Gorlitz (and on the way to Gorlitz)

This morning, we woke up in Rostock, picked up a rental car from just down the street from our hotel, then headed out through the north eastern portion of Germany, destination Gorlitz. After braving the Berlin traffic, we stopped in a small town called Kromlau. After having a bite of goulash and bockwurst for lunch (out of what I assume is someone's home kitchen, but purported to be a cafe), we took a small hike to see Rackotzbrücke, aka, the devil's backbone bridge. The bridge was designed over a lake in such a way that its reflection forms a perfect circle. Unfortunately for us, we discovered after reaching the bridge that it is under improvement and the lake has been mostly drained. So the photo ops were not what we'd anticipated. 

Maya spends a lot of her photos on Cora. You're welcome.

But we had a nice stopover and a brief chance to stretch our legs. And this was basically on the way to Gorlitz. We picked Gorlitz as a place to spend a night for a few reasons. First of all, it offers the opportunity to cross a foot bridge into Poland (which we obviously did). Second, it's supposed to be one of the loveliest cities in Germany. It did not disappoint. It escaped World War II unscathed, and after the reunification of Germany, it was also graced by an anonymous donor who gave around the equivalent of 500,000 euros per year for some 25 years for the restoration of the city. We spent the afternoon just strolling the streets of Gorlitz, check out it's Church of Saints Peter and Paul, and then having a delicious German dinner. 

This is the "new" city hall.

Don't know what this building is. But it's watching you.

Inside the church.

This is called the sun organ. The circular pieces have gold suns in the middle, but more interestingly, each sun is surrounded by organ pipes. Today, Cora learned how organs work (like whistles... they're wind instruments), and she was excited to explain this to everyone after she learned it.

Example of the sun pipes.

Crossing the river to Poland.

Looking back to the church in Germany.

Jakob Bohme was a philosopher (theosophist, is what the tourism brochure says) from Zgorzelec (the Polish Gorlitz). This was his house.

Cora climbed up on this windowsill and said "take my picture." So Tim did.

Cora was navigating. Luckily Gorlitz is pretty small.

That building is still watching you.

Note the socks.

We found this very amazing (seemingly hand built) playground in the Gorlitz city park.

Also in the city park is a stone marking the line of the 15th Meridian. Apparently, Gorlitz is the true mark of CET.