Gorbitz- You can see part of the astromonical clock behind me
We went up the Reichenbacher Tower for some great views
I really like this building with its crazy eye windows and strange astronomical markings
Poland was a little more shabby!
On Thursday I dragged myself out of bed at 6am and headed down to the main station to catch an early train over to Görbitz, a beautiful old border town north of here. The day before I had noticed a last minute call for the trip with ESN (Erasmus Student Network) and, as I really need to get on with writing a paper, I decided on a whim that it would be the perfect procrastination.
Thursday was a national holiday here in Germany; most places were closed as it is firstly a religious day, Himmelfährt (Ascension Day?), and secondly Männertag (Men’s Day). I had assumed that Männertag was like Father’s Day but it doesn’t seem to translate exactly. Instead, it is an excuse for all the men to have a day off and drink all day long. Even before 8am there were groups of men everywhere, swigging their first bottles, wearing daft costumes and heading out to god knows where laden with crates of beer...
We arrived in Görbitz early and wandered through the town which was almost empty. It is a historic place, probably about a thousand years old, and in contrast to much of the area was not destroyed in World War II. Consequently it has some impressive architectural heritage- over 3,500 protected buildings and monuments in a wide variety of styles from gothic to baroque, art nouveau to romantic- and has a reputation for being one of the most beautiful towns in Germany, looking almost as it did in 1945. It lies on the River Neisse and was, with the Polish town Zgorzelec on the other side, an old trading town between the Bohemian and Silesian regions.
Görbitz has its very own astronomical clock, which seem quite common across Europe, and funny round towers everywhere. We went up one, the Reichenbacher Turm, for some great views across the city. I think it was built in the 14th Century as part of the town’s fortifcations. He also visited the Heiliges Grab (Holy Grave), an exact replica of the grave of Jesus in Jerusalem, which was built around the 15th century by a wealthy businessman as his personal place of worship.
Later on I wandered over the bridge to Zgorzelec with some French people that I keep bumping into. It is strange because there is literally nothing that tells you that you are leaving one country and entering another. On the other side, however, the houses suddenly become very shabby and run-down, the language and currency changes, and everything becomes much cheaper! Naturally we ate dinner over in Poland, after drinking a few cheap but sadly disappointing beers and going for a wander. There was very little to see in Zgorzelec though, clearly the Germans got the better side of town when the border was drawn in 1945! The food was good though, I tried a Russian dish called Pirogi and it was tasty. After that there was little to do but cross back into Germany and head back on the train to Dresden to fall into bed as it was pretty late.
So Görlitz was a really nice place, it was a shame it wasn’t sunny as we’d expected but at least the rain held off. My brief excursion into Poland was fun too and I plan on heading further into the country where there is actually a bit more to do and see in a month or so, particularly as it’s so cheap. Unfortunately I still have a paper to write urgently, and now I have finished this blog I am running out of procrastination possibilities. Right then, better get down to it...
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