Summer 2019 - 2nd Post - Germany

9th to 10th July 2019
Unkel, Germany

Morning having a wander around Heimbach, castle was free entry! Then headed east towards the Rhine. Illegally drove through the low emission zone in Bonn (couldn't seem to find away around it - fortunately no camera checks like London). Eventually parked up at a pleasant village a few km south of Bonn - Unkel (with free parking and services - not that common in Germany). On the way stopped off and cycled into Bonn. Great  pedestrianized city centre and cycle ways running up and down the Rhine it seems from Rotterdam to Lake Constance. Stayed in Unkel a couple of nights - walked part of the Rhine Gorge footpath and cycled down to the bridge at Remagen, where which the Americans captured intact in March 1945, the demolition charges having failed to demolish it as opposed to all the other Rhine bridges demolished by the retreating German Army, to make the first Allied bridgehead across the Rhine. Now just the abutments remain, it collapsed about a week after being captured. It was actually built between 1916 and 1918 to improve the railway supply line to the German front in WW1.

Heimbach

Heimbach

Rhine just below Bonn - the seven hills of the Siebengebirge  
where Siegfried killed in dragon in its mountain cave (well not really)

Main square Bonn - Beethoven's birth place (left when he was four)
Statue was for his 75th birthday - among other notables Queen Victoria was in attendance

Remagen Bridge

Rhine from above Remagen Bridge

11th July 2019
Mendig, Germany

Followed the Rhine south to Coblenz and then a side trip west into the volcanic part of the Eifel to park up a couple kilometres south of what is supposed to be Europe's largest water filled caldera that now forms the Lacher See, which is about 2km in diameter. Suprsingly only formed about 10,000 years ago. Got drowned in a thunderstorm walking up there to take a look!

Larcher See - Caldera Lake - someone else's aerial shot!
Mine are just of torrential rain and thunder clouds.

12th July 2019
Alken, Germany

Side trip from the Rhine to visit the Mosel valley and park up on it's right bank at Alken about 20km up stream from its confluence with the Rhine at Coblenz. A spot of cycling up and down the valley. Not as wide as the Rhine Gorge, but, in many ways more picturesque with the vineyards going up impossibly steep slopes (goodness knows how they access them for pruning and picking).  Walked up to the local castle and encountered a church with a charnel house in the porch - dozens of human skulls on display! Creepy.

Unkel -  Mossel, steep vineyards for your Mossel wines., Church (with skulls) and Castle
Van parked-up bottom left

13th July 2019
Sayne, Germany

Back to the Rhine to stop off next a few miles north of Koblenz, next to an ironworks that is being restored as a museum, below the castle and old schloss at Sayne. Mainly forest and hills surrounding the town.

Local Schloss and park at Sayne - the old castle is lost in the trees

14th July 2019
Oestrich-Winkel, Germany

South along the Rhine from Koblenz to complete the last section of the Gorge. Unfortunately, very damp, grey and overcast - so sadly the apparently endless sequence of hillside castles didn't get photographed. In many places, also damn hard to find some where to pull in a take some anyway. Spent the night next to the Sports Hall complex at Oesterich-Winkel surrounded by endless hectares of vineyards with the fruit mainly heading for millions of bottles of Riesling. Some really classy wine producing estates encountered when out walking that evening.

Riesling vineyards down to the Rhine and beyond on the far bank

15th July 2019
Eisenburg

South the Rhine isn't so interesting for the next few hundred kilometres. So I decided to head east towards Poland and take a look around southern Saxony where Germany, Poland and Czech Republic come together. Then probably into Poland. I have never visited these parts before apart from Berlin about twenty-five years ago. Long cross country drive on the autobahn through endless hills and forestry (Taunus, Volgelsberg, Thuringerwald). I never appreciated before how hilly (300m-500m) and forested the centre of Germany is. Ended up in a Stellplatz at a small town south of Leipzig - Eisenburg. With free parking and paid services. 

Eisenburg - Baroque Schloss church
Every village and castle in this part of Germany seems to have rebuilt their church in the eigthteenth century in Baroque style. Rarely see a medieval church.

16th and 17th July 2019
Neukirch-Lausitz, Germany

Further east on the autobahn to end up in SE Saxony close to the Czech and Polish borders. Hilly area (mainly 300m to 400m) of rolling forested hills, interspersed with mainly arable farming (wheat - although I did notice the occasional cow).  Large free parking area with services at Neukirch formed a good base for a couple of nights (after having struggled with the German system of road closures which I still don't not understand! Like a clear indication that a road is closed but no information as to where...). Took a day trip into Dresden on the train from the local station as well as some walking in the local hills. Amazing that so much has been restored after the bombing in early 1945 that flattened it and most of the Baroque buildings. The last to be rebuilt was the Fraukirch, which had been left until 2005 as a heap of rubble as a war memorial. There is a huge pedestrianized area between the river (Elbe) and the main train station. The rebuilding away from the historic centre seems to be endless new department stores, shops and squares- presumably built after unification.

Dresden - the re-built Baroque centre and River Elbe

Dresden  - Fraukirch

Dresden - Zwinger Palace

18th and 19th July 2019
Herrnhut, Germany

A few kilometres from Neukirch found a great little spot with a parking area on the edge of town at the edge of the local forest. But what a bizarre little town, the centre is full of large eighteenth century buildings and a church that is the headquarters of the Moravian Church. Apparently one of the oldest Protestant churches, founded in Moravia (part of the kingdom of Bohemia) and ejected from there, and then based here, when the Austrians drove out the protestants in favour of the catholic church. 

Walking around Herrnhut - hills of  the Czech Republic and Poland on the horizon

Herrnhut - Moravian Church and associated eighteenth century buildings.
The hills in the distance form the Czech border.

20th July 2019
Sohland am de Spree, Germany

Another nearby parking place, hot but managed a walk in the afternoon into the forest and along the German/Czech border for a few kilometres. 

Sohland am der Spree - Village centre

21st July 2019
Orlitz, Germany

East to visit the 18th century Monastry at Orlitz on the Polish border, well at least the post-1945 one, previously, the 1918 one was much further east. Then eastwards  into Poland next week. 
Today is Sunday - what a strange country the place is absolutely dead like the UK fifty years ago. There is hardly anyone around, little traffic, shops all shut (apart from some baker's open between 07:00 and 10:00 and petrol stations). But when the shops are open cheap! Diesel is a s low as 1.17 euro a litre; while ,food and eating are generally cheaper than the UK even with the devalued pound.

Monastery at Orlitz - Poland in the background

Monastery at Orlitz - more Baroque buildings!