The following was supplied to us by Frans - our host in Essen:
We have a very nice restaurant – Kockshusen - just around the corner in a Fachwerk building (Tudor style for the Anglo-saxophonics) from 1687, which belonged to the Schellenberg castle in which former garden we now live. It serves very decent food & good wines.
If it would be a day of really nice Summer weather, we could sit outside in the tree-shaded garden. When less clement weather would occur, I guess we’ll be able to get a cosy corner where we can quietly sit, talk, eat, drink & even digest for an unhurried while after the last dish has been served & consumed. The advantage is that we won’t need cars to get to & fro. It’s three leisurely minutes on foot from here.
restaurant-kockshusen.de

In the wider vicinity there’s a good but rather expensive one, 1 km from here, with a great view over Ruhr River Valley. Outside eating, shaded by tall trees, in fair weather is also possible.
jagdhaus-schellenberg.de

About five km from here is a large old farm-building-cum-restaurant with a garden.
restaurant-huelsmannshof.de

Within short distances by car are a rather bad Spanish Bodega, two Italians (one good, the other not so good), a village-style German Gasthaus (deftiges Essen), a rather bad Indonesian/Chinese mainly for take-away, & a Turkish Kebab outfit (yuck).
Slightly further on is a very large Spanish establishment, called Café Bar Celona (franchises in many German Cities), which is far too loud for people like us as it caters mainly for a young, yuppie-like crowd; besides: the parking is always overflowing with flashy yuppie cars.
cafe-bar-celona.de

When the decision came down that Essen had beat historic Görlitz in Saxony to become Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010, eyebrows were raised around the land. What kind of ‘culture’ could there possibly be in this city of steel and coal?
Plenty.
Van Gogh anyone? Go to the Folkwang Museum.
Fancy a look at Emperor Otto III’s gem-studded childhood crown?
Head for the cathedral treasury.
A Bauhaus-style colliery on the list of Unesco’s World Heritage Sites?
Look no further than the Zollverein colliery complex.
Need we go on?
It’s taken a few decades, but Germany’s seventh-largest city has mastered the transition from industrial powerhouse to city of commerce and culture like few others. Add to that a verdant green belt and half-timbered medieval quarters and you may find it hard to believe you’re in the Ruhrgebiet. Old images die hard, but even cynics would find lots to like about Essen – if only they’d come and see for themselves.

– Germany’s biggest port has always been outward-looking.
Its dynamism, multiculturalism and hedonistic red-light district, the Reeperbahn, all arise from its maritime history.
A driving force in the Hanseatic League trading bloc in the Middle Ages, this long-standing duty-free port has been enthusiastically doing business with the world ever since.
In the 1960s, it nurtured the talent of the Beatles.
In the 21st century, it’s also a media capital and the wealthiest city in Germany.
Still overshadowed internationally by Berlin and Munich, domestically Hamburg is known as a natural achiever.
Rarely prone to the self-doubt that’s wracked the rest of Germany since reunification, this thriving ‘harbourpolis’ has seen its container ports growing like topsy thanks to new Eastern European business. ‘Boomtown Hamburg’, Stern magazine declared in 2006 – with a beautiful cover of the night-time harbour lights twinkling.
Such easygoing self-confidence makes Germany’s second-largest city wonderful to visit. Immigrant workers mingle with students among the Portuguese, Turkish and Asian eateries of vibrant St Pauli and Schanzenviertel.
Shipping, TV and newspaper magnates drive their Porsches up to mansions in leafy Blankenese.
Defying the city’s renowned Schmuddelwetter (drizzly weather), Hamburg’s hipsters lounge on artificial river beaches, while visitors cruise around the Alster Lakes and the neo-Gothic Speicherstadt warehouses, or haggle at the rowdy fish market as cargo ships navigate the Elbe River.
And if this isn’t enough, there are buildings shaped like ocean liners, plus an all-new waterside HafenCity district.
The Philharmonic hall being built there is tipped to rival the Sydney Opera House.
A squat brown-brick former warehouse is being transformed into the new Elbphilharmonie-bau.de, due for completion by 2012. Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron are responsible for the design, which, like their Tate Modern building in London, boasts a glass top. This time, however, they're being far more ambitious, as the glass facade should be taller than its brick base and the roof line will rise in wavelike peaks to reflect the waterfront location.
........ the world might finally return some of Hamburg’s attentions.
The Fischmarkt in St Pauli [ 5am-9.30am Sun Apr-Sep] has been a Hamburg institution since 1703 and still defines the city's life and spirit. Locals of every age and walk of life join curious tourists, and you can buy everything from cheap sweatshirts to tulips.

Exploring the vineyards and wineries of the Moselle (Mosel) Valley is an ideal way to get a taste of German culture and people – and, of course, the wonderful wines.
Take the time to slow down and savour a glass or two.
The Moselle is bursting at the seams with historical sites and picturesque towns built along the river below steep rocky cliffs planted with vineyards (they say locals are born with one leg shorter than the other so that they can easily work the vines). It’s one of the country’s most romantically scenic regions, with stunning views rewarding the intrepid hikers who brave the hilly trails.
Many wine-makers have their own small pensions but accommodation is hard to find in May, on summer weekends or during the local wine harvest (mid-September to mid-October).
Note also that much of the region –like the vines themselves – goes into a deep slumber from November to March.