Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf manages the trick of being both boardroom and bohemia. The Königsallee — "Kö" to everyone — parades luxury along its chestnut-shaded canal, fashion capital manners on the Rhine; a few streets away, the Altstadt calls itself "the longest bar in the world" and pours Altbier by the hundred taverns; and along the river, promenade and media harbour show a city that commissioned Frank Gehry when it wanted new offices. Japan adds its own accent: continental Europe's most vibrant Japanese quarter gives Düsseldorf authentic ramen and a summer firework festival.

The city's artistic pedigree is formidable. Heinrich Heine was born here and never stopped writing about it; the Kunstakademie shaped modern art twice over — the Romantics' Düsseldorf school in the nineteenth century, then Beuys, Richter, Polke and the Becher photography class in the twentieth; and in an electronics studio near the station, Kraftwerk invented the sound of the machine age, making Düsseldorf a pilgrimage site of electronic music.

The classical line runs deep: Mendelssohn served as the city's music director, and Robert and Clara Schumann spent their last shared years here — his Rhenish Symphony belongs to this stretch of river. Today the Tonhalle, a converted planetarium whose dome makes a celestial concert hall, houses the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, while the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Robert Schumann Hochschule keep the inheritance working.