Germany Guide
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is all about location. The most northerly Land in Germany is a product of the forces around it: west and east the North and Baltic seas; north and south Denmark and Germany. The former is realized as fine sand beaches and marram-grass dunes, candy-striped lighthouses, commercial ports on Baltic fjords, and changeable weather as fronts barrel rapidly east. The latter have squabbled over the peninsula for centuries to shape the Land's character as a classic European borderland. The final ingredient in the mix is a local dialect akin to Dutch, Plattdeutsch, almost as impenetrable to Germans as it is to foreigners. A friendly "Moin moin!" (hello) always wins a smile in the North Frisian islands.
Although the Land capital is Kiel, a brusque, working port at the head of the canal of the same name, the title sits most comfortably on Lübeck, a one-time city-state and one of the most enigmatic old towns in Germany, with a heritage of over four hundred years at the head of medieval trading-cartel the Hanseatic League, the first pan-European superpower in the region. The lumpy lakeland of Holsteinische Schweiz (Holstein's Switzerland) – the name derives from a nineteenth-century hotel near Bad Malente rather than its low moraine hills – ripples north past Kiel towards Schleswig, a daydreaming small town rooted in a Viking past that exudes provincial charm but is worth a visit for the most engrossing museum collections in the state.
While the gentle Baltic coast is notched by fjords, the west is wind-blown and wild, a corner of flatlands and colour-wash skyscapes that have inspired artists such as Expressionist Emil Nolde. However, it's the effortless sandy beaches that have seen the North Frisian archipelago raised to the status of celebrated holiday playground. Sylt, a sort of German Hamptons, is the most sophisticated island, not least in Kampen, one of the chic-est retreats in the country. Föhr and Amrum are sleepy backwaters that are all about walks, cycle rides and sand castles on the beach. That you can island-hop between them – or join guided walks across the mud flats – just makes a visit even more enjoyable.
Highlights
1 Lübeck The medieval queen of the Hanseatic League is as ravishing as ever – a small-town symphony that's as cultured as it is charming. And all with a decent beach on its doorstep.
2 Schleswig The former Viking stronghold of northern Europe has mellowed into an idyllic small town on a fjord with a blockbuster museum to boot.
3 Sylt Never mind the weather, this North Sea watersports wonderland is the gliziest beach resort in the country.
4 North Sea island-hopping Regular ferries let you skip from Sylt to its low-key sister-islands south, rustic Föhr and powder-sands paradise Amrum.