The world's best passion play. Every 10 years, the world's most moving passion play is performed in the shadows of the Alps in the little artisan town of Oberammergau. From May through September in years ending in zero, local amateur actors put aside their daily professions and devote themselves entirely to the play. Written in the 17th century, it enacts Christ's suffering between the Last Supper and his death. Villagers have performed the play every 10 years since the 17th century, when they vowed they would perform the passion if the black plague ceased. It did and they have. The picturesque Passionsspielhaus (Passion play Theater) can be visited any time of the year. The immense open-air stage holds 700 actors and the theater's wooden benches hold 5,200 people. You can see the elaborate costumes used during the passion play when you visit. Performances begin at 8:30 a.m. and finish at 6 p.m., with a two-hour break for lunch. The best hotel Oberammergau is the Alois Lang. This quiet place has rooms with private bathrooms and three good dining rooms.

The world's best asparagus. Every spring, Germans go stalk-raving mad, gorging themselves on the country's Weisser Spargel, or white asparagus. The German asparagus, introduced 2,000 years ago by the Romans, is plump and ivory white with delicate purple tips. It is prized among epicures, who come from around the world every April, May and June to the world's asparagus mecca. Asparagus is especially big business in Finthen, near Mainz, where all 5,000 inhabitants are engaged in the cultivation of the white vegetable; in Lampertheim, between Worms and Mannheim, where every housewife grows the prized vegetable in her back yard; in Schrobenhausen, the center of the only area in southern Bavaria where asparagus is grown; and in Tettnang and Schwetzingen, known together as the asparagus capital of Germany.