"Mannheim" Mannheim by Aunt_Bertha

Mannheim was first mentioned in the year 766 and now I'm mentioning it again in 2012.

Mannheim the second largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, which is often called BA-WÜ for short. Mannheim is located on the Rhine and Neckar Rivers. A bridge across the Rhine connects Mannheim with the city of Ludwigshafen that is located in Rhineland-Palatinate or Rheinland-Pfalz, also referred to as RLP. The border with the state of Hesse (Hesse) is not far either. So one might say that Mannheim is located at the crossroads of the world ;-)

Mannheim is quite an unusual German city because its streets and avenues in downtown are laid out in a grid pattern, similar to cities in the USA. For that reason Mannheim has been nicknamed "Die Quadratstadt", meaning the "City of Squares", in other words: be there and be square!

Mannheim is quite a modern, industrial city, yet you'll find some charming old areas as well, for example the palace that houses parts of the university these days.

An industrial Mannheim citizen, who was originally from Karlsruhe and the inventor of the first motor car, proudly showed off his amazing invention on the streets of Mannheim in 1886. Two years later Karl's wife Bertha secretly (without telling one word to her husband because he probably wouldn't have agreed) carjacked his new invention from the garage and went on the world’s first automobile road trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim. So it's not surprising that Mannheim is the adventure capital of Germany as well as the start and the finish of Bertha Benz Memorial Route. We drove along that route last summer, following a long line of fabulous, colorful, and sparkling vintage cars and we had a blast.

Mannheim is also famous for one of Europe's largest and most beautiful parks, called Luisenpark, where you can easily spend an entire vacation without getting bored.

• Pros:An unusual German city.
• Cons:Too industrial in some areas.
• In a nutshell:Be there and be square!