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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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