This is a perfect day trip from Görlitz: buy a day train ticket for Saxony and explore the historic region of Oberlausitz at your own pace. We will explore three very different cities, cross the border, visit an abbey, walk on the medieval city wall and much more.

• Price: the day train ticket costs 31€ for 2 persons (check the price beforehand)
• Planning: the ticket is valid from 9am until 3am. We took the train from Görlitz around 9am and managed to return by 18pm to Görlitz. Do not forget your passport, because you’ll spend some time in Poland!

Ostritz

The train from Görlitz to Ostritz takes about 20 minutes. We get off at Krzewina Zgorzelecka, located in Poland. We are greeted by a kiosk selling Polish products and advertising both in Polish and German for the customers on two sides of the border. The small pedestrian bridge takes us into Ostritz. After the war, when the railway station ended up on the Polish side, and until 1990 this piece of land was under strict military surveillance, so no deviation from the allowed pathways between the station and the city was possible. Now it is very peaceful here.

Our main goal is to visit the St. Marienthal Abbey. We will walk towards it and then take a bus back to the railway station to catch a train to Zittau. Be careful with the planning: there are two buses at midday. The one for Zittau leaves at 11:55, and the one to Krzewina Zgorzelecka leaves at 12:05. We didn’t manage the first one, so we took the bus back to the railway station and then the train to Zittau. Make sure that you catch one of the buses.

Ostritz is a small town, with the population of 2,241 (in 2019). Nevertheless, its name is familiar to many Germans: in the summers of 2018 and 2019 hundreds of neo-Nazis descended on the city for a “Shield and Sword” (“Schild und Schwert”) festival, also known as SS-festival. In fact, they stayed in hotel Neißeblick, that we see next. The hotel was once a textile factory. In 2012 the first party conference of The National Democratic Party of Germany, the biggest neo-Nazi party in Germany, was held here.

The locals put up a fight against neo-Nazis by organizing a yearly peace festival. We pass by the poster of the festival on Bahnhofstraße on a way to the city center. During the last neo-Nazi gathering inhabitants of Ostritz hit them where it probably hurt the most: they bought up the whole stock of beers in the nearby supermarkets.

Next on the left, Blumenstraße brings us to the market square. Most buildings here are from the middle of the 19th century. The Neo-Renaissance town hall with a clock tower was built in 1905.

We are walking towards the St. Marienthal Abbey. It was a very pleasant walk. Notice that many houses have high-water marks reminding of the flood in 2010 that greatly damaged the town. After the sport stadium you can see the flood control barrier.

The best thing on the way to the abbey were the cats. Apparently quite a lot of cats wander in the Saxony’s countryside: we’ve meet three only on this walk.

St. Marienthal Abbey is the oldest continuously running nunnery of the Cistercian Order in Germany. It was founded in 1234 on a trade route that run from Prague to Görlitz via Zittau (the city that we will visit next). The current Baroque building dates back to 1685. The SS wanted to blow it up while fleeing the advancing Red Army, but the nuns refused to leave and the abbey was spared. Thanks to the nuns’ perseverance we are able to admire the beauty of the abbey today.

We now take a bus back to Ostritz and, at Krzewina Zgorzelecka, a train to Zittau. The train crosses the border back and forth, and we are able to enjoy the view of the Oder river and various small settlements. After 20 minutes we arrive at Zittau.

Zittau

Steam locomotives still depart from the railway station in Zittau. A narrow-gauge railway employing them is located just outside the entrance. They serve the mountain resorts of Oybin and Jonsdorf.

We take off to the city center along Bahnhofstraße. The street is full of impressive buildings from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. We come to a major intersection after which the old town lies. On the left there is a strange neo-Gothic police station: it was actually a house and an office of a textile manufacturer. Across the street there is a still operating post office, built in the 1880s.

We turn to the left enticed by the spire of the Zittau’s monastery church. Notice the out-of-style extension: these are loges that the wealthy townsfolk built for themselves.

Through the alleys we come to the Market square. It is dominated by the town hall, executed in the style of a Neo-Renaissance Italian palace. The draft was done by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the famous Prussian architect who gave Berlin the appearance of a capital city in the beginning of the 19th century. The previous four-centuries old city hall was destroyed when Zittau was set on fire in 1757 by the Austrian troops during the Seven Years’ War. Over 80% of residential buildings perished in that fire.

The Market square is full of impressive buildings. Among the guests of the former hotel in the pink house (Markt 13) was Napoleon Bonaparte. He stayed there the night before the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. The fountain of Mars is the oldest fountain in Zittau, erected in 1585.

Our next point of interest is the formidable salt house of Zittau. It was build over the centuries: starting from the three-floor salt storehouse in 1511 and becoming the eight-floor building that served as storehouse, horse stable and armory in 1730. Capturing precisely this storehouse, full of foodstuffs, was the aim of the Austrians’ siege.

Next we visit the former fortifications, now a green park surrounding the old town. The nearest former bastion is approachable through Ludwigstraße. At its feet lies the “flower clock”, which is planted every year with about 4,000 flowers.

Our time in Zittau is running out. We hop on the bus to Löbau from the nearby Ottokarplatz, and then take the train to Bautzen, our last city for the day. I recommend highly to take the bus trip to Löbau — you’ll see the beautiful countryside, the bus will stop at the pretty small towns, and, if you have as much luck as we did, you will see a lot of strolling cats!

Bautzen

We arrive at Bautzen at around 15 o’clock. We’ll make a quick tour of the city to catch the 17 o’clock train back to Görlitz. The railway station is unusual: it is also used by the administration of the city as offices, to make the upkeep more profitable.

Bautzen is a hill-top town with well-preserved medieval center surrounded by a city wall with numerous towers. It is a political and cultural center of the Sorbian minority. The proportion of Sorbs in the city’s population is estimated to be between 5 and 10 percent.

Taking Bahnhofstraße, we arrive at Postplatz where Serbski Dom, a seat of many Sorbian institutions, is located. It was erected after the Second World War and symbolizes the new beginning for the Sorbian minority, whose existence was denied in the Third Reich. Opposite Serbski Dom, there is another post-war building — the post office. Curiously, the sgraffito on the tower was made by an artist from Ostritz! His name is Emil Pischel.

The entrance to the medieval town is from Kornmarkt, a square that became infamous after repeated clashes between young asylum seekers and neo-Nazis. Among the charming old houses and landscapes, there are reminders that the region we are visiting has been going through the rough times, both as part of East Germany and after the reunification: the district of Görlitz, which includes Zittau and Ostritz, lost about 100,000 inhabitants or 25% of its population since 1990. For Bautzen the proportion is similar.

We enter the old part of the city and go into the direction of Spree, to see the steep embankment. The view from the city wall does not disappoint: we observe a small picturesque settlement in the river valley, a chapel on the opposite hill, and the Old Waterworks next to the arch bridge. We descend into the valley to see the fortifications of Bautzen from below.

Down in the valley, there is still functioning mill that produces flour, oil and mustard, called Hammermühle. Actually, mustard from Bautzen was the favorite mustard brand in East Germany and is still popular in the Eastern part of the country.

We take the steps back to the city, passing by the ruins of Nikolaikirche and the cemetery. The church was destroyed in the siege during the Thirty Years’ War in 1620. Since then the city has not been able to find funds to restore it. Only in 1852 a small chapel was built nearby.

From here we traverse the alleys of the old town into the direction of the railway station.