This post features Magdeburg, Goslar, Quedlinburg, Halle (Saale), Dresden, Meissen, Zwickau and Görlitz, while Berlin makes a cameo appearance and there’s a sneaky peek at Poland…
The main reason for doing this trip was to visit Magdeburg and Saxony-Anhalt – the last of the 16 states. Saxony-Anhalt has the highest concentration of World Heritage Sites in Germany: Dessau, Wittenberg, Eisleben, Quedlinburg and the Naumburg Cathedral – although I only visited one of them (oops) – best be going back, then…
Goslar is in Lower Saxony but easy to get to from Magdeburg and Saxony was added, with a return visit to Dresden, as there are several interesting towns in the state that I wanted to see…
With the benefit of hindsight, I would have visited Chemnitz rather than Zwickau and I didn’t leave enough time to visit Halberstadt or return to Leipzig…
Two great websites for planning your trips to this intriguing region are: https://saxony-anhalt-tourism.com/ and https://visitsaxony.com/ – the Visit Saxony site is an object lesson in how to provide concise but interesting details on what to see and do…
Magdeburg is 1hr46 from Berlin’s Central Station, on a normal regional train; while the IC train takes about 2hrs to Dresden. I travelled around by train and used the DB app (Deutsche Bahn) to find train times, buy & store tickets. I found that buying a “trilex-Tagesticket” (a day ticket) was useful as it allows unlimited journeys on local trains within a 24-hour period. So, for example, Magdeburg to Goslar and back plus you can break the journey by stopping off in Halberstadt. You can’t use this ticket on IC or ICE tains (inter-city or inter-city express). For longer, point to point journeys eg Dresden to Berlin Hbf (central station) or Flughaven (airport), then simply buy a single for whichever class you want to travel (1st or 2nd). It’s worth booking a seat if it’s an option (sometimes it costs extra) as the trains can get very busy…
DB is in a state of flux at the moment, with delays, breakdowns and cancellations. After a period of under-investment, the government is ploughing billions of euro into upgrading the network and rolling stock. This might sound a bit alarming but, in real world terms, it just means that German rail has sunk to UK levels of reliability and punctuality. So, it can be patchy – mostly good but then…
The app is easy to use but there is one irritating – and very German – thing. You are required to show ID when presenting your app ticket to the inspector. Daft and pointless. A lot of inspectors don’t bother as they know it’s pointless but some will insist – so, keep your passport handy…
London to Berlin
Magdeburg
“At 1,200 years old, Magdeburg is one of the oldest cities in Germany’s eastern federal states. The city’s most significant cultural and historical building can be seen for miles around: the Cathedral of Saints Maurice and Catherine with its imposing towers. It is one of the most spectacular architectural monuments in central Germany, the city’s most famous landmark and Germany’s first Gothic cathedral. It is also the burial site of Emperor Otto I, who is depicted on the Alter Markt square in the Magdeburg Horseman, a bronze replica of the first free-standing equestrian statue to be found north of the Alps…” – see: https://www.germany.travel/en/cities-culture/magdeburg.html
As you’ll see from the photos, Magdeburg isn’t quite that glorious – the city was devastated during the closing stages of WW2 but, as with most German cities, they’ve tried to rescue and restore what they could of their heritage…
It’s a nice enough city – lots of restaurants and bars, several museums and lots of churches. It makes a good base, though, from which to visit Goslar and Quedlingburg – two glorious UNESCO World Heritage towns with remarkably well-preserved medieval centres…
Cathedral of Saint Maurice and St Catherine:
Construction of the original church began in 937, as part of a Benedictine monastery, with an endowment from King Otto the Great. Numerous churches were built and rebuilt on this site until the then current church was destroyed in 1207 during a fire that devastated the city. Rebuilding began in 1230, in the then emerging French Gothic style, and was consecrated in 1363. There was a further phase of construction from 1477 to 1520 during which the towers were raised to about 100m. The cathedral was actually closed for about 20 years during the Reformation, reopening again 1567. The cathedral lost its stained glass windows during the 30-years war and then, in 1806, Napoleon had it turned into a warehouse. Restoration followed between 1825-34 and then the cathedral was badly damaged during WW2, which necessitated further rebuilding and restoration…
Other Churches:
Around the Alt Market:
The River Elbe:
Art Hotel & Street Art:
Post War Architecture:
Museums:
Magdeburg Hemispheres:
This experiment is another way of showing how strong the pressure of the atmosphere is. It was first done by the German scientist Otto von Guericke in 1654 and uses two brass hemispheres, one with a tap. The hemispheres are put together and the air inside them pumped out using a vacuum pump. The tap is then closed and the hemispheres disconnected from the pump. The difference in pressure between the near vacuum inside the hemispheres and the normal air pressure outside makes it very difficult to pull them apart. One early version of the experiment used hemispheres about 30 cm in diameter and even two teams of horses couldn’t separate them…
See: https://physicsexperiments.eu/4304/magdeburg-hemispheres
Goslar
The Marktkirche of St Cosmas and St Damian:
Other Churches:
Gates and Walls:
Other Places of Interest:
The Altstadt:
Winding Streets and Babbling Brook:
Quedlinburg
Quedlinburg, in the Land of Sachsen-Anhalt, was a capital of the East Franconian German Empire at the time of the Saxonian-Ottonian ruling dynasty. It has been a prosperous trading town since the Middle Ages. The number and high quality of the timber-framed buildings make Quedlinburg an exceptional example of a medieval European town. The Collegiate Church of St Servatius is one of the masterpieces of Romanesque architecture. See: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/535/ https://www.quedlinburg-info.de/en/en/welcome.html
Rivers to Cross:
It is only a short walk from the station along Bahnhofstrasse into town and, as you cross the River Bode, you quickly get the feeling that this is a nice town…
But…
And this is curious…
Bahnhofstrasse splits into Pölkenstraße (off to the right) and Heilige-Geist-Straße round to the left, with signs pointing to the Altstadt. But, looking up Pölkenstraße, you wonder if the signs are pointing in the correct direction…
So, which way to go?
Around the Church of St Nicholas:
Turning right onto Pölkenstraße leads you to the delighful area around the Church of St Nicholas. It seems counter-intuitive as it leads you away from the Altstadt but leads you to – another altstadt (altstadt just means old town). And this one is curiously devoid of tourists and yet is lovely…
The Road Between Altstadts:
The (Other) Altstadt:
Ahhh – that’s better: people. Lots of them…
Some of the other Churches:
Heading Towards the Castle:
Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale) is the largest city in Saxony-Anhalt and, as the River Saale runs through it, has the Saale in brackets. It is probably best known for being the birthplace of the composer George Frideric Handel. It has a few things of interest to see and the centre around the market place is quite nice…
Marketplatz:
The Cathedral:
Moritzburg Art Museum:
The City Centre:
Dresden
Frauenkirche and Neumarkt Square:
Sanctissimae Trinitatis Cathedral:
Zwinger Palace and Royal Palace:
Brühl’s Terrace and the River Elbe:
More Baroque Splendour:
Meissen
Meissen’s origin goes back to 929 when Heinrich I had a castle built high above the Elbe river. Albrechtsburg Castle, Germany’s first castle to be built as a residence, is the town’s landmark. Meissen became a household name around the world when, in 1709, Augustus the Strong founded the Meissen Porcelain Factory – the first of its kind in Europe. https://visitsaxony.com/cities-towns-regions/cities-towns/historic-towns/meissen
The Altstadt:
Around the Cathedral:
Zwickau
In fairness to Zwickau, I didn’t visit its greatest attraction: the August Horch Museum. This is where Audi was founded and where DKW and Trabant vehicles were produced. There is still a VW factory in Zwickau – https://www.horch-museum.de/en/index.php
Cathedral of St Mary:
The Altstadt:
Chemnitz
I didn’t go to Chemnitz – went through it on the train to Zwickau and on the way back I was still soaking wet, so stayed on the train to Dresden in an attempt to dry out…
Chemnitz – or Karl Marx Stadt as it was called from 1953-90 – is the 2025 European “City of Culture”. It also styles itself as “Saxony’s Manchester” as it was here that the Industrial Revolution got underway in Germany, with the opening of the first Cotton Mills in 1798…
It has several impressive sounding museums and has undergone significant regeneration – all of which makes it sound like an interesting place to visit… https://visitsaxony.com/cities-towns-regions/cities-towns/chemnitz
Görlitz (Zgorzelec)
A stroll through Görlitz is like a journey through 500 years of European architectural history with around 4,000 restored architectural monuments from the late Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance and Art Nouveau periods creating the sense of a fabulous open-air stage. Görlitz is actually split in two parts and its eastern section, Zgorzelec, across the Neisse river is in Poland.
https://visitsaxony.com/cities-towns-regions/cities-towns/historic-towns/goerlitz
The Town:
The Altstadt:
The Church of St Peter and St Paul:
Old Town Bridge:
The 16 States and Capitals
The states and their capitals are listed in alphabetical order. I have been to Hesse – the biggest city in the state is Frankfurt, but I haven’t been to its capital Wiesbaden – my bad…
Baden Württemberg – Stuttgart; Bavaria – Munich; Berlin – Berlin; Brandenburg – Potsdam; Bremen – Bremen; Hamburg – Hamburg; Hesse – Wiesbaden; Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – Schwerin; Lower Saxony – Hanover; North Rhine Westphalia – Düsseldorf; Rhineland Palatinate – Mainz; Saarland – Saarbrücken; Saxony Anhalt – Magdeburg; Schleswig Holstein – Kiel; Thuringia – Erfurt
More Posts from Germany
Germany 5 features Munich, Nürnberg, Ingolstadt, Erfurt, Weimar, Jena and Saarbrücken…
The Hansa Trail features: Hamburg, Stade, Buxtehude, Kiel, Schleswig, Luneburg, Uelzen, Lubeck, Rostock, Wismar, Schwerin, Greifswald, Stralsund and Bad Doberan
Germany 3 features: Bonn, Cologne, Siegburg, Koblenz, Aachen, Monschau, Bacharach, Oberwesel, Kassel, Fulda, Korbach, Marburg, Stuttgart, Heidleberg, Frankfurt, Mainz, Limburg an der Lahn, Speyer, Worms, Ladenburg, Baden-Baden, Freiburg im Breisgau, Breisach, Offenburg, Nuremberg, Augsburg,Bamberg, Bayreuth, Regensburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Würzburg, Trier and Passau…
Germany 2 features: Hanover, Celle, Bremen, Hamelin, Wolfenbüttel, Braunschweig, Berlin, Potsdam and Brandenburg
Germany 1 features: Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Dresden and Leipzig
Another informative blog post Barnaby and some stunning photos. Plus a smattering of obligatory beers….I will definitely have to include more of Germany on one of my next Euro tours. Cheers, TB.