Unable to resist the advances of the world's first travel therapist,Ben Donald goes where few holidaymakers and socallsd travellers have wanted to go - at least not since 1945. Prescribed a course of visits to the land of Wurst and Liebfraumilch, he lays bare and disproves (most) stereotypes about our German friends and falls back in love with travel.

From the massed ranks on the nudist beaches of the Baltic coast (What, no sunloungers?) via intimate encounters in the steam rooms of Baden-baden en and the brothels of Hamburg (he makes his excuses and leaves) to purchasing his very own pair of Lederhosen at Oktobarfest, the author puts his body and dignity on the line to get beneath the (much exposed) skin of this most maligned (and hirsute) of countries. He even finds a German stand-up comedian in-where else?-England.

And he finds his eyes are opened (especially at the spas and nudist beaches) to a Germany that is very different from the one he thought he knew. Well, almost.

1 Weltschmerz: world on the couch

2 Freikorperkultur: baring all in the Baltic

3 Selbswahrnehmung: don't let's be beastly

4 Angst: hung up in Heidelberg

5 Gemiitlichkeit: rawhide in Munich

6 Gesundheit: in a lather in Baden-Baden

7 Grossmannsucht: a hard day's night in Hamburg

8 Kindergarten: once upon a time in Nuremberg

9 Delikatessen: naked chefs

10 Schadenfreude: why did the German cross the road?

11 Zeitgeist: the sound of German music

12 Lebensraum: building castles in Germany

13 Wanderlust regained

14 Weltmeister: champions of the world

15 Auf Wiedersehen

16 Wortschatz: a glossary of long German words