Görlitz–A Dreamy, Medieval Town

We arrived in Görlitz in the evening, so our first venture into the city was at night, and to this American’s eyes, the lamps gave the city a magical glow.

In the week after Berlin, we got back to classes, but our first three-day weekend for travel was at the end of the this week. In the middle, I had lunch with one of our students, who is the son of one of my best friends. We left Wednesday’s German class, took the tram to the stop closest to city center on our line, and walked to La Grotta Pizzeria. It was fantastic.

Onions, pepperoni (hot peppers), red peppers, and salami-pikant (hot salami, not pepperoni, but as close as it gets here). Oh yeah, and this is Kyle.

So, this is where I paid my first “I don’t know German well” tax. Kyle and I loved the pizza, and were pretty happy about it even at 11,90 euro. Until we paid attention to the little sign on the table.

Mid-day special: basic margherita pizza with two toppings of your choice for 5,90 euro.

So, Kyle and I could have shared a pizza–we both took home half of ours that day–and both of us eaten for 5,90 total. Live and learn. In fact, we did. We came back with everybody the next week, and a lot of students still hit La Grotta regularly. The oven is wood fired, and every ingredient is fresh.

Laura had been planning on Görlitz for our first trip away for awhile. We had both agreed after visiting Germany in 2014 that our long weekend trips should be spent in Germany. Germany is only half the size of Texas, but even so, each region is quite distinct and the cultures (and cuisine!) vary a lot between them. Like Leipzig, Görlitz, is in the Sachsen state, but it is considered Lusatian. It is in the eastern-most area of Germany, and you can just walk across the bridge over the river Neisse to Zgorzelec in Poland (which we certainly did!).

There are around 60,000 people in Görlitz, but it has been a prosperous town for a long time. The first written record of it’s status dates back to 1002, when it was part of the Polish empire. As boundaries shifted, it’s been part of a lot of empires and countries. Since Germany’s founding in 1871, it has been part of a German state, and was in East Germany during the years when Germany was split after WWII. A lot of the buildings the town is now famous for were built between 1200-1680. The town suffered less damage in the World War than many others, but the ornate houses were unsurprisingly ignored during the Soviet years (as they clearly denoted the wealth of merchants in a capitalist economy). After Die Wende (1989) when the wall fell, an anonymous donor started giving the city in 1995 500,000 Euro a year to renovate the house fronts and restore the city’s vibrant colors. If you have seen The Book Thief, Inglorious Basterds, or The Grand Budapest Hotel, you have seen scenes shot in Görlitz. It’s hard to do the scope of the city justice, but here are some of the buildings that I was struck by while we were there.

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Görlitz involved a lot of walking, so we needed as much refreshment as possible. Breakfast looked like this:

Laura with coffee. Jane Anne with cake. My hot chocolate barely made the picture.

While snacks around lunch occasionally looked like this:

Sometimes, Jesus saves in ways you don’t expect. This Pfandkuchen and meringue are from the Jesus bakerei. I didn’t have the heart to tell them Jesus was a carpenter. Particularly since this may have been the best bakery we have eaten at, yet.

Our first dinner was at The Three-Legged Dog. The schnitzel there was amazing, as were the other traditional German dishes we had. The girls were a little concerned about certain elements of the decor.

Maybe the weasel looking over her shoulder is why Molly didn’t like the local variant on Cordon Bleu.

The next day, we ate lunch in Poland. We had no idea what the US equivalent of Polish currency was, but like the meal the previous night, we had decided just to try things and eat well since the restaurant was nice. Since the restaurant was in a cellar, there also was no cell service to save us. Both girls started with a pot of tea, and as a family we enjoyed olives and breads as appetizers. Laura got pierogi, I had a variation on schnitzel, Jane Anne had a potato and egg variation on rosti, and Molly went with a cheese and olive plate. After dessert, we had spent nearly around a hundred Plotzy, but the meal was good enough that we were ok with a splurge. Once we were out of the restaurant with cell service, we discovered we spent $24. I felt like I had made up for my pizza mistake earlier in the week.

Sturdily constructed, and entirely cell signal-proof restaurant in Poland.

See–I was in Poland, too!

One of our favorite afternoons was spent wandering to and through the old city cemetery. The image of the house on a bridge in the gallery above is from our trip there (the house is the executioner’s house, and he was required to live out of the city due to the violent nature of his job–somehow on the city wall counted as out of the city). The next gallery is from the cemetery and the exterior of the old church (we didn’t get to go in–as with several sites in Görlitz, they close for the winter season and open around April 6).

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I think one of the reasons we liked Görlitz so much were that there were so many little flourishes of artistry in common, grand, and surprising places. Here is a catch-all gallery with several of the ones that stood out.

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Görlitz was the last weekend of January/first weekend of February. On February 7, we went to Weimar with the students. Weimar is lovely and the hometown of the famous philosopher/poet Goethe, but we were taking the students to visit Buchenwald, which is just outside Weimar. I will post about that soon. Tschüss!