augsburg

main square in augsburg with town hall (rathaus) and the perlach tower 

we have been at a birthday party in göggingen (southeast part of augsburg) this weekend. the communication was really good and mainly dedicated to the healer movie 'Wunder der Lebenskraft: Eine Erlebnisreise zur Kraft, die in uns wirkt' by stephan petrowitsch.

of course, we welcomed the chance to visit this old, old, old city (2,033 years old as founded in 15 b.C.), which is the 3rd biggest in bavaria after munich and nuremberg. augsburg is part of the bavarian disrict schwaben / swabia. unlike today, swabia was a huge historic territory in medieval southwest germany before.
the most important part of its history is bonded to the fugger family, who were probably the richest people on earth in 15th &16th century.

 göggingen

goggingen

augsburg, ulrichskirche + basilika st. ulrich und afra

 st. anna - augsburg

 schätzlerpalais

 

rokoko hall, schätzlerpalais

fuggerei, the oldest social estate was provided by the fuggers

air strikes bunker from WWII

time for lunch in town hall's cellar. there were many peaceful fans of FC eintracht frankfurt waiting for the bundesliga match against FC augsburg

perlach tower (perlachturm) + ratskeller restaurant

good-bye, augsburg

more pictures here (probably too many)

chemnitz (karl-marx-stadt)

chemnitz, the former so called karl-marx-stadt was our last destination in saxony. we welcomed the chance to enjoy a sightseeing tour through the center of this industrial city led by my colleague as she visited her parents in chemnitz over christmas. it is always good to be guided by locals, isn't it?

(the 'nischel' = head as the locals say)

both of us, karl marx and me :-) ~ workers of all lands unite

in case you didn't know before, chemnitz is the place where the former riches of saxonia were worked out. leipzig the place where they were sold and dresden the place where they were blown away (especially by saxon kings & co.). when a tourist, i would highly recommend to visit dresden and its nice city center with all that palaces, churches, galleries, castles (e.g. castle pillnitz), will you?

in case you are fan of industrial chimneys, chemnitz is the place to be :o)

old and new town halls

 red tower (roter turm)

 cafe michaelis

industrial museum

more pictures here
good-bye, karl marx stadt / chemnitz :-)

so, our silvester trip is over, unfortunately. here in the first stop (reichenbach / saxonia) are all stations put together for me, if i would like to recapitulate a little bit later ...
eof

dittersbach (jetrichovice) - czech switzerland

the nature knows no man made borders, you know? well, the beautiful national park saxon switzerland continues after the border as czech switzerland. easy, isn't it? just to show you the difference, you will see the man made borders between germans and czechs below. but you know what? before the WWII lived the czechs and germans in this areas peaceful for few centuries. easy, isn't it?
btw, in my native eastern slovakia also lived slovaks, germans, ukrainians, hungarians beside ech other in peace and kept their respective identities for centuries ... 

NP czech switzerland - NP ceske svycarsko

the 33m high view point in janov

dittersbach (jetrichovice)

maria rock (marienfels, mariina skala) with its view point is our destination today

finally, we are up there :-). the ruins (water tank) of the former falkenstein castle?

  

beautiful view from marienfels. there was (man made?) forest fire few years ago

let's move back to bad schandau. hrensko (herrnskretschen) at river elbe (labe) is the border city from the czech side (here we see the hotel labe).

sudetenland (sudety) = the former german settled areas in the czech republic. btw, my grandmohter was born in sternberg which is in the very south of the north-eastern part of sudety (czech sudety, of course. there is an sudety area in poland, too). could you find sternberg, my dears?

more pictures here
btw, the beautiful prebisch arc pictures (prebischtor, pravcicka brana) from our last year's visit to this part of czech switzerland are here
eof

kuhstall rocks ~ kirnitzschtal valley ~ bad schandau ~ schmilka

the kuhstall (cowshed) rock formation was the next nice day trip from bad schandau through the kirnitzschtal valley with the historic tram (since 1898). our first short stop was the small lichtenhainer waterfall, then we walked to the kuhstall through a quite sad destroyed forest to the kuhstall rocks. 

tram since 1898

 lichtenhainer waterfall

 

last but not least, enjoy also few pictures from schmilka, the last saxon village at the elbe river before the czech border:

hotel helvetia in schmilka

more pictures here

good-bye saxon switzerland (sächsische schweiz), let's hope we see you again soon :-)
eof