How I Spent My Sommer Vacation - Part VII (July 15th):
THE TWINS OF SILESIA

I woke up early to catch the train from Dresden to the easternmost city of Germany. I was headed to the town of Görlitz, on the border with Poland. I had bought a "Saxon Ticket," which is basically a train ticket that is good all day on any of the regional trains within Saxony. I was sitting happily in my seat watching the pretty scenery and eating my breakfast of schinken and waffles when the ticket lady came around asking for tickets. I showed her my Saxon Ticket and she said (in German), "Nope! This doesn't work." She pointed out that the ticket is only good after 9AM and it was, at that time, 8:2something. So she said unflinchingly, "You have a choice, you can either pay the €16 that will get you to where we'll be at 9AM, or you can get off at the next stop." I could tell she wasn't going to budge on this so I told her I would get off at the next stop.

So we stopped in the town of Radeburg and I had to wait for over an hour for the next train. I was kind of upset and so I took a little walk into town (with my big and little backpacks). It wasn't a very exciting town. It is most well known for its big brewery.

Here's the exciting church of Radeburg...

So I boarded the next train to Görlitz and I was on my way again.

Here is Görlitz...

View Larger Map

After an hour or so I arrived in Görlitz. What's in Görlitz you ask? Well this beautiful city has pristine architectural specimens spanning almost it's entire history. There are medieval towers, Renaissance structures, 18th century house rows, and early 20th century "Art Nouveau" department stores. It's also one of the primary city of the region of Silesia.


Silesia is a region and culture that has never had a nation of its own. It stretches from eastern Germany to Poland and down into the Czech Republic. Many times people just lump all Germans together as "German" but they don't realize that there are different ethnic groups inside Germany as distinct from each other as from other European nations. The Bavarians, the Schwabs, the Saxons (sorry, no Geats), the Silesians, the Sorbs, the Low-Germans, the Low-Saxons, along with many others make up a very heterogeneous nation. The name "Deutschland," at its ancient roots, means in fact, "land of the people." "Allemania" and "Allemagne," the Spanish and French names for Germany mean "of all the men."

I arrived at the train station and put my big bag in a locker and headed out into the city.

The city was untouched by the bombs of World War II. It was also specially protected during the Communist era with an order that nothing be torn down and replaced with Commy-buildings. Thus what you have is trip back through time as you walk down each street.

Here is the Art Nouveau department store "Karstadt," and one of the three medieval towers in the city. This tower has the imaginative name of "Dickturm," which means "thick tower." No jokes please.

Here's a better view of the Karstadt. It was built in the 1920's and is one of the few remaining buildings of its kind left in Germany.

...and inside:

Here's another Art Nouveau building with two women as pillars of the balcony:

I found another medieval tower and this one was climb-up-able. So I went to the top for a look...

I found a great view of the city of Görlitz...

The St. Peter's Church and another medieval tower....

Here is the town hall, the Trinity Church and in the background is the block apartments and smokestacks of Zgorzelec, Poland.

Here is the Trinity Church. It's clock is actually seven minutes fast. This is because in the Middle-Ages there was a workers rebellion against the powerful cloth and brewery guilds that ran the city council. The conspirators met with the intention to end their meeting at exactly 12 midnight to avoid the night watchmen (like Mitch), who were would be on the other side of town at that hour. The city council (like Mike) tricked them by ordering the church bell to chime at seven minutes before midnight to fool the rebels into the streets and the arms of the waiting guards.

Inside this old church is a fascinating sculpture of Jesus just sitting there thinking:

Back out onto the pedestrian plaza and down the street....

Passing quaint alleys...

...and charming doorways...

Here are some interesting Renaissance buildings. The one on the right has mathematical and astronomic depictions on its façade.

A Baroque building...

Another house that thinks it's all fancy...

Before long I came to the river Neiss. This is the border between Germany (left-side) and Poland (right-side). I had never been to Poland before so I was excited as I crossed the bridge and entered the great Slavic land.

Way to go Nateski!

On the German side of the river was the St. Peter Church so I got my lousy picture taken from Poland.

I crossed the bridge back into Germany. I would return to Poland in a couple of hours. I wasn't through with Görlitz yet.

I found another interesting Renaissance house with blue (right?) bricks.

Cool...

And right down the street was the third medieval tower, the Nikolai Tower (capped with a Baroque dome). It was here in its shadow that I had lunch.

Rick Steves had much good to say about the restaurant here and its traditional Silesian cuisine. I decided to go all out and order the Silesian specialty: "Schliesescher Himmerlreich" or "Silesian Kingdom of Heaven." It consists of pork cutlets and dumplings with fruit (in this case apples, pineapple, prunes, and apricots), and a creamy sauce. Let me tell you, it was incredible, a very unique dish. It was like a museum in your mouth. Many times eating the local cuisine is one of the best and most intimate ways (*ahem*) of absorbing another culture.

After my delightful lunch I continued my exploration. Here is a street that made me feel like I had really stepped back in time a hundred years or so...

Here is the same street from the other direction, it's funny how different it feels in this picture.

Görlitz is located exactly on the longitudinal meridian of 15 degrees. Now hang on to your hats people, because that's just the beginning. They also have a monument to show this important landmark. I was hoping to flush water down a drain to see if it would spin one way or another depending on which side I was on. But I just didn't have enough water handy for such an experiment.

I was near another bridge that went into Poland (the John-Paul II Bridge) and so I went back into Zgorzelec.

Welcome back to Poland...

It was fascinating to see the stark contrast between Poland and Germany. Zgorzelec was much more run-down and chaotic on the street level than Görlitz. Everything was in Polish (no German that I could see), and all I heard being spoken was Polish. It was fun to wander around and not speak or understand a word.

The nice old buildings are much more run-down here.

...but still charming...

Here's an official-looking building... not sure what it is though:

And then I found this Culture Monuement. Not sure what the story is here...

Right next to the Culture Monument is this forest-park with some of the coolest dirt-bike trails I'd ever seen. I sat and enjoyed some Polish Forest Solitude.

And then I walked a stone's throw away to the riverbanks where I rested a while longer.

Here I am saying "Poland" while in the country of Poland itself.

Then it was back to Germany... Goodbye Poland.

There was a nice park on the German side near the river. I took my shoes off and had a nice POWER NAP then headed back into the city. It had been a full day and after two nights of mediocre sleep in the Dresden hostel and two full days of sightseeing, I was kaput. It was all good, however, because later that afternoon I gathered my bag from the train station and took a short train ride to my the final destination on my trip; and there I would sleep like a king.

Görlitz Picasa Album:

Görlitz & Zgorzelec

Next time: Another new friend, another new country, and the coolest rocks in Germany (and one topped by a castle).




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How I Spent My Sommer Vacation - Part VI (July 13th-14th):
"THE BALCONY OF EUROPE"

..and no, I didn't dangle any babies off of it.

I left Leipzig as the sun was finally starting to come out, giving me a pretty and scenic ride deeper into Saxony, to the city of Dresden.

Everyone who's been to Dresden has raved about what a cool city it is. I arrived at my hostel, which was a little ways out of the Old Town, and met my roommates: an Australian guy and an Australian girl. Not together. So there were three of us in a four-bed room. I got stuck with the top bunk... more on that later.

The sun was sinking fast and I wanted to hurry and make it to the Old Town to get some nice evening shots. I hopped on the tram and was on my way. As the tram crossed the bridge I was stunned at the site. I got off the next stop and went back to the bridge. I spent some good time there as the sun went down, taking pictures of the Old Town over the Elbe River.

The light is dimming....




...Dusk...




...Evening...




...Twilight...




...Night!

I was pretty tired so I went back to my hostel. When I went to climb into the top bunk I realized that there was no railing! I was pretty high up and I thought that if I fell, I would probably die or at least break an expensive Australian alarm clock. So I pretty much hugged the wall the whole night. Though at one point I woke up a bit dizzy and found myself teetering on the edge of disaster!

Then I went back to sleep and slept until the jackhammer across the street started at 6:30AM. I think there's an international law that states that jackhammers can only be used between the hours of 6AM and 9AM.

I was excited for my day, however, so I grabbed all my stuff and headed out into the city.

On first approach of the city I was impressed once again by the Baroque stateliness of it all. Dresden was the capital of the Saxon Kingdom and its kings built great churches and palaces especially during the 18th century. In World War II, Allied forces firebombed the city and completely leveled the magnificent Old Town. Slowly but surely, in the years after the war, the town was rebuilt with most of the buildings the way they were before the war. In many cases the salvageable original stones and bricks were put back into the reconstruction. Today you would hardly know there was such destruction only 60 years ago. You do, however, see a few signs of the Communist days that were to come.

Dresden on approach...

Riverboats line the shores of the Elbe taking passengers on day-cruises.

Dresden's opera house, the "Semperoper" named after its architect, is one of the most famous in the world. It has been destroyed several times throughout its history and has always been rebuilt in more-or-less the same way.

This is where Richard Wagner premiered The Flying Dutchman, Rienzi, and Tannhäuser; and where the Munich composer Richard Strauss premiered Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, and Salome (Strauss's Die Alpensinfonie was also premiered in Dresden but somewhere else.)

Right next door is the Zwinger Palace. This fancy shmancy Baroque palace was built by August the Strong, King of Saxony and Poland, in the early 18th century after he had toured the splendour of King Louis XIV's palace in Versailles. It sits upon the old fortress of Dresden and now houses several museums (all closed when I was there because it was Monday: "Museum=Closed"-Day).

It was quite splendid...

The Crown Gate was especially maaaarvelous....

...and there were Baroque scuptures and fat little angel babies everywhere you looked...

I pride myself on having good photographs with no tourists in the picture anywhere. It takes patience and good timing...

Next it was on to the Frauenkirche, or "The Church of Our Lady." This great Protestant church was an engineering marvel when completed in 1743, particularly it's enormous high dome. At first people thought it would collapse on itself, but it proved to be very strong indeed as several cannon balls struck it during the Seven-Years-War and simply bounced off. It was not strong enough, however, to endure the intense fire-bombing which occurred in 1945. The church burned for several days with temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius, then it collapsed.

It was one of the last major Dresden landmarks to be rebuilt. Each piece of rubble was carefully cataloged and the church was rebuilt using as much of the original material as possible and with the exact same architectural plans as the original. It was finally completed in 2005.

You can see which stones are original (the darker ones)....

The inside is huge...

Near the Frauenkirche is the Fürstenzug, a ceramic parade of all the kings of Saxony from the early Middle-Ages until the mid-1800's when the wall was built. It actually survived the fire bombing.

Before long, I was ready for lunch. I found a nice biergarten across the river with a good lunch menu. I ordered a Schnitzel with roast potatoes and an apfelschorle to drink (basically carbonated apple juice... I'm drinking one right now in fact.) I sat down on the terrace and had a very scenic lunch.

The site of old buildings tends to make food taste better, and so this tasted great!

Then I had a little nap by the banks of the river and then it was back into the city...

Here's the Semperoper from the Zwinger...

Spires over the Zwinger...

Behind the Zwinger. You can see the old fortress wall upon which the palace is built...

This grand view, overlooking the Elbe river, is known as "The Balcony of Europe."

Now I think this is a bit of a misnomer because the view OF the "balcony" (above) is better than the view FROM the "balcony":

Unless you're looking behind the "balcony" in which case, there are some good views there...

More balconiage....

There are some things in Dresden that seem as out of place as Stagg chili on ice cream. I'm of course referring to the Communist buildings and murals that still exist right next to some of these great buildings of the past...

Soon it was night again and I hustled around the city getting some farewell night shots...

I went back to the hostel as pooped as pie. I slept well, and didn't die, and woke up the next morning to head off to my next destination....

Dresden Picasa Album:

Dresden

Next time: The Heart and Heaven of Silesia, Nate gets thrown off a train, he visits a new country! and you longitudinal nuts out there will go KaRAZY!!!


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