Lukas Stege: Rhine, Danube, Moselle - these are all rivers you've probably heard of before.

But do you also know the Lech?

The Lech is one of the last wild mountain rivers in Europe.

With rapids and gravel banks.

Left and right you can see high mountains.

You can cycle all along the Lech from the source to the confluence.

That's around 250km.

The way is well signposted.

My route is part of the way from Forchach in Austria to Landsberg am Lech in Germany.

That's about 90km.

This is the Lechfall near Füssen.

At the moment, the river is carrying lots of water and you can feel that.

You get a little wet up here.

Lukas: From here I follow the Lech into Füssen.

That's the first town north of the Austrian border, on the very south of Bavaria.

Füssen has a very pretty old town that you should definitely see.

Medieval streets, historical buildings: the town is over 2000 years old.

These facade paintings are typically Bavarian.

But the main event for Füssen is found well outside the town, Neuschwanstein Castle.

The whole world knows about this place.

And believe it or not, I've never been there.

But now it's time.

Neuschwanstein is the largest and most expensive of the three castles Bavarian King Ludwig the 2nd had built.

Bavarias most famous monarch ruled from 1864 to 1886.

Sleep like a king here: that's what I would like to do.

And the bed is even long enough, because King Ludwig the 2nd was a little taller than me.

One meter and 91cm.

Lukas: The sad part is that Ludwig only knew this castle as a construction site.

He died before Neuschwanstein was completed.

Now I'm heading back to Füssen.

Hardly any other region in Bavaria is home to so many traditional costume and regional history societies as the Allgäu.

I have a meeting with someone who is passionate about Bavarian tradition.

Max is an ice hockey coach and a fan of traditional Bavarian dress.

It's important to him to pass the traditions on to the younger generation.

Max teaches the kids in his club and anyone who asks him a centuries old Bavarian folk dance: Schuhplatteln.

What is Schuhplatteln?

I've seen clips on YouTube, but where does it come from?

What is it?

Max Berger: For us in the club, it originated in the textile company with the old craftsmen.

These were men from all over the region who were actually just trying to get the attention of the women in the area and beyond by showing off, more or less, in competitions.

Lukas: Can anyone learn it?

Max: Anyone who can count to 11, not fall on their heads and is coordinated.

Lukas: I can, too?

Max: I can show you.

This is how the Plattler starts.

Lukas: Not bad.

Max: Yes!

Not bad.

Lukas: One, two three.

Looks clumsy right?

Max: Looks a bit clumsy, but will work it out.

Lukas: 0,0,0.

1,2,3,4,5 6,7,8 9,10,11.

Max: Right, Again.

Now your tempo.

Almost.

Again.

Lukas: Okay.

Once more.

1,2,3,4.

We got it.

Can I hug you?

Max: You may.

Lukas: That was satisfying.

Max: And thats simply tradition.

Lukas: Many thanks.

Now it's time for the lake again.

Onwards.

Ever onwards.

And the countryside is incredibly beautiful.

And I continued downriver to Landsberg am Lech, my last stop.

Landsburg is a nice town.

Everything you see here is actually still original.

Winding streets, colorful houses.

The atmosphere here reminds me a bit of Italy.

I followed the lech for 90km.

Now it's time to say goodbye.

Well, this river was the real discovery for me.

I didn't really know about the lech before.

And I have to say, the landscape here is just beautiful.

So grab a bike ride along the lech and I am pretty sure you won't regret it.

Just give it a try.

Lukas Stege: Freiburg is also called the Green city.

Well, what does that actually mean?

And what are the consequences for me as a traveler?

That's exactly what I would like to find out today.

♪♪♪ Of course, here in Freiburg I want to be eco friendly to.

In addition to public transportation, there is a good network of bike paths across the city.

Bicycle traffic in Freiburg has priority over cars.

That has a long tradition here, but cyclists also have to be considerate because pedestrians have the right of way in the historical city center.

♪♪♪ I get a little city tour from Ulrike Peissl.

She first leads me to the square in front of Freiburgs historic town hall.

Here, as everywhere across the city you can find a narrow brook.

I've noticed this little tripping hazard in the city.

What's it all about?

Ulrike Peissl Our “Bächle” are really important.

The main reason these gutters were built back in the 12th century was to have water in the city, to put out fires.

Lukas: Do other cities have them too?

Ulrike: Lots of other cities had them, but most places have filled them in because of course they're a hazard.

But Freiburg wanted to preserve its Bächle system and really fought for that in the 1970s.

This lovely building from the 16th century is called the Whale House.

It became so famous because Erasmus of Rotterdam lived here for two years.

Erasmus, the great philosopher and freethinker.

Lukas: The everyday sustainability that is almost taken for granted in Freiburg can be found on Münsterplatz.

Here, you will find many regional products from farmers in the area at the weekday market.

Right next to the market stalls at the entrance to the minster, you could measure whether the goods were appropriate.

Ulrike: This isn't for pizza; it's the unit of measurement for a container with this circumference and this height, and was used to measure grain.

This is the measurement for a wooden beam.

And this one's interesting: it's a forearm.

You can measure yours here.

People in Freiburg had really big forearms.

Look, It fits.

Lukas: This is one of the tourist offerings in Freiburg: A longboard tour.

Of course, you can rent these too.

Sightseeing in a different way.

Hack: The important thing is to put your weight on the front leg.

Through this hip here, you feel your way onto the board.

Lukas: But I also want to look cool, I mean, we're filming.

Hack: That's what it's all about in the media today: playing it cool.

Here it's about the feeling.

Once you feel it, you can play around with it.

Lukas: Hip forward... axis of rotation... Don't surf, don't look cool, don't have fun.

Anyway, I can do it.

I'll just try it.

Okay, here we go.

I tried the longboard a little before my trip to Freiburg, but I'm actually a complete beginner.

The tour from the Himmelreich train station to Freiburg, around 15km, leads through the natural landscape of the Black Forest.

I'm getting brave, I could do a trick.

Oh, this is too fast.

That's also what traveling is about.

Not only about reaching the destination as quickly as possible, but also embracing the journey.

You see more and you're moving.

Nicole Frölich: Traveling is my passion.

Whenever I have some time to spare, I'm off to discover someplace else.

The place I know better than any other in the world is Berlin.

It's where I've lived for the past ten years.

So in an attempt to calm your wanderlust, I'll show you five things today that you can only find here in the German capital.

This one is a must, especially for first time visitors.

And it's the closest thing Berlin has to a skyline.

The TV tower was built in the 1960s by the government of East Germany as a sort of gigantic middle finger to the west.

Well, the GDR has long fallen apart, but this one is still standing.

I've been there a couple of times already, and I swear you get the absolute best views of the city.

And there is a revolving restaurant.

So no wonder, really, that it attracts over a million visitors every non-COVID- plagued year.

Nicole: Berlin has tons of water, and where there's water will usually there are bridges.

And this one right behind me is arguably Berlin's most famous one, the Oberbaumbrücke connecting Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain.

My second recommendation is something you've surely heard of or seen on TV: it's the longest still standing segment of the Berlin Wall.

The most notorious symbol of the Cold War turned into a massive work of art.

Shortly after reunification, over 100 artists from 21 countries turned this symbol of division into a monument to change, reflecting their hopes and their fears as well.

Following the fall of the wall, the entire complex still serves as a powerful testimony to Berlin remarkable history.

Another one of those is this building right here, the Reichstag.

My third recommendation.

It's the seat of the German Parliament.

It witnessed the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, was almost demolished after the war, was spared, rebuilt and is now once again the beating heart of German democracy.

The Reichstag is pretty impressive from the inside.

You can actually walk up the glass dome and from there you can not only get an amazing view of the awesome architecture here in Berlin's government quarter, you can also look right into the legislative chamber and watch German MPs at work.

You might have noticed a pattern by now: Berlin is a city in perpetual transformation.

Places are constantly rebuild, reinvented and repurposed.

The best example for that is my fourth recommendation: Tempelhoffer Feld.

Once the most prominent site of the Berlin Airlift, the former airport is now the largest inner city open space in the entire world, and Berliners, myself included, love it.

Nicole: My next recommendation might get me into a bit of trouble.

I know, I promised I'd show you five things that you can only find in Berlin.

Well, this one is a bit debatable.

The Currywurst is claimed as culinary heritage by Berlin, Hamburg and the Ruhr Valley.

Trust me, I've tried them all and this one is the best.

Here In Charlottenburg, just a couple of blocks away from where a great woman named Hertha Heuwer is said to have invented the magic condiment in 1949.

You'll find them everywhere: in Kreuzberg most famous snack bar, Curry 36 or in Prenzlauer Berg's Konnopke where you can enjoy your wurst on a romantic traffic island, accompanied by the rattling symphony of the overhead train tracks.

Every stand claims to have its own secret set of ingredients.

To me, that's just another excuse to try them all.

So you know where to find me.

I hope you enjoyed our little tour.

Thanks for taking long.

Narrator (female voice): This is German ham hock or Schweinshaxe being served in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich.

And it's always prepared according to the original Bavarian recipe.

For a decade now, this man has been passionately cultivating an integral part of Bavarian dining culture here.

Wolfgang Reithmeier: My name is Wolfgang Reithmeier.

I'm the head chef at the Hofbräuhaus.

And Im always delighted to cook and serve Schweinshaxe.

It inspires me with its quality.

It brings to mind the dishes, home and its blue and white sky.

The typical image of Bavaria.

To me, Schweinshaxe is Bavaria.

Narrator: The Hofbräuhaus lies at the center of Munich in southern Germany.

It's the beer hall of a brewery and has belonged to the Bavarian state since 1589.

Wolfgang Reithmeier uses simple ingredients for his Bavarian Schweinshaxe.

Wolfgang: You need a ham hock of Bavarian quality and you add salt, pepper, caraway, garlic and beer.

It's important to use regional ingredients so you know just where everything came from.

I make sure the meat is of Bavarian quality and that the farmers raise the pigs humanely.

You can taste it because the animals are not that stressed.

Narrator: And that's where Marianne Strobl comes in.

She selects the farms authorized to supply the Hofbräuhaus with meat.

And it's crucial for the pigs to be able to roam around freely in their stall the way they're naturally inclined to.

Marianne Strobl: When you take a look at them with how alert and interested they are, you can just tell they're doing well.

Narrator: Back in the kitchen, Wolfgang Reithmeier is seasoning the pigs foreleg.

He blends garlic with salt, pepper and a caraway seasoning and rubs it into the meat.

But he leaves out the rind.

The spices have to soak into the meat for an hour.

He then puts the Schweinshaxe in the oven for half an hour at 160°C.

He then douses it with black beer and cooks it for another two hours at 110 degrees.

Then Reithmeier prepares the traditional side dish: potato dumplings.

Wolfgang: Making a good potato dumpling takes a good potato with a lot of starch and salt.

Narrator: He shapes the mashed and salted potatoes into balls by hand, and cooks them in boiling salt water for 20 minutes.

After two hours, he raises the oven temperature to 230 degrees for half an hour and douses the Schweinshaxe in black beer two more times.

Wolfgang: It has to soak in.

When the crust gets porous, I pour the beer over it.

Dark beer has much more sugar and it caramelizes, giving the Schweinshaxe a glossy look and caramel flavor.

The crust gets crispier because moisture is added and escapes again, and it pops open like popcorn.

Schweinshaxe is served with a potato dumpling and sauce.

The sauce comes from the black beer poured on top.

And this is where the centuries old tradition of eating Schweinshaxe begins.

Wolfgang: Eating Schweinshaxe is a little celebration.

You don't just sit there alone with your Schweinshaxe.

You have fun eating it.

With the right atmosphere, a bit of music, beer and pretzels.

Narrator: But what's the right way to eat Schweinshaxe?

Tobias Ranzinger is a regular here and he shows us how to do it.

Tobias Ranzinger: I carefully cut off the crust.

That's the most dangerous part because it can get a bit tricky.

The main thing is to keep your shirt clean.

Narrator: Bavarian Schweinshaxe is a real specialty in German cuisine.

Narrator (female voice): Falling in love is the title of the most expensive show in the history of Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast.

Much of the approximately 14 million production costs was spent on the 100 million crystals for the costumes and sets, another record for Europe's biggest revue theater.

The largest Swarovski crystal weighs hefty 180 kilos.

French designer Jean Paul Gaultier is once again the creative genius behind the show's look.

Jean Paul Gaultier: So it was great, for me it was very challenging and great because it's all all one universe that you can invent, you know?

So I love that.

That was very exciting for me.

Narrator: The story tells of a deaf poet who falls in love and thus changes the world for the better, making it flourish and bloom.

On stage are 60 dancers from 28 countries.

Jean Paul Gaultier worked on the production for a good two years, designing over 500 costumes, each one in his unmistakable signature style.

He enjoyed support from a number of illustrious names Canadian duo Fecal Matter and Russian artist and designer Sasha Frolova.

Her hallmark is eccentric costumes made with lots of inflatable latex.

Sasha Frolova: The biggest challenge of this production was to adapt latex costumes to requirements of Friedrichstadt-Palast scenes.

And they should work every night during two years.

And latex is super fragile, so and they move a lot.

They are very energetic, lively.

Narrator: To make the costumes workable at the show's fast pace, she used a trick only the inflatable parts of made of real latex.

The rest of the costumes are made of a shiny material that resembles latex, so the dancers can slip in and out of them quickly.

Mutated mermaids - that's how the avant garde artists team Fecal Matter sums up the visual idea behind their costumes.

Diversity and an alternative ideal of beauty are the Paris based social media stars aspirations.

Their androgynous alien look has raised many an eyebrow.

Steven Raj Bhaskaran: We had total freedom to do whatever we wanted to do, and with that being said, we really poured our identity in it because, I mean, when you look at the pros, you really see us, our visual identity because this is what we look like every day.

So it was a big part of kind of trying to translate our visual expression in every element of the costumes.

Narrator: Even more sparkle is guaranteed by over 100 million glittering pieces of glass, not just on the costumes, but on the sets as well.

A unique challenge for technical director Thomas Herda.

This basin holds around 100kg of tiny crystals.

They stick to the soles of shoes and raise other equally sticky questions.

Thomas Herda: What stones can we use?

How big?

What shape so the dancers won't slip or injure their knees or ruin the costumes?

After all, this is a world class performance.

What base can we put under them?

You can't read about these things in books.

How do you dance in a crystal basin?

These are the things we tested for a year until we achieved the ideal results for us.

Narrator: The big moment came on October the 11th, the world premiere of the newest grand show, bringing together models, celebrities, eccentrics, influencers and fans of Jean Paul Gaultier and his creative team.

Jean Paul Gaultier: Now the baby is coming out, so it was like a great pleasure.

It was truly an honor that they asked me that the Friedrichstadt-Palast asked me a second time to make, to work on that beautiful show.

I hope people will love it and it was a nice experience.

Narrator: It's an extravaganza of color, glitter, dance, acrobatics, and live music.

The message is open up to love and diversity.

The audience at the premiere responded with thunderous applause.

Woman: Everything glitters.

I simply love it.

Couple: Wonder-, wonder-, Wonderful.

I have to let it all sink in.

Totally flashed.

Man: Great!

Woman: Beautiful colors, beautiful people, choreography, everything is perfect.

Gloria Viagra: Wonderful!

Narrator: “Falling in Love” has set another record: at over 100,000 tickets sold so far, the show has had the most successful start of any production at the Friedrichstadt-Palast ever.