Freiberg, Nossen & Grimma (06/04/2024)

 At the beginning of April, I decided to do a day trip to Saxony. After getting on a train in Berlin, after a couple of switches, I eventually reached the first town, Freiberg.  The town was founded around 1168, and was a centre of the mining industry, specifically silver, in the Ore Mountains for centuries. My first monument there was the Cathedral which I visited after paying for an entry ticket. Despite its name, it was actually just a collegiate church as it never had the seat of a bishop. Built starting in the 12th century it was further expanded and then refurbished after the fire that destroyed most of the city in 1484 getting its current late Gothic aspect. The interior was a marvel and still had two main features of the early building, the crucifix group from 1225 and the impressive late Romanesque Golden Gate also from the same year. The latter consists of an arched sandstone portal on the southern apse of the church with richly decorated columns and sculptures and is considered one of the major works of 13th-century German art. From the late gothic features, apart from the impressive high hall structure with its many columns, there were two striking pulpits, worthy of contending with Italian ones. The so-called Tulip Pulpit from 1505 was made in porphyry tuff and features an intricate pattern like that of a blooming flower or growing tree with figures of saints, the symbols of the evangelists, and the figures of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Next to it, was a second pulpit, quite rare to find two like that in a church. This one called the Miner's Pulpit was built in 1638 in sandstone and features sculpted depictions of the donors of the monument itself, Freiberg's mayor Jonas Schönlebe and his wife, as well as relief depictions of the Passion of Christ. As the name suggests, the pulpit steps are supported by a kneeling figure of a miner in working clothes, and the pulpit basket by a standing figure of a miner. In addition to those was the Great Organ dating to between 1711 and 1714, some Renaissance and Baroque grave monuments and paintings, and the striking high choir. Here is the funeral chapel of the electoral family, the protestant Saxon princely family of Wettin who reigned from 1539 to 1694. Originally Gothic, the choir was reconstructed in 1590 by an Italian sculptor, Nosseni, in a beautiful Mannerist style. It features bronze statues of some princes and their wives crowned by rich marble. The ceiling is painted with a Last Judgment, quite unique for Northern and Central Europe. At the center of the choir stands the monument and tomb of Elector Moritz of Saxony, designed by two Italian masters. Touring around the Cathedral and its partly surviving cloister holding now some gravestones and an 800-year-old Romanesque baptismal font I then headed out to explore the rest of the city. I passed through the Untermarkt, one of the town's main squares, right behind the Cathedral, and then continued on to reach the church of St Nikolai. Originally a Romanesque church it was rebuilt following the infamous 15th-century fire but still keeps the original twin Romanesque towers. Not far further I then reached the Obermarkt, the city's main square, with nice buildings all around it including the town hall. I passed by another church, the Petrikirche, located on the highest point in the city center refurbished in a Baroque style and with two towers, the tallest of which reaches a height of 74m. From there I eventually reached the Freudenstein Castle, at the northwestern end of town. Built starting in the 12th century it was then reconstructed in the 16th century in a Renaissance style but severely damaged two centuries later during the Seven Years' War. Currently, restored, it hosts a museum called Terra Mineralia with exhibitions on minerals. Just behind the castle I then managed to take a bus which led me to the town of Nossen. Here instead of visiting the town immediately, I took another bus that brought me to the outskirts where I then visited the Altzella Abbey. Begun in the 12th century it expanded in the following centuries mostly in a Romanesque style with later Gothic additions. The complex enjoyed its heyday during the 15th century and even bought the nearby Nossen castle, which was in poor condition, and restructured it to serve as the abbot's residence. However, the abbey was then secularized in the 16th century and large parts of the buildings, which were in poor condition, were demolished and the materials reused elsewhere. During the 19th century, in the Romantic period, the remains of the former Altzella Abbey were turned into a landscape garden now filled with ruins of former buildings, a large park, and some surviving buildings as well. I started by visiting the Converts House, where the Lay brothers used to be, which featured a Romanesque refectory on the ground floor and the dormitory above. Because the building was used as a granary and cowshed from around 1700 to 1952, it is the only building structure to have been completely preserved. Next up was the mausoleum, built in a baroque form in the 17th century in the area of what was once the abbey church's choir. It contains the older tombs of the Wettin margraves of Meissen from 1190 to 1381. Then through the rest of the park, I saw the ruins of the buildings that were once built as the complex grew. Granaries, farmhouses, dormitories, a wine cellar, and other service buildings. After touring the complex I headed back out and through the surviving Romanesque portal of the western wall, that once encircled the whole Abbey. Then I headed towards Nossen on foot and finally had the chance to visit the town. It was quite small and featured a main street with at its end the town church, originally built in the 13th century but rebuilt after a fire in the 16th century and again in the 18th century. It features two Romanesque portals taken from the Altella Abbey but unfortunately, the church was closed so I couldn't visit the interior. At the town's highest point, situated on a rocky outcrop above the valley, was the castle. Now a Renaissance, it was once an older medieval castle and served the Saxon electors as a hunting lodge and residence for those passing through from and to nearby Dresden. In 1813, after French troops had occupied the city, Napoleon also spent a night in the castle before moving on to conquer Dresden. I visited the castle's main courtyard admiring the nice surrounding architecture and the view from up there. After that, it was time to move on. I reached the train station and from there ended up in Grimma, the last town of the day. This town still features part of the walls that once encircled it completely, especially on its eastern side facing the Mulde River. Once in the old town, I passed by the Frauenkirche, featuring two 46-meter-high Romanesque towers. Nest up along the street the Klosterkirche, a late gothic 15th-century hall church now deconsecrated. Next to it was the huge Gymnasium St. Augustine,  considered the only regular gymnasium offering boarding in Saxony. Founded in 1550 as one of the three Fürstenschulen in the state its current style is Neorenaissance rebuilt in the late 19th century. At the northern end of town, I then reached what was once the Grimma castle. Originally from the 13th century, it was then expanded in the following centuries with additional buildings built into or next to it, such as a keep, and granary. Today, the Grimma district court and the branch office of the Leipzig public prosecutor's office are located in the castle. Heading back through town I then reached the main square where the picturesque town hall with its striking Renaissance gable is set. Around the square's perimeter some other nice old buildings as well. Heading back to the train station I then went to Leipzig where I had to switch train to eventually get back home in Berlin. 

The Freiberg Dom

Interior of the cathedral

The Miner's Pulpit

The high choir with the Wettin funerary chapel

The Romanesque Golden Gate

Freiberg's old town

The main square

The Schloss Freudenstein

Nossen's old town

Altzella Abbey

The refectory

Abbey ruins

Schloss Nossen

The inner courtyard

The Frauenkirche in Grimma

The main square with the town hall

One of the old town houses

Bicycle trip through the Altes Land (30/03/2024)

On a cloudy, yet rather warm end of March day, our friends Margo and Denisz came with Ania and me on a bicycle trip through the Altes Land, an an area of reclaimed marshland south of Hamburg now known for being the biggest contiguous fruit-producing region in North Europe. We first reached the neighborhood of Blankenese on the western end of the city of Hamburg, right on the bank of the river Elbe. Here we intended to take the ferry over to Cranz, a village on the other side of the river. However, unfortunately, the tide was quite low and once on the ferry we were told we would not be able to head over to Cranz and instead had to do with Finkenwerder, also on the other side but further east. This meant that our bicycle ride would be much longer due to the added kilometers both on the way there and back. We left the ferry terminal and biked along the Hamburg Finkerwerder Airport, used as a manufacturing plant by Airbus. Cycling on a dike along a nice countryside we then reached the village of Borstel with its windmill Aurora and a nice main street sided by old houses and the church of St Nikolai. A little further on we then reached Jork. The town featured a small yet pretty old town with nice timber-framed houses. We also managed to visit the main church, St. Matthias, originally dating to the 13th century but refurbished in a baroque style during the 17th and 18th centuries. It featured a nice interior with a wooden ceiling dotted with stars to symbolize the dark night sky and outside a semi-detached thick wooden tower. After a quick lunch break, we got back on our bicycles and decided to start heading back this time taking a different way. We passed through the village of Estebrügge, with at its center the church of St Martini. Also refurbished in the baroque style, this too had a thick wooden tower. From there we cycled through more countryside, passing by some nice blossoming trees and here and there some timber-framed farmhouses. After some time cycling we eventually came to the airport once again and a while later to the Finkerwerde ferry where we then took a boat back to Hamburg. Once there we decided to watch the Easter Fires, which in this part of Hamburg are built all along the bank of the river. We picked one of the larger ones and sat down beside it waiting for it to be turned on. We waited quite a bit as apparently according to the firemen the wind had picked up and for safety reasons, they decided to wait for a more calm moment. Eventually, well after sunset, the many fires along the Elbe started to be set on fire, and so di the one next to us. We watched it burn for a bit and then decided it was time to head back in the city, have dinner at a burger place called Peter Pane and then head home.

The beach in Blankenese

The village of Jork

Interior of St Matthias

The church of St Matthias

Another view of Jork

Jork's main street

The church of St Martini in Esterbrugge

One of Hamburg's Easter Fires

Hike from Rehfelde to Berlin (16/03/2024)

 Ania and I wished to complete our longest hike so far by walking 60km from somewhere in Brandenburg all the way to our home in Berlin. After some planning, I has decided to start from the train station of Müncheberg, east of Berlin, and walk all the way to our place. However, once on the train, the train stopped for nearly one hour before a random town and eventually, we were let off in a place called Rehfelde as a branch had fallen on the train tracks and we could not continue further. We got off there and I quickly found an alternative to still manage to walk 60km from that point. That meant hiking first eastward, then pointing up north, and eventually back west towards Berlin. After leaving the train station we hiked through the woods and came upon the Pyramide Garzau. Considered as the the largest fieldstone pyramid in Germany, it was built in 1784 probably as a mausoleum for Friedrich Wilhelm von Schmettau. The pyramid was part of an overall complex consisting of the Garzau Castle and the associated landscape park, however by the 20th century the whole complex fell into disrepair. After burning, the manor was rebuilt in 1911 while the pyramid was only rebuilt in 2009. After that, we continued on foot and reached the nearby village of Garzau with its nice fieldstone Dorfkirche, originally dating to the 13th century but rebuilt in the 18th century. Continuing on a bicycle path we reached the next village, Garzin, also with its nice fieldstone church, dating to the 13th century and with a 15th-century tower. Continuing through some countryside we passed through another village, Hohenstein, and then another, Klosterdorf, also with its fieldstone church dating to the 13th century. All these villages had a peculiar small pond in the middle of town, probably once used as a water source or fishing spot. We then continued our walk and eventually reached a forested area. We followed some paths deep in the forest and at one point bordered the Schloss Wilkendorf golf course. They were cutting down a lot of trees next to it, probably planning to expand it or develop some roads close to it. Unfortunately, at one point, as we continued on it started drizzling slightly but luckily we had our waterproof jackets with us. We walked along the western shore of the Ihlandsee and heading further deep into the forest we reached another lake, the Fängersee. Here again, we walked along its slightly hilly western shore and along the shore of the nearby Bötzsee as well. Then we headed west and after a bit left the forest behind and walked through some countryside until we reached the town of Altlandsberg. We crossed its nice old town, which we had visited before, and headed further west. We walked through the small village of Seeberg, with its church dating to the 13th century but with a tower refurbished later in a neogothic style. Soon after we passed over a highway and continued along the countryside. The sun was out and warming us up a little, but as sunset was soon approaching the temperatures dropped. Not long after we finally reached the outskirts of Berlin, a clear drastic change from the nearby countryside we were now surrounded by the typical soviet style tall unappealing buildings and walking along the large avenues. We walked through the areas of Hönow, Hellersdorf, and then Marzahn, and reached the Ikea store of Lichtenberg right after darkness. Here we stopped to eat some warm food but as soon as we set foot inside, due to the stark change in temperatures from the cold outside and warm inside I then got very dizzy and had to lie down as my whole vision went dark. Ania had a similar experience but not as strong as me. I needed a few minutes to recover and then proceeded to voraciously eat my meatballs with mashed potatoes and peas. However, after that we decided to end our walk there, just shy of 7km from our house. Unfortunately, it was too cold outside and my legs hurt so we ended up walking just 53km instead of the 60 planned. 

The Garzau pyramid

Garzau village

Garzin village

Hohenstein village

A cabin in the woods

The Fängersee

Skiing in the Dolomites (08-10/03/2024)

My brother and I decided to go skiing in the Dolomites for a few days. From our aunt's house near Brunico we drove and reached Passo Falzarego where we parked the car and then got the skipass for the day. We first took the cable car up to the Lagazuoi at 2752m above sea level, however once on top we unfortunately found out it was completely covered in mist and we could barely see our own feet. That meant that heading down the slope was super hard and took a lot of time as everything around was white and made our heads dizzy. Once back down we decided to cross the street and head over to ski at Col Gallina which at least had much less mist and had a better visibility. After a few runs there we then moved over to Cinque Torri where we also skied a few slopes. The highest point, Rifugio Averau, at 2416m, was also covered in mist and so we could not enjoy the beautiful view which can usually be seen up there. Heading back down the slopes we then took the new Cortina Skyline cable car which brought us all the way to the Tofane mountains just west of Cortina. Once there was only a bus connection however with this new cable car one can travel between the two ski areas more easily. After reaching the area of Pocol, we did a couple of slopes there, and then moved on to Socrepes. We did a couple of slopes and then decided to look for a place to have dinner as we wanted to eat relatively early and skip the rush hour. We tried heading to the Baita Piè Tofana but found out it had recently been restructured and now was super fancy and expensive. Instead we ended up eating at Col Taron where I had a mixed plate of eggs, meat and some veggies: overall it was so-so. After lunch the weather had improved slightly, opening up and allowing us a a view of Cortina below. However, as we headed on to ski at higher altitudes, especially around the rifugio Pomedes and rifugio Duca d'Aosta, right below the Tofane, the mist was still rather thick. We did a couple of slopes there, and then headed down one of our favorite since we were little kids the Tofanina, a slope heading through the woods which always gave us the impression of being in a land of fairy, gnomes, and other mountain creatures. After a few more slopes here and there we took once again the cable car that took us back to Cinque Torri where we had yet some more slopes before finally heading to Col Gallina and do some more there until closing time. Once the last skilift had closed we skied all the way down to Passo Falzarego where we eventually got back in the car and drove home. 

The morning after, waking up early once more, we drove in a similar direction as the previous day but eventually reached La Villa in the Alta Badia area. Here we parked the car right next to the cable car, and then after buying our skipasses, were the first ones to reach the top of the Piz La Ila mountain. Here, at about 2100m, is set the Moritzino, a hut and club very popular among young people for the apres-ski drinking. As it was still empty of people we immediately headed down the hard but amazing Gran Risa slope, which freshly beaten as it was, made the way down incredible. We decided to do it a second time as soon as we reached the bottom but my brother found out he had lost his skipass heading downhill. So I quickly got the cable car once more and slowly went down the slop to try to find it. Unfortunately I couldn't find it but once down my brother had managed to reprint his at the ticket booth. Heding up the mountain once again we then decided to move and head towards other slopes. We skied down the eastern side and reached first San Cassiano and then back up to the Piz Sorega we headed all the way down to Armentarola. After a few slopes there we then decided to do the whole tour around the Sella mountain group by following the famous Sellaronda. Our first stop was the town of Arabba which we reached after a few slopes and skilifts. From there we opted for a small deviation to Porta Vescovo to consider if to go to the Marmolada as well. A quick view from the top there made us rethink as we saw the Marmolada was covered in clouds and wouldn't become dangerous and not fun to ski with barely any visibility up there. So from that point we continued on and reached Passo Pordoi. We did a few slopes there and then on the nearby Col dei Rossi, right above the town of Canazei. Then we decided to look for a place to eat and chose the Baita Gherdeccia where we ate at the self service restaurant there, some canederli. After eating we got back on our skis and move over to the Passo Sella where we skied some really nice slopes right below the Sassolungo. Moving onwards we headed down to the Plan de Gralba and finally down to Selva di Val Gardena where the sun greeted for a little while. Once in town we took of our skis, crossed the street, and then got on the cable car which took up to the Dantercepies hut. Here we skied a couple of slopes in the sun, but because it was rather warm, they became slushly and hard to ski. We headed back up the Dantercepies and crossed over the Passo Gardena skiing then down to Colfosco. Here we did a couple of slopes right below the Sass da Ciampac, and then moved over to the nearby town of Corvara in Badia, to finish around tour around the Sella group. For the last hour or so we skied up and down the Piz la Ila in all directions trying to do different slopes. Then for the final slope we headed up to the top at the Moritzino where we finished off our day with a final ride down the Gran Risa. However it was nothing compared to the morning as it was now full of bumps which made it a pain for the legs and really tough. Once back down to the car, before heading home we decided to drive to Corvara and have a snack. We stopped at the Stüa dal Tê Raetia where we had tea and sacher cake. Then after a brief stop at the supermarket to get some local delicacies we headed back home. 

On our last day in the mountains, as we were quite tired and it threatened a heavy snowstorm in the afternoon, we decided to do a short snowshoe tour instead of skiing. We packed our bags and drove off passing by once again the Passo Falzarego. Here it had already started snowing but we were heading further so we drove downhill until we stopped at a tiny parking spot along the road. We parked the car, put our snowshoes on, and headed down along the road that eventually led us to Andraz Castle. Dating most probably to the 11th century, it is the highest castle in Italy located at about 1700m above sea level. Though now partly ruined, it still stands nice and strong with its thick grey stone walls to oversee the road leading up to the Passo Falzarego once an important strategic location between several valleys. Set now during a snowstorm and surrounded by the white of the snow itself was really a sight to behold. Despite it being open only in the summer we were able to visit part of it headed up the stairs to have a commanding view of the area. From the castle ruins we then walked a little further to reach the small hamlet of Castello that grew up around the castle. Despite its remoteness, there were actually a couple of houses with cars outside meaning there were people in there as well. From there we then headed back to the castle trying to snowshoe away from the road but that proved quite hard as the snow was knee deep and very fresh and soft. After one last look, we decided to head back to the car as we didn't wish to get caught in the snowstorm too long while driving towards home. On the way down the valley, we decided to stop for lunch in Pieve di Livinallongo at the Pizzeria Klematys. Here I had some really tasty canederli and then an apple strudel as dessert. The prices were also much better than the previous days. After lunch we had a little walk around the town, visiting the church of San Giacomo Maggiore dating to the 12th century but remade in a gothic style and with a tall bell tower. After that it was time to go so we got back in the car and drove on home. 

Cinque Torri

Forest trail

A frozen lake and the cable car

A view of the Tofane

Around Passo Valparola

The Armentarola slope

Around Passo Pordoi

The view towards Canazei

Below the Sassolungo

A view of the Sassolungo

Around Passo Gardena

Near Selva di Val Gardena

A view of Colfosco

The Cunturines mountains

Corvara in Badia

Passo Valparola during a snowstorm

The castle of Andraz

Another view of the castle

Pieve di Livinallongo