Bikes in Hamburg (Flickr: rbrtsch)

As any of you reading from north of an imaginary line drawn between Cologne and Berlin will agree, Germany is often remarkably flat. The northern half of it is essentially part of a pancake that geographers call “The North European Plain.” To the likes of you and me, this essentially means that, between Holland and Russia, you can get a great view just by climbing up the average drainpipe. On a bungalow. With a low roof.