fichtelgebirge mountains, DE-BY

we have spent 4 days in the beautiful fichtel mountains aka fichtelgebirge in franconia aka franken in north-eastern bavaria (bayern, BY). btw, fichte means spruce🌲 

our stops this time:

• on the road before the gates of the fichtelgebirge mountains: i've hoped for a nice 1st of may celebration (or demo?) in abensberg. there was nothing like this, but we've found a beautiful old city + wheat beer brewery kuchlbauer decorated by the austrian artist friedenreich hundertwasser instead
• lake and hotel fichtelsee
• ochsenkopf mountain (1.024m) and the spring of the (white) main river
• asch / aš, czech republic
• eger / cheb, czech republic
• interesting + beautiful kappl church close to waldsassen
• basilica + library in a monastery in waldsassen
• on the way back, the franconian city of lauf (not in the fichtelgebirge region anymore)
• ruins of thierstein castle (april, 27th at our way back home from funeral in poland)
• city of wunsiedel (april, 27th)

two of us on the road ~ accidentally the fun option at my phone 😂

ruins of thierstein castle

church in thierstein

on the road ... unfortunately a closed group toady

the gate to the old city of wunsiedel

wunsiedel ~ most people would say wundsiedel 😄

the bavarian writer jean paul ~ born johann paul friedrich richter

 in wunsiedel, (1763 - 1825)

wunsiedel. is it arts? 😇

they've asian restaurants in the province, too

town hall, wunsiedel

lake fichtelsee + hotel am fichtelsee, fichtelgebirge

arts. nice, isnt it?

amazing clouds IN the lake fichtelsee, fichtelgebirge

the old viewing tower at the ochsenkopf mountain (1.024m)

the view from the old ochsenkopf tower

wetter und sturm trotzt der usen-turm. tu's ihm gleich, mein deutsches reich!

my last snow of the season? nope, there was a lot of snow at

 matterhorn at about 3,800m in switzerland 2 weeks later

fichtel mountains ~ fichtelgebirge

the spring of the (white) main river, ochsemkopf / fichtelgebirge

the spring od white main river (weisser main)

the new radio tower at ochsenkopf

restaurant's ttoilette @ochsenkopf

good-bye, ochsenkopf

back to lake fichtelsee

the purple lake?

on the road

the place of pilgrimage ~ the kappl church, close to waldsassen

the basilica / monastery in waldsassen

the famous library in the basilica / monastery in waldsassen

gutenberg's letterpress ...

the 7 remaining nuns in monastery waldsassen

good-bye, waldsassen ...

on the road back home ... 

we have seen the spa bad berneck in 2023 and big parts of fichtelgebirge in 2020.

more pictures (soon) in the combined google album 2020+2025 here.

city of abensberg, DE-BY

on our way to the fichtelgebirge mountains i was looking for a nice 1st of may celebration / demo in abensberg, but we've found 'just' a beautiful old city + a wheat beer brewery kuchlbauer founded in 1300 and re-decorated by the austrian artist friedenreich hundertwasser in this north bavarian province ... 

btw, did you know, that both parents of the crazy & famous austrian artist friedrich stowasser (his civil name) were born in my native czechoslovakia? okay, to be more precise, both of them were born in today's czech republic and none of them in my native slovakia ... anyway, it doesnt matter that much, if you asked me ... he is still a pride for whole czechoslovakia, isnt he? on the other hand, both parents of the american pop art star andy warhol (born warhola) were born in today's slovakia and the czechs can be proud of him too, cant they? 😉 

the kuchlbauer brewery was re-designed by hundertwasser in 2010,

if i remember the corresponding honor table correctly ...

biergarten ~ beergarden

kucklbauer's bierwelt ~ world of beer

kunsthaus - house of arts contains also the hundertwasser museum

inside the kunsthaus

you wanna pee? 😅

friedenreich hundertwasser was a painter, too

(the) beauty can save the world

the kuchlbauer brewery

kuchlbauer's brew tower + johann thurmayer aventinus? are the any locals out there?

folks, pls pls help me! i know aventinus just a special schneider weisse wheat beer in munich, not as a person => ??? => my dears, wiki is the best: Aventinus is a strong, dark, wheat doppelbock introduced in 1907 by Mathilde Schneider and named after Johannes Aventinus, a Bavarian historian. It has an original gravity of 18.5 degrees Plato, and an abv of 8.2%

good-bye, dear mr. hundertwasser 💖

old city gate #1 (the road we came in)

old city gate #1 from inside 

the market square

abensberg's museum

abensberg castle

the old city walls and the abens river

old city gate #2

coat of arms? nope.

coat of arms of abensberg, source wikipedia here

market place as seen from the terrace of kuchlbauer's hotel & restaurant

turmweisse (tower wheat beer)? probably just s.th. for tourists 😄

the hotel reception

one of the churches

some other church ... today closed

this dandelion (löwenzahn) is from munich and not abensberg. who cares?

on the road again 

few more pictures here.