It’s quieter for a start and the new season brings a feast of russet browns and flame reds to leaves on trees. It’s also typically the time when events start to ramp up again after the summer break. Here are four places to explore this autumn. 

Lichtenberg in Berlin      

If you’re thinking of heading to Berlin, autumn is the perfect time for a trip – it gets colder, but not yet freezing.

But before you head straight for the city centre, you might want to explore Berlin’s 11th borough, Lichtenberg. Home to a museum of East Germany’s secret police in their former headquarters, it’s also where you’ll find the Landschaftspark Herzberge.

This 100-hectare park used to be a freight train hub, but it’s now a haven of varied trails through densely wooded pastures studded with black Pomeranian sheep, orchards, ponds and pools.

2024 also marks the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and the city has plenty planned to mark the occasion, from guided walking tours to memorial concerts and exhibitions. 

The long open-air East Side Gallery that was once part of the Berlin Wall is on most people’s lists when they visit the city. This 9th November, the 1316-metre gallery wall will also be the backdrop for a series of commemorative films.

A selection of videos will take viewers back to 1989 when people worked together to bring down the dictatorship in the GDR and give insights into the duality of Berlin’s post-communist years when people faced both new opportunities but also job losses and hostile treatment.

October 3rd is also a national holiday in Germany for ‘Reunification Day’. 

READ ALSO: 10 things you never knew about German reunification

Neustadt in Rhineland-Palatinate

Some excellent wines come out of Germany and the Palatinate region is no exception. In fact, it’s one of Germany’s largest and best-known growing regions. It’s also home to The German Wine Harvest Festival (Weinlesefest). Think of a smaller, infinitely more chilled version of Munich’s Oktoberfest but with the focus on wine, and you’ll kind of get the picture of the annual September-October event.

Over 100,000 people descend on the secret wine capital of Neustadt every year for the event which celebrates Thanksgiving. You’ll find a ‘wine village’ with hundreds of local wines to taste, live music, a funfair, and, of course the grand finale – a huge wine procession with newly elected ‘Wine Queens’ leading an array of colourful floats.

Part of Germany’s ‘Wine Route’ that takes you on an epic journey through historic vineyards and stunning countryside, the medieval city is well worth exploring in its own right for its picture-perfect half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets.

The grape harvest is in full swing at this time of year, so it’s a great time to visit the local sun-kissed vineyards in the neighbouring wine villages and, of course, taste their wines.

Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia

Think of Cologne and a city of art and culture, a gothic twin-spired cathedral and its famous carnival, one of Europe’s largest, probably come to mind.

While the full parade of floats and street festivities isn’t until February/March, the carnival actually officially opens on November. To be precise, at 11 minutes past 11 on the 11th month, ie November. Get ready for the so-called fifth season!

Carnival societies, beer halls and other venues across the city hold colourful parties featuring DJs playing well-known Kölsch (or Cologne) music and carnival bands like Bläck Fööss and Höhner, while more traditional ones present the Dreigestirn, the three men (yep, the maiden is traditionally portrayed by a man, too) who’ve been bestowed the titles of maiden, prince and peasant by the festival committee for the occasion. Alaaf!

Weimar in Thuringia

How do you like those onions? No, really, are you an onion fan? If you are, you’ll love the 370-year-old Zwiebelmarkt (onion market) in the Thuringian city of Weimar on the second weekend of October every year. 

Starting out as a cattle and onion market, the three-day festival is dedicated solely to the humble vegetable now.

The market, once beloved by Goethe, attracts some 300,000 visitors to the hundreds of stands selling all different kinds of onions. But these aren’t just onions as you’d see them in your average market or supermarket, red and white varieties are intricately plaited and decorated with dried flowers.

As well as onions, onion ornaments and onion-y dishes like Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake) you’ll find beer and wine stands, a wide music and entertainment programme and a big wheel. The event even has its own onion queen!

The city itself is very much a hotbed of culture, both Goethe and fellow writer Friedrich von Schiller lived and died there, composer Franz Liszt lived and worked in the history city and it was also the founding home of the Bauhaus movement.