-I'm in Germany, one of the top travel destinations in the world, and I'll be exploring three of its cities, each with a unique place in history that can still be felt... [ Glasses clinking ] ...and sipped today.

One city is an unknown travel gem founded by the Roman Empire.

Another is known for its one-of-a-kind art collection and chocolate.

And finally, one of the most preserved medieval towns in all of Europe, saved by an American mom.

I'm visiting Mainz, Wiesbaden, and Rottenburg.

[ Upbeat tune plays ] I'm Samantha Brown, and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -Oceania Cruises is a proud sponsor of public TV and "Samantha Brown's Places to Love."

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-Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel in the United States and in more than 100 countries.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -On this trip to Germany, I'm focusing on three iconic cities near the major hub of Frankfurt -- the spa town of Wiesbaden, the medieval city of Rottenburg, and I start my trip back in Mainz.

I was enjoying a Rhine River cruise when I first encountered Mainz, and I found it to be a charming city that enjoys its location along the famed river and has an amiable old town of cobblestone streets and half-timbered homes.

Its major claim to fame is that it's the home of Johannes Gutenberg, and it was here in the 15th century that he created movable type and the Gutenberg press.

-One, two, and three.

Bravo.

-Okay.

But this city's history goes back much further than that.

-This station was built in the late 19th century, and it was named South Station.

And later, when they were the excavation, they changed the name, and now it's Station of the Roman Theater.

-And I love it.

You're waiting on this platform, and if you arrive at the station you've gone back 2,000 years.

-That's true.

Yes.

-Now we are now in this theater.

And the theater, what you can see today, it's from fourth century, the biggest theater northern of the Alps.

There was possible to come here 10,000 people.

-10,000 people?

-And it was also very high To the cross to this Luther church -- to the top of the cross, there were the seats to the top of the cross.

-Oh, my gosh!

It's hard to imagine 10,000 people could fit in what's left of this ancient Roman theater.

The train now runs through what used to be the stage, but at a slightly higher viewpoint a little more of the amphitheater is revealed.

Was this always known this was here?

Did they always know they had a Roman theater?

-Not always.

It was known till 17th century.

They used this to have stones for building other houses, and then it was forgotten.

And the first wall was found in late 19th century when they built the railway station.

-Wow.

But excavations didn't begin until the late 20th century.

Having Roman ruins in a German city -- How unique is that?

-So far it's fantastic.

[ Laughs ] -But, I mean, are there lots of cities that can make that claim?

-No, so it's really a central place at the eastern borderline of the Roman Empire.

-Yeah.

-Okay.

Come with me now here.

-The Roman Empire may be gone, but next to the ruins is a hidden tunnel which leaves clues to their lasting legacy.

Wow, that is cool!

-That was used for the fortification in 17th century.

Look here.

That is a stone of Roman times, this beautiful decoration with grapes.

Although that's very typical for Mainz.

Mainz is great wine capital.

And you can see grapes, and you can say that the Romans brought the technique for making wine.

They brought it here in this area.

-Rheinhessen, in the world, was known for cheap and sweet wines and mass production.

Some young and innovative vine growers came and said, "Yes, let's do this.

Let's focus on good grapes.

Let's focus on lower yields.

And let's make not only Liebfraumilch, which is sweet and cheap, let's make wine which is a good for a restaurant in New York."

I'm Eva Vollmer, and I'm the owner of Eva Vollmer Vineyards, and my wine region is Rheinhessen.

Now, and this is what I'm following is, of course, planting resistant grapes, resilient grapes, which are, um -- have a harder skin.

So we have less spraying.

80% less spraying with more sustainable grapes.

We should taste one.

-I think so.

-We are in the middle of a future grape, I call it, because it's a grape for a better future.

-This is a future grape?

-Yeah, I call it like this.

-May I?

-It's a PIWI.

A fungus-resistant grape.

-Okay.

-And it's Sauvignac.

-Sauvignac?

-The grape is called Sauvignac.

-Okay.

How old is Sauvignac?

-It started its history 20 years ago, but it needs time to get on the market.

A vineyard is a long-term culture, so we have to think, "Okay, I'm doing something for the next 40 years."

-What you're doing is very different.

This really is more of an open-air laboratory.

-I want to have a coexistence of new ideas, but also our holy Riesling, of course.

-I love it.

I'm seeing a grape at the beginning of its career.

-Yeah, yeah, it's a baby.

And I'm pouring you that blend.

-So this is Sauvignac.

And what did you blend it with?

-Hibernal and Cabernet blanc.

-Phenomenal!

-Yeah.

It's exploding.

Yeah.

-That is phenomenal.

-Yeah.

-My whole mouth is having a good time right now, and I really appreciate that.

-I have a picture in my mind, and I think that I'm feel what people really, really love.

And then it's my job to taste in the vineyard.

I tasted those three different lots with three different grape varieties.

And I know they fit together.

-Good job.

-It's a hard job but a good job.

[ Both laugh ] -Well, cheers to the future of wine.

-Yeah.

Cheers.

-Cheers.

The future of wine in Mainz is strong.

Everywhere in this small city founded by Romans you'll see people enjoying wine day and night, outside and inside the many wine houses of Mainz.

And I'm checking out one of its busiest.

So the day is not over, and I'm drinking more wine because I'm in Mainz -- as in, "I 'Mainz' have another glass."

[ Laughs ] But I'm actually at a wine house.

And this is what I love about this part of Germany.

I know Germany is known for, like, beer and big beer halls, but it's also known for wine houses.

Danke schön.

Oh, yeah, just leave the bottle.

-Yeah, sure, I will do it.

-[ Laughs ] -So, enjoy.

-Thank you.

[ Laughs ] My hotel is right around the corner.

I've just got a few cobblestone streets to walk over, and I'll be fine.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Oh!

I'm just I'm just in my -- I'm in my land of wine with this kind of wine.

This is, of course, Riesling, which is the king here.

And all the wines are from within 20 kilometers.

There are 4,000 wineries to choose from, so they've got quite a selection.

And everyone here is drinking wine.

Do you see any cocktails?

No.

Do you see any beer?

No.

And we're in Germany.

Because we are in a wine house.

Cheers.

Just across the Rhine, I'm visiting the nearby spa town of Wiesbaden and its spectacular art museum.

Museum Wiesbaden is known for its rare contemporary art collection, and the museum recently opened a permanent collection of Art Nouveau.

-Well, Art Nouveau is a movement in Europe and the US, wanted to create a new style of art inspired by the dynamism of the nature and the thought of the youth.

They wanted to reinvent the craft, the hand skills.

They wanted to become aware of the individual altogether with nature.

I'm Andreas Henning, the director of the Museum Wiesbaden, that is the Hesse State Museum for Art and Nature.

I would like to show you one of my favorite pieces.

It's a desk.

-Oh, yes.

-A desk made by Louis Majorelle.

The desk is growing from the floor like an orchid.

We have the plants, the blossoms of an orchid.

I really want and dream to sit and write a letter here, but even as the director I'm not allowed.

Unfortunately.

-I mean, really?

Even at, like, 2:00 a.m. you can't sneak in here and write a nice -- pay some of your bills.

-There's alarm systems, so that isn't allowed.

So we have here mahogany wood, leather, um, gilt bronze, for example, and we do have electric light.

Imagine, electric light was just invented and the artist couldn't have such a slim lighting system without electric light.

Art Nouveau furniture, porcelain, chandelier, paintings all together.

We are united.

And nature is the main source, or was the main source of inspiration.

-Of inspiration.

So the idea was lifestyle, right?

"This is our lifestyle that we're going to live."

-Yes.

That's a good expression.

You can say that.

Lifestyle.

So you can discover the different styles of Art Nouveau in this collection.

Franz von Stuck, a German painter based in Munich, invented this iconic painting -- a female nude with a serpent.

It is part of the symbolism movement.

Symbolism is part of the Art Nouveau movement, and they looked on the darker sides of existence.

It's frightening and exciting.

It's both.

A serpent and a female naked body is allusion to Eve, of course, and it's why it's written in the tabernacle frame "Die Sünde" -- "The Sin."

But it's not a painting about Eve, but about the femme fatale.

Because men in these days, they felt, well, the female body were used as a weapon against male sex, so they were frightened.

-Uh-huh.

So, is that representing a man's fear of women's power or is that representing women's power?

-That is both.

-I like her.

-Yeah.

And this is dedicated to Hector Guimard.

He designed the metro stations in Paris.

-Oh, of course.

-And here, we have one of his series of furnitures.

Flowing lines, just ornamental, organic lines.

coming one with another.

It's just a huge collection of 570-odd pieces permanently on show.

-But it's also from one collector, who collected all of these beautiful objects over 40 years.

-Thanks to him, Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess, an art dealer and collector, created this collection, and it's one of the very outstanding collection of Art Nouveau worldwide.

-It's incredible.

♪ I was told that to really enjoy Wiesbaden, that it's all about just relaxing, going on a stroll, seeing some art, and then have a snack.

-We have a lot of people walking by, just stopping and having a look at all of the chocolates, deciding if they want to go in or not.

Then they're passing the next window, and there's people sitting there having their coffee, drinking hot chocolate, and then that's the moment where they decide they definitely have to go in.

-That's when I was hooked.

-Kunder Chocolateria has been making chocolate here in Wiesbaden for over 125 years.

Okay, so, what's your favorite chocolate?

-There's one which I particularly like.

It's right over there.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's the orange one.

-Okay.

-And we invented it in 2014, when the Dutch queen and king came to visit Wiesbaden.

-Oh!

-And it's with orange juice, vanilla, and honey.

-Ooh!

Alright.

This is one of your favorites.

-It is.

-Oh, it's wonderful.

Mmm!

They're called pralines, but different from American style.

A praline here is chocolate that can be eaten in one bite and usually filled with something.

How many kind of go back to over 100 years ago?

-That's our pineapple tarts.

-Pineapple tarts.

-Yes.

And they have been invented in 1902 by my great-great-grandfather, Fritz.

Wiesbaden was a spa town back then in those days, and they really wanted to have a souvenir for people to take home and they wanted to use very exclusive products and ingredients and they choose the pineapple.

I would recommend you to try them with our hot chocolate.

It's special to us, as well, because we serve it very differently than a lot of cafés in the area.

It's two cans filled with -- one is filled with hot chocolate like, melted chocolate, dark one, and the other one is with milk.

And then you can pour it into your cup and just decide how much milk and how much chocolate you want to be in there.

-Oh!

That is beautiful.

And now for the famous pineapple tart.

-This is not a one-biter.

-[ Chuckles ] Wafers, nougat, marzipan, dark chocolate, pineapple jam, dusted with almonds?!

To think that people were taking these as souvenirs.

This is not making it back in my luggage.

[ Chuckles ] Just a two-hour drive from Wiesbaden lies the fairy-tale city of Rothenburg.

We are now walking in what is considered one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the world.

-One of the famous.

-One of the most famous.

What do you think makes it famous?

-It's well-preserved in medieval Gothic style.

They want to see these timbered houses, to see this romantic, picturesque place.

-Located at the intersection of two great trading routes -- Prague to Paris, and Hamburg to Venice -- Rothenburg was wealthy and popular throughout the Middle Ages.

The fact that we today, in 2024, are allowed just to walk its main streets and its little alleyways -- why is it so well-preserved?

-Yes.

After the Thirty Years' War, which was finished 1648, they lost their power, they lost their money, they lost their influence.

-And then those difficult times ultimately protected the beauty of the city.

-They were very poor and they didn't have any money to renovate, to change buildings -- -I've heard that term before that poverty protects.

So is that what happened here?

-You can say that, yeah.

And in the 19th century, the town was discovered.

Suddenly, they say, "Wow!

This is a town of..." -This is beautiful!

-"This is beautiful.

Nothing happened."

And then came the -- they discover it.

-And that brings us right here to -- what?

-- September 17, 2024, and it's just all these people.

-Yeah.

-But no one might have been able to enjoy this city were it not for an unexpected advocate.

During the final days of World War II, U.S. General Devers was prepared to bomb Rothenburg to the ground if there wasn't a total surrender.

But the Assistant Secretary of War, John McCloy, listened to the advice of someone very close to him.

-His mother -- she was here on holidays.

She was a fan of Rothenburg and she wrote her son, John.

It's so beautiful.

He heard about it.

And then he said to Devers, "Please wait one week, then everything is over."

And that was the reason Devers said, "Okay, I wait one week, and if then we have no problem."

And on the 17th March, in the morning, 6:00, the U.S. Army went through these gates.

-And so, because of John and his mother, Ellen McCloy, the town of Rothenburg survived.

Most travelers come to Rothenburg for the day, and they are missing out.

Once the tour buses leave, there are more personal experiences to be had, like the one I found at Hotel Markusturm, where fourth-generation hoteliers Stephan and Lilo Berger check you in, cook you a meal, and serve you.

And I'm having my meal with their daughter, Lissy Berger.

-Enjoy your meal.

-Thank you.

We will.

You are fifth generation?

-Yes.

When did your family, your descendants, first be a part of the hotel, I should say?

-We got it in 1898.

-Oh!

Wow!

-It was like my living room.

-Mm-hmm.

There was always life.

There were always guests from all over the world.

There were Japanese people, people from America, from all over the world.

And they were so friendly, so super-friendly.

And every day was different.

-So, we are outside of the tower and the archway that was built in the 12th century.

So how old is this building?

-This part is 750 years old.

This part, for example, in this wall is from the 13th century.

Three walls are built from us.

And the fourth wall is the city wall.

-Running a hotel, you not only have to take care of guests, but you also have to take care of an ancient building.

How do you repair a wall that was built at a time that people are like, "I don't know how they made that"?

-We have really good craftsmen from this region, of course, so they know our house.

They also are family businesses.

So they know my parents, my grandparents, even because they are also third generation, fourth generation.

For example, we have a lot of old clocks in the building.

-Okay.

-So we need someone to fix it.

And there is only one person left who can fix it, and I hope he will still do it for a lot of years.

-Do you see yourself thinking about the ways you would change a hotel that's been here for well over 100 years?

-I love how my parents maintain it the way they did, but I see some changes in how to -- in employees, in human resources.

My generation has a different way to work with them than they did.

-Mm-hmm.

-There is no hierarchy anymore.

It's more friendship than workship.

-There's also a cat.

A really important cat.

-Maybe he is the actual boss.

I don't know.

-[ Laughs ] And you named him...?

-Don Corleone.

-[ Laughs ] Do I have to kiss his paw before I leave?

-Please, kneel down and say, "Thank you, Don Corleone, for letting me in," yeah.

-So, at the Christmas village, the Weihnachtsdorf, we sell more than 20,000 items on display across 1,000 square meters of store footage.

-Is there a challenge maintaining the Christmas spirit every single day?

I'd find it exhausting after about two weeks.

-My grandparents lived across the street, so whenever my parents were busy, we were staying at my grandparents'.

However, they were obviously also involved in the business, and so we were always around Christmas and it was part of the family and living.

So it's -- I think it's the emotions that's part of it and growing up.

I'm Takuma Wohlfahrt and I'm third generation from Kathe Wohlfahrt, the Christmas family business, which was founded by Kathe Wohlfahrt and Wilhelm Wohlfahrt, my grandparents, in 1964.

-So you grew up here.

-I did, yes.

-What was your favorite area?

Where could they always find Takuma?

"Where's Takuma?"

-Actually, in the cuckoo-clock department, because I was the one who was playing with the clocks all the time with my brother.

So, we changed the time so all the cuckoos came out at the same time.

So, sometimes, whoever was responsible for the area the next day asked, "Who was in the store again?"

[ Chiming ] -What was the item that began this all?

-The idea for the company started with a music box from my family's home area, and they wanted to gift it to friends of theirs, American friends, and the only way to get one of those music boxes was to get them in bulk and they had to get 10.

So they gifted them one.

He was suggested to maybe kind of start a small business.

-Everything I'm seeing is handmade from Germany and even from the regions that they are traditionally made from.

-It's always been kind of also part of the personality of the company itself.

So there's always still this great measure of detail that we want to put into the product range.

-People from all over the world are coming here, and they don't want just Christmas, right?

They want German Christmas.

So what does that represent?

What are those items that people are looking for that really mean Germany?

-The most iconic, I would say, is the traditional nutcracker.

It's made in Eastern Germany.

Christmas pyramids are also a very traditional item you would get from Germany for Christmas.

-One German Christmas item I had never seen before were the smokers.

Burning incense creates smoke that comes out in hand-carved tiny chimneys and mouths.

I brought this German home with me.

Oh.

The nutcracker's got some competition.

[ Chuckles ] -Everyone has to see Mainz once in his or her life, because it's a traditional city.

It has so much invention, so much fun, and so much wine, of course.

We have so many places to see, and wine is popping off on every corner.

[ Glasses clink ] -Well, I love to live in this Wiesbaden.

It's a city which many, many buildings from the 19th and early 20th century.

You explore the city by foot, have a cup of coffee, enjoy the parks, and the rich cultural institutions in our city.

-What I personally love about Rothenburg is, although it's such a small town in the middle of the countryside of Germany, because of the tourists, but also because of the people who live here, it's so international, and you get to meet different people.

And I think, from a traveler's perspective, you will feel welcome here and you will be able to communicate to people.

Yeah, you feel right at home here in Rothenburg.

[ All cheering ] -When you get to walk through medieval times, spend time in the Art Nouveau period and the Roman Empire, when over 2,000 years of humanity, past and future, is all within driving distance, that is when we share a love of travel.

And that's why the cities of Mainz, Wiesbaden, and Rothenburg, Germany, are all places to love.

For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

"Samantha Brown's Places to Love" was made possible by... -Oceania Cruises is a proud sponsor of public TV and "Samantha Brown's Places to Love."

Sailing to more than 600 destinations around the globe, from Europe to Asia and Alaska to the South Pacific, Oceania Cruises offers gourmet dining and curated travel experiences aboard boutique hotel-style ships that carry no more than 1,250 guests.

Oceania Cruises.

Your world.

Your way.

-Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel in the United States and in more than 100 countries.

From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Road Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪