Stepping back in time along Germany’s gentle walkways

“In early times,” jibed Mark Twain, “some sufferer had to sit up with a toothache, and he put in the time inventing the German language.” Which, I promise, has nothing to do with why it’s taken until my fifth decade to finally visit the Bundesrepublik.

What Twain had called that “awful German language” is vastly softer, easier on the ear when you get here, to that which is stereotypically announced – as my preconceptions would ...