very different from US cities in layout and architecture, museums and more.

I think a trip to Germany would be worth it and give you a new different perspective of the world outside the US!

I don't know where you live but I live in WV and I went to Germany when I was 17 and in Frankfurt there is a shopping mall that has like 3 floors under ground. I thought it was neat. That was like 25 years ago. I do know there is more to Germany than what you mentioned.