Metz vs Heringsdorf

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Metz ( METS, French: [mɛs] (listen), Lorraine Franconian: [mɛts]; Latin: Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then Mettis) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est region. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, the city forms a central place of the European Greater Region and the SaarLorLux euroregion.Metz has a rich 3,000-year-history, having variously been a Celtic oppidum, an important Gallo-Roman city, the Merovingian capital of Austrasia, the birthplace of the Carolingian dynasty, a cradle of the Gregorian chant, and one of the oldest republics in Europe. The city has been steeped in Romance culture, but has been strongly influenced by Germanic culture due to its location and history.Because of its historical, cultural, and architectural background, Metz has been submitted on France's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. The city features noteworthy buildings such as the Gothic Saint-Stephen Cathedral with its largest expanse of stained-glass windows in the world, the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains being the oldest church in France, its Imperial Station Palace displaying the apartment of the German Kaiser, or its Opera House, the oldest one working in France.

Metz is home to some world-class venues including the Arsenal Concert Hall and the Centre Pompidou-Metz museum. A basin of urban ecology, Metz gained its nickname of The Green City (French: La Ville Verte), as it has extensive open grounds and public gardens. The historic city centre is one of the largest commercial pedestrian areas in France.A historic garrison town, Metz is the economic heart of the Lorraine region, specialising in information technology and automotive industries. Metz is home to the University of Lorraine, Georgia Tech Lorraine, and a centre for applied research and development in the materials sector, notably in metallurgy and metallography, the heritage of the Lorraine region's past in the iron and steel industry.

Source: Wikipedia

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Heringsdorf is a municipality and a popular seaside resort town on Usedom Island in Western Pomerania, Germany. It is also known by the name Kaiserbad (English: Imperial Spa). The municipality was formed in January 2005 out of the former municipalities of Heringsdorf, Ahlbeck and Bansin. Until January 2006, the municipality was called Dreikaiserbäder, literally meaning Three Imperial Spas, a reference to several vacation visits of the German emperor Wilhelm II until 1918.

For the same reason, the fine sandy beach stretching about 12 km (7.5 miles) from Bansin over Heringsdorf to Ahlbeck and Swinemünde (nowadays a Polish spa), is also called Kaiserstrand (Imperial Beach). The continuous Baltic Sea beach of Usedom Island has an overall length of exactly 40 km (25 miles) and an average width of 40 m (130 feet). Tourism is the dominant economical sector of the Imperial Spas, with an increasing number of hotels and vacation homes every year.

Source: Wikipedia