To escape the cold weather in Furtwangen (where I studied 2006) Oli (my neighbor in the student flat) and I flew to Egypt just to get some sun and escape the winter. Like usual I could not just lay at the beach (and luckily Oli as well) so we decided to do some trips. The biggest (and a little crazy one) was to Cairo to see the Pyramids and Sphinx. It was a 5hrs trip by bus (one way). Other than that we did some snorkeling. The Red Sea is just perfect to do that. Egypt is definitely the closest destination from Germany to get warm temperatures and sun in winter.