Kiel, Germany

One of the traditional homes of the German Navy's Baltic fleet, and continues to be a major high-tech shipbuilding centre, Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Water has been important to the history of Kiel and continues to be so. Be it the annual Kieler Woche or the fact that the German Navy used to be stationed here and still enjoys a major presence in the city.