Fairy-tale castles, Baroque palaces, beech forests and beer halls. Germany has plenty of these it's true, but the diverse country is also crammed with surprising sights. We seek out some hidden gems that you wouldn’t expect to find on a tour around this fine land.

You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between Meersburg and towns in Italy’s northern lakes, especially after a glass or two of the local wine. Set on the tranquil waters of Lake Constance, Meersburg is surrounded by rolling hills and steep vineyards where grand estates produce the local Weissherbst wine. Its medieval quarter has its fair share of atmospheric alleys and pretty squares, along with half-timbered houses, a Baroque palace and clutch of great museums.

Preening peacocks and lily-white castles aren’t what you’d expect to find in cool Berlin. But hop on a ferry over River Havel to the little islet of Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island), a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the southwest of the city near Potsdam, and you’ll enter an enchanting oasis. The park and gardens are extensive – spot free-roaming peacocks as you stroll or picnic. The striking castle, which is closed for renovations until 2024, was built as a summer residence for King Frederick William II and his mistress.

Between Hüttenrode and Rübeland in the Harz Mountains lies an ethereal pool – known as Blue Lake due to its startling milky blue waters. But it is in fact an abandoned quarry, created when limestone was mined in the area from around 1885 to 1945. Go in spring to see the water at its most vibrant. There is a rewarding circular hiking trail around the lake and beyond – keep an eye out for the old lime kiln and visit the cave village of Rübeland which dates back to the Stone Age.

The vast and jagged sandstone rocks known as the Bastei, which loom above thick forests like the ruins of a stone city, are one of Germany’s most entrancing geological wonders. Found in the Saxon Switzerland National Park, to the east of Saxony's capital Dresden and near the border with the Czech Republic, the towering boulder-like rocks are a magnet for rock climbers and hikers. The park got its name as it reminded people of Switzerland’s mountainous scenery. It’s thought free-climbing originated here in the 19th century.

The park's most famous monument is the medieval-style stone bridge, which connects the rock formations. Reminiscent of something from JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth, the bridge is a popular spot with hikers with numerous trails leading up to it. Once the site of Neurathen Castle, an 11th-century stronghold that was destroyed in the 15th century, you can visit Felsenburg Neurathen, an open-air museum displaying the remains of the ancient castle at one end of the bridge. The stone structure replaced a 19th-century wooden construction. The views out over the Elbe River, valley and the Bastei are well worth the hike up.

No, you’re not in Australia. This deep-red cliff is actually in Sylt, a beautiful island off Schleswig-Holstein's North Sea coastline that is a hot spot for beach holidays with its sweeping sands. The ancient and striking coloured Morsum Kliff is in the far east of the island in a conservation area. It's an important habitat for numerous species including many butterflies and seabirds. The island’s other famous bluff, Rotes Kliff (Red Cliff), lies on the North Sea coast side.

Travel down into these colourful caves in the Thuringia Forest, near Saalfeld, and it's easy to believe you’ve stepped into a magical realm. With their extraordinary displays of stalactites and stalagmites, the gorgeous grottoes – originally (and rather mundanely) a former mining pit for black alum shale – lay claim to being the most colourful caves in the world. After the miners abandoned the pit, nature worked its incredible magic.

The so-called King’s Chair, a spectacular sheer white cliff, is one of Rügen island’s most popular sights. The walk up through the tangle of primeval beech forests of Jasmund National Park to get to the clifftop is also arresting. Set on the northeastern tip of Germany, off the Pomeranian coast, Rügen is Germany’s largest island. You can see the Swedish coast on a clear day from on top of the steep chalk cliff.

The sight of wild European bison was a relatively common one in Europe’s forests and plains until the sturdy beasts became extinct in the early 20th century due to hunting and habitat loss. Recent "rewilding" programmes have reintroduced the species into pockets of central Europe including the forests of the Rothaargebirge mountain range in North Rhine-Westphalia. A herd of eight was released in Germany alone, while the largest population of wild European bison is in the forest in eastern Poland.

Another rare beast you wouldn’t expect to encounter in the wild in Germany is the lynx, Europe’s largest wild cat. The graceful predator disappeared from the Bavarian Forest in the 19th century but was reintroduced in the 1980s from the Czech Republic. Along with (big bad) wolves, it is the most fearsome predator in the ancient forests that straddles the German-Czech border. The large and endangered carnivores can also be found in the Palatinate Forest in Rhineland-Palatinate.

An enchanting landscape of streams, creeks, lakes and lush forests, UNESCO Spreewald Biosphere Reserve lies just southeast of Berlin. Yet it feels a world away from urban life. Take to the water to explore the tangle of waterways and you’ll pass quaint villages and flower-speckled meadows, spotting rare birds indigenous to the region. Spreewald has a unique culture too as the home to Germany’s indigenous Slavic community, the Sorbs. As well as traditional customs and festivals, street names and signs are in Sorbian as well as German.

With its pretty flower-lined canals, gabled houses and stone arch bridges, you’ll think you’ve found your way into the Netherlands next door. Surrounded by flat meadows, Friedrichstadt is unsurprisingly known as Little Amsterdam. It was founded by Dutch settlers in 1621 – find out more at its museum Alte Münze – and has some of the most beautiful examples of Dutch Renaissance architecture in northern Germany. True to form, bikes are the other preferred mode of transport in this green-minded town. 

Folklore and fairy tale fans may hope to spy the fearsome yet fascinating wolf prowling around Germany’s ancient forests, but up until recently the apex predator hadn't been seen since the 19th century. However, the wily canines were reintroduced into the forests of eastern Germany's Lusatia region, which straddles the states of Brandenburg and Saxony, in the early 2000s. It’s now possible to go on specialist wolf-tracking expeditions here.

Away from its beautiful Baroque old city, church spires and riverside castles, Dresden has some unexpected cool creative enclaves too. One of these is the Kunsthofpassage, a labyrinth of interconnected courtyards designed by local artists, with pipework that “sings” when it rains. The themed courtyards house an assortment of restaurants and cafés, galleries and shops. It is in the district between Görlitzer Straße 21-25 and Alaunstraße 70.

Happen upon the medieval Krämerbrücke, or the Merchants' Bridge, in the capital of Thuringia and you'll feel like you've stumbled onto the set of an historical film. It's too good to be true. Straddling the Breitstrom, a branch of Gera River, the bridge was originally made of wood with 62 narrow houses along it before it was rebuilt in stone in 1325. At 390 feet (120m) long and now with 32 dwellings, it's the longest inhabited bridge in Europe. Only one of the two churches that sat at each end is still there – the Aegidien Church can be found on the eastern side and its tower offers fabulous views. 

Trier, the Roman capital of northern Europe and Germany’s oldest city, was known as the “Second Rome” so unsurprisingly is stuffed with treasures from the antiquities. It’s got some incredibly well preserved Roman remains including the Porta Nigra, an enormous gatehouse, a 2nd-century amphitheatre and bathhouses. Set on the Moselle River, the city also attracts visitors with its ancient Catholic cathedral, founded by Emperor Constantine at the start of the 4th century.

This eye-catching curvaceous residential building called Waldspirale, meaning forest spiral, was designed by architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser in the 1990s. As well as its undulating forms and golden domes, Waldspirale has a green roof which sprouts various trees and shrubs. Vegetation also protrudes from windows along the façade of the colourful building.

Teufelstisch, which translates as the Devil’s Table, is a towering mushroom-like pillar near Hinterweidenthal. It’s a famous landmark in the Palatinate Forest Nature Park. However, its rich red colour, bizarre shape and name are evocative of the Australian outback’s numerous rock formations such as the Devil’s Marbles. Here are 40 of Australia's most stunning natural wonders.

The cascading rock feature known as Felsenmeer, or Sea of Rocks, is an otherworldly sight within the forested mountain range of Odenwald in southern Hesse. The giant crystalline boulders appear to pour down the wooded hillside and into the valley. They were formed 340 million years ago when two continents collided and formed the mountains. The Romans used the site as a quarry during the 3rd and 4th century AD – it’s still possible to see some of their remains from the hiking trails that take you along and across the formation.

Meadows with grazing cows, stone churches and ubiquitous thatched roofs. No, you’re not in the villages of Dorset or the Cotswolds, but in Sieseby, one of several historic hamlets and villages in the sleepy Schwansen Peninsula. Set on the Schlei, an inlet from the Baltic Sea, this part of Schleswig-Holstein is known for its gorgeous pastoral scenery and Sieseby has many cute thatched cottages. Its oldest building is a field-stone church that was built in the 12th century.

High up in southern Germany’s Allgäu Alps, near Hinterstein in Bavaria, Schrecksee is Germany’s highest alpine lake. With its brooding rocky surrounds and piercing waters you could easily be in the Scottish Highlands or the dramatic wilds of Iceland. Hiking up to the mirror-like lake takes several hours, but the rousing views are well worth it – you can even see across the border into the Austrian Alps.

With its deep crevasse, tunnels, waterfalls and raging water, Partnach Gorge (Partnachklamm) is another of Bavaria's most spectacular sights. You could easily be in one of America's dramatic national parks as you follow the slender pathway that's cut into the side of the narrow gorge between the walls that rise up to 263 feet (80m). Go in the depths of winter and it's an even more magical scene. Find more magical places on Earth here.

This simultaneously playful and functional structure, known as Slinky Springs to Fame, spans the Rhine-Herne Canal in Oberhausen. It takes pedestrians and cyclists from the gardens of Oberhausen Castle to leafy Emscher Island. Resembling a giant looping “slinky”, the bridge was the vision of German artist Thobias Rehberger. Its spiralling design features 496 arches that are made of aluminium. It’s even more spectacular at night when it's illuminated in a range of colours.

If it wasn’t for the tell-tale half-timbered houses, Tüchersfeld in Upper Franconia could be mistaken for the rock monasteries of Meteora in central Greece. The buildings of this quaint and ancient village, which had an Upper and Lower Castle in medieval times, are dotted around a cluster of the distinctive rocky pinnacles. Now discover the secrets of the world's most beautiful mountains.

With its pretty bridges, rolling parklands, cottage gardens and lake, the UNESCO World Heritage listed Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz was the first English-style garden in mainland Europe. It was the idea of the Prince Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau and his architect friend who were inspired by the gardens they saw on a grand tour of Europe during the 18th century.

Inspired by Nepalese suspension bridges, the Geierlay bridge might not reach the heights of the Himalayas but it's still not for anyone afraid of heights. It is the country’s second longest rope bridge, stretching for 1,180 feet (360m) and spans a forested valley between Sosberg and Mörsdorf bridgehead in the Hunsrück mountain range. It sits above a tributary of the Moselle. Discover more of the world's most beautiful bridges here.

This eerie abandoned listening station was constructed during the Cold War on the man-made forested hill of Teufelsberg (which means Devil’s Mountain in German) in Berlin. The striking graffiti-daubed structure with its distinctive domes was built in 1961 by the US and British to listen into East German and Russian communications during the Cold War. Once one of Berlin's top secret sites, it's now possible to take a tour and learn about the role it played in Cold War espionage. Take a look at more places where time stands still here.

A haze of purple blazes across the ancient heathlands, moors and meadows of Lower Saxony in late August and September as the heather comes into bloom. The 23,400-hectare Lüneburg Heath Nature Park is the largest contiguous heathland in central Europe and it's a truly spectacular scene at the end of summer. Autumn and winter are beguiling in a different way when the wilderness is often shrouded in swirling mist. Here are more of the Earth's most colourful natural wonders.

Creating a perfectly symmetrical stone circle when reflected in the water, the 19th century Rakotz Bridge looks like it belongs in a Lord of the Rings film set. But it’s actually in Kromlau's Rhododendron Park and was created by the knight of the local town in 1860. The enchanting arched structure is made even more dramatic by the jagged, rocky spires on either end of the bridge and in the water. Sometimes it’s referred to as the "Devil's Bridge" due to the perceived sorcery of its design.

With its chalk-white cliffs, silvery sand beaches and turn-of-the-century seaside resorts, the Baltic island of Rügen is a dreamy getaway. The ornate Art Nouveau pier at the northwest end of Sellin’s sandy beach, known as Seebrücke, wouldn’t be out of place in a Californian or English coastal resort. The elegant structure sits at the end of a long wooden causeway. A pier was first built here in 1906 and was rebuilt in 1925 after a fire.

Discover 40 of Germany's most beautiful small towns and villages