Hřensko to Herrnhut, Day 3 - Rumburk to Herrnhut

Thursday June 4, Rumburk to Herrnhut

On my way out of Rumburk, I passed a Dante's third Amphitheater of Hell, wherein bottomless seats torment the butts of lost souls. 

Then it was up the hill to svatý Jan Křtitel, built as a chapel in the 18th century, then used variously as a windmill, pub, chapel, lookout tower, and now an Orthodox church. I assume the exterior statues were beheaded to show solidarity with John the Baptist. 

The hike to Herrnhut was pretty straightforward--no more amusement park staircases up and down, just small towns linked by rolling hills, farm fields, and woods.

My Merlin app told me these giant birds were cranes.

Walking along a busy-ish road to Neugersdorf, I spied twin church towers from afar and decided to take a detour to see them up close.

This meant heading into Jiříkov, a name that made me laugh even though I know it's pronounced nothing like "jerk off."

The twin towers belonged to a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church that had lots of signage about its significance, combined with extremely limited visiting hours (Sunday mornings and public holidays only, sorry pilgrims and truffle hunters).

That's how I felt too...

I continued on to Neugersdorf...

...and eventually learned I was back in Germany, thanks to a sign that mentioned Saxony. I hadn't noticed any signs when I crossed the border a few blocks earlier.

Supporting Merlin's sense that the big birds I'd seen flying overhead were cranes, Neugersdorf's coat of arms features a crane holding a horseshoe. (The horseshoe had previously been a rock, before the Industrial Revolution turned Neugersdorf into big manufacturer of cast iron spinning and weaving machines.)

Past Neugersdorf, I headed up the hill Kottmarberg to see the source of the Spree River. The Spree flows all the way to Berlin before joining the Havel River near Potsdam. The Havel joins the Elbe in Havelburg, flowing through Hamburg to the North Sea.

The Spreequelle is part of a 1921 WWI monument to fallen soldiers. I paused for lunch, along with a large group of Czech bicyclists. They stayed longer than they had intended, due to a tire spontaneously and noisily going flat.

From the Quelle, I continued uphill along wooded trails...

...to the top of Kottmarberg, where the viewing tower was boarded up and well past its glory days.

Down hill next, pretty much all the way to Herrnhut. I got stuck outside of Herrnhut for a good 45 minutes, lured by the siren song of multiple windmills. Had such windmills existed in Caspar David Friedrich's day, I'm sure he would have been lured by them too. Here's just one photo and just one video from the bazillion photos and videos I captured.

Caspar David Friedrich rolling over in his grave cuz AI, not cuz windmills

At last, Herrnhut.

Herrnhut's big draw is its Moravian star factory. Moravian stars originated about 180 years ago as a geometry lesson for boys at a Moravian boarding school in the Saxon town Niesky, about 50 miles NE of Dresden. An alum grew up to become a bookseller, and he began making and selling the stars through his shop. In the 1880s, his son founded a star factory in Herrnhut, and they've been in continuous production ever since.

I'm not sure why I thought the factory would draw avid math fans rather than avid kitsch fans. Ah well. Kudos to me for managing a brief visit before succumbing to the urge to escape.

The Herrnhuter Stern factory on the Herrnhuter Stern campus 

S and his friend Tobi spent the day bicycling from Dresden to Herrnhut to meet me, but even with my 45-minute stop gawking at windmills, I managed to beat them to Herrnhut by a good hour. We met up instead in Löbau--my bus from Herrnhut passed them on the way--and we took the train back to Dresden together. 

Ta da! Rumburk to the Herrnhut star factory comprised most of the day's 15.2 miles. 1,350' up, 1,460' down.

Hřensko to Herrnhut, Day 2 - Chata Tokáň to Rumburk

Wednesday June 3, Chata Tokáň to Rumburk

At breakfast, I spoke German with my host; at dinner the night before, I had spoken English with a different host. I was grateful to have two languages at my disposal, and grateful both of my hosts did too.

After breakfast, I happily set off back up the hill and then a pleasant half mile down the road before I realized I was on the wrong route.

Ah, this looks more like it...

It's kind of hard to tell from these photos if I was going up or down, but it was pretty much a straight shot up. Steep and narrow, but not so narrow that I couldn't have fallen sideways off the stairs in the drizzle, I ended up scooting on my butt on some of the landings.

I emerged...

...to some expansive views...

...and then resumed the playground-like ups and downs, throughs, overs, and unders.

Here are three of about a bazillion photos that I took of waist-high ferns.

About 4.5 miles in, I reached the Köglerova naučná stezka, which Wikipedia tells me is the oldest nature trail in Bohemia. Like the Teufelsgrund on the Malerweg, this trail makes an excellent natural amusement park. 

Carly the Travel Chicken, for scale

My eyes say "these steps were steep," even if the camera won't say it

At the end of the nature trail loop, the drama ended, and here I parted ways with the Ridge Trail. My destination for the evening was Rumburk, to the northeast, and then Herrnhut the following day, while the Ridge Trail was heading east to Krásná Lípa and then south to Jedlová.

Although I wouldn't head back into Germany until the next day, I had now left the Boehmische Schweiz behind. Villages became more numerous, often with charming houses and gardens.

I walked uphill through the woods and emerged behind a somewhat dilapidated church on the western edge of the tiny village Sněžná (population ~30), a little north of Krásná Lípa.

Beyond the church was an even more dilapidated schoolhouse. Further down the road, the village itself is more optimistically bucolic.

Past Sněžná (can you tell I like the name Sněžná?), in and out of fields and through the woods...

Berglandschaft in Böhmen, ca. 1830

...I eventually arrived at Dymník, a recreation area outside Rumburk.  

In addition to a restaurant, Dymník has a "Stone Tree of Life" based on "geometry" and "Zodiac signs." A gaggle of exuberant elementary-school kids was released into the field just as I arrived, so I didn't explore it up close. 

Up the adjacent hill, Rauchberg,...

...is a late-19th-c. lookout tower. Czechia, it turns out, has more lookout towers per capita than any other part of the world. Most were built during the past two centuries by either aristocracy or tourism-oriented hiking clubs.

I first learned about the Dymník tower when I was planning my route on Komoot, so I knew in advance that I wanted to go inside and photograph its spiral staircase. There was a guard selling tickets just inside the door and listening to every step I took up and down the stairs, so I didn't linger on the staircase too long, but I did take a bunch of photos, edited them to be black & white, and felt very artsy.

From the tower, it was just a few more kilometers into Rumburk, where I was warmly greeted by the welcome committee.

Rumburk was a blend of charming and depressed--like Hřensko and, a further to the east, small German towns too--and consequently shockingly inexpensive for this American tourist.

Ta da! Most of the day's 14.4 miles (I accidentally shut off my Garmin at the Dymník lookout tower), 2,000' up, 2,000' down.