City guide

Mannheim

Mannheim doesn't do postcard old towns — its 17th-century planners laid the centre out as a grid of lettered and numbered blocks (the Quadrate) instead of street names, and heavy WWII bombing means most of what you see today was rebuilt afterwards. What it does have is a genuine claim to automotive history (Carl Benz built and drove the first car here in 1885/86) and a scrappy, studenty energy around the harbourside Jungbusch district. It's a working Rhein-Neckar city more than a sightseeing one.