Where is saarland located

Just around the corner from the then inconspicuous village of Mettlach, the Saar river winds its way through the dense forest. The Baumwipfelpfad Saarschleife treetop walk soars 42 metres into the sky and ends in a large observation deck which grants views of the dramatic river loop below. On the way up information panels tell you all about the landscape before you set your eyes on the idyllic landscape from up top, which is the most photographed scene in the entire Saarland.

Life in the tiny village Leidingen, 13 kilometres west of Saarlouis, is somewhat peculiar — the German-French border cuts right through it. The vast majority of the inhabitants live in Germany and a couple of dozen in France. Even though the border is not visible and you can hop back and forth between the two countries as often as you like, different laws, rules and regulation apply to the people on each side.

There are two postmen, two official languages, two churches and if locals want to call their neighbour on the other side of the road, they have to dial the country code and pay the international fee for their phone call. The historic building houses the headquarter of world-renowned ceramics manufacturer Villeroy and Boch. Founded by a father and his three sons in , the company is still a family business years later and produces everything from tableware to sanitary ceramics.

The highlight is the dairy shop which is decorated from floor to ceiling in more than 15, hand-painted tiles. We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements.

To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". Sign Up. Travel Guides. Videos Beyond Hollywood Hungerlust Pioneers of love. Marion Kutter. Two years later, the first state parliament adopted a constitution calling for an autonomous Saar in an economic union with France.

Saarland even had its own national football team that participated in the Summer Olympics in Helsinki and the World Cup Qualifiers, where they finished ahead of Norway in their group but ultimately lost out to West Germany. As you might guess, the state of Saarland gets its name from the Saar River, a tributary of the Moselle River which is itself actually a tributary of the Rhine River , which bisects the state from the south to the northwest.

The highest peak is the Dollberg, which stands at ,4 metres above sea level. Saarland is primarily dominated by a continental climate with maritime influences that are evident in its moderately warm summers and mild winters. While mostly warm, the weather can also be wet, as the state experiences a significant amount of rainfall throughout the year. On average, July is the hottest month, with an average high temperature of 24 degrees. December and January are the coolest months, both with an average low of -2 degrees.

Like most aspects of Saarland culture, French has also had a considerable influence on the local dialect, with a number of French terms making their way into everyday usage - although their pronunciation has an unmistakeable Saarland twang! In , the state government announced its aim to make the region fully French-German bilingual by The last furnace went out in Its residents nowadays live within the remains of this fortress, and the city has over time become famous for its parties, festivities and summer time open-air bar.

Merzig is a pretty city with Renaissance, Romanesque and Baroque architecture. Like most traditional German cuisine , food in Saarland is rich yet simple, reflecting the historical importance of mining and farming in the area, two professions that demanded a calorie-rich diet.

The region is also practically bilingual, with French being the other language, taught in schools to all schoolchildren as the first foreign language ahead of English. If you are flying transatlantically or from even farther away, flying into Frankfurt Airport or Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport might be necessary and thanks to the excellent train connections, making use of a rail air alliance might work out cheaper, more comfortable and even faster than a connecting flight.

Saarland is well-integrated into the European railway network and at some point it had the most kilometres of railway lines per square kilometre of gross area. All the other stations can only be reached by local and regional trains.

Regional trains generally travel beyond Saarland as Saarland is really small , mostly to Rhineland-Palatinate e. Prices for buses tend to be lower than for trains though shopping around is always a good idea, especially for groups , but travel time tends to be longer and service and comfort such as seat pitch worse. The SaarVV covers the entirety of Saarland and provides a unified fare structure over the public buses and trams in the region.

It also partners with Deutsche Bahn with regard to railway services, so that travelling by local trains within Saarland is also covered by the same fares. The fare system relies on zones to calculate the fare.

Saarland is divided into numerous zones see map , and every journey's cost depends on how many zones you travel through, regardless of your origin or destination, the number of interchanges or the means of transportation used.

While it doesn't market its industrial heritage as aggressively as Ruhr and is indeed not as widely known for heavy industries, there is still a lot that remains from the heydays of coal and steel. This of course means that the originally beautiful nature has suffered a lot, but thanks to strict German environmental laws and the demise of the "dirty" heavy industries, nature is recovering and pleasant to look at.

Saarland is the German state with the most Michelin Stars per capita. In theory, the cuisine of Saarland should be a mixture of French and German ones, but in practice you will mostly find typical heavy German dishes prevailing, although under amusing local names. Some local favourites include:.