14. Juni 2017, 16:58 Uhr | Lesezeit: 4 Minuten
Randy Olson, an American data scientist, is specialized in calculating optimized road trips. He already computed maps for the United States and Europe which that show the shortest routes between landmarks. Based on 50 attractions hand picked by editors from the German travel magazine TRAVELBOOK, Randy now created the perfect road trip across Germany.
It is not easy to pick 50 attractions for a country like Germany, which is rich in culture, history and nature and has so much to offer. However, TRAVELBOOK, the biggest German online travel magazine, made the attempt and created a list with the most beautiful and important landmarks that every visitor to Germany should see.
The list includes historical sites, buildings, nature parks and some of the most beautiful lakes. It is the perfect bucket list for everyone who wants to get to know Germany (better).
After compiling the list TRAVELBOOK gave it to the American data scientist Randy Olson who works at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Biomedical Informatics. With a special algorithm Randy calculated the optimized road trip including all the 50 attractions in Germany that can be started at any point.
„My optimization algorithm is harnessing the evolutionary process“
But how exactly does Randy’s algorithm work? „First, I query Google Maps for driving directions between every landmark, which provides me with 2450 driving directions for the 50 landmarks“, Randy explains TRAVELBOOK. „Next, I randomly generate 100 road trips, where each road trip has an itinerary that visits each landmark only once but in a different order.“
Then Randy chooses ten of those road trips that visit every landmark in the shortest driving distance and makes ten copies of each of them and includes some small adjustments to the route and picks again the ten shortest road trips. This process is repeated a thousand times. „At the end of the thousand iterations, the optimization algorithm provides the optimized road trip that we see here“, he says.
„My optimization algorithm is harnessing the evolutionary process to generate optimized road trips.“
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3416,67 miles and 16 german states
The perfect road trip across Germany covers exactly 3416,67 miles and leads you through every state of the country.
„The entire trip would take an estimated 3.08 days of driving without stopping“, Randy tells TRAVELBOOK. „So a dedicated traveler could finish the trip in about 5 days if they only spent about 1 hour at every stop and did not stop to eat, drink, sleep, bathe, nor go to the bathroom. Unless you’re looking to beat a world record, I do not recommend taking this road trip that quickly.“
These are the 50 attractions on the perfect route through Germany
- Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
- Sanssouci, Potsdam
- Bauhaus, Dessau
- Brocken, Harz
- AutoMuseum Volkswagen, Wolfsburg
- Schwerin Palace
- Seebrücke (pier) Heiligendamm
- Königsstuhl, Rügen
- Holsten Gate, Lübeck
- The Wadden Sea National Park
- Lighthouse, Ellenbogen, Sylt
- St. Pauli Piers, Hamburg
- Town Musicians of Bremen
- German Emigration Center, Bremerhaven
- Münster Cathedral
- Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, Essen
- Königsallee, Düsseldorf
- Cologne Cathedral
- Beethoven House, Bonn
- Deutsches Eck (german corner), Koblenz
- Porta Nigra, Trier
- Saar Loop, Mettlach
- Lorelei, Sankt Goarshausen
- Kurhaus Wiesbaden
- Römer, Frankfurt
- Heidelberg Castle
- Casino of Baden-Baden
- Europa-Park, Rust
- World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock, Schonach im Schwarzwald
- Hölderlin Tower, Tübingen
- New Palace, Stuttgart
- Ulm Minster
- Mainau, Constance
- Breitachklamm ravine, Allgäu
- Neuschwanstein Castle, Schongau
- Königssee, Schönau in Bavaria
- Marienplatz (Mary’s Square), Munich
- Danube gorge, Kelheim
- Old Town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber
- Chain Bridge, Nürnberg
- Bayreuth Festival Theatre, Bayreuth
- Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes, Saalfeld
- Wartburg, Eisenach
- Erfurt Cathedral
- Goethe-Nationalmuseum, Weimar
- Augustusplatz, Leipzig
- Zwinger, Dresden
- Saxon Switzerland National Park (Elbe Sandstone Mountains)
- Marienplatz, Görlitz
- Spreewald (Spree Woods), Brandenburg