Snow Road Trip to Czech & Saxony, Germany - Day 6: Görlitz
We walked around the city of Görlitz, mainly covering the filming locations of the Grand Budapest Hotel, which were not only within but also beyond the Old Town. The train station was one of them, which is briefly seen in the film.
Many Art Nouveau style buildings were found outside of the Old Town. It was enjoyable to watch the city's architecture during our walk.
The brick wall on Bergstraße was another filming location.
We walked down to the riverbank of the Lusatian Neisse. Say Hello to Poland, the other side of the river.
Both Stadthalle and Kaufhaus were used for the film. The filming casts and crew must have been running around the city when they were there.
Across from the department store was the Thick Tower, built in the 13th century as part of the old city fortifications.
We came back to the Old Town again.
We visited Holy Trinity Church at the Upper Market Square. It was one of the filming locations, of course.
The church was originally built in the 13th century as a Franciscan monastery church and the oldest gothic structure in the city.
We stopped by Senfladen, a mustard shop to get a sausage in a bun as Bill Murray did.
Because they were a mustard shop, there were some mustard options. I tried a holiday special mustard, which was flavored with apple (and cinnamon?). It was pretty good! I believe J chose a spicy mustard. The sausage was Thuringian. Maybe Görlitz or the Saxony state doesn't produce their own sausage.
We found another filing location!
The weather was better than the day before but it was pretty chilly. Again we visited Caféhaus Lucullus to have a nice hot tea.
It was crowded on the day before but surprisingly we were the only customers at that time. The waiter, who remembered us, let us be seated at a large table at the window, and recommended to us traditional poppy seed cake and cherry cake. We had both and they were tasty. J also tried Glühwein made of white wine. I had thought that Glühwein was always made of red wine until then. When we were leaving the coffee shop, the waiter said perhaps we would come back the next day, too. We smiled to him. I liked the coffee shop very much and I wished we could make it happen.
There was another church near the coffee shop. The current St. Peter and Paul church was mainly built in the 15th century on the site that a medieval church already stood in the 13th century. The five-aisled late Gothic hall church looked very large and is said to be the landmark of Görlitz. In fact, it is the largest hall church in Eastern Germany.
The driveway behind the church was one of the filming locations and a nice spot to look over the Lusatian Neisse and Poland, by the way.
We kept wondering around the Old Town for a while and then walked outside of the Old Town more...
Eventually we came back to the Old Town and found the Christmas market being already open.
Something like cabbage stew was simmered on the counter and looked nice. We guessed that it would be Zurek (or, Sauermehlsuppe, a Silesian dish) according to the menu board, and we ordered one bowl. The lady went to the back and came back with a bowl of white soup. So, I still don't know what the cabbage dish was but it wasn't Zurek at least. Anyway, I learned later that Zurek is a kind of fermented sourdough soups. The name of the soup basically means "sour." Yes, it was sour. It was also meaty with smoked meat. Well, honestly it wasn't my favorite soup, eitherway, it's was nice to meet traditional and regional food as always.
To be continued...
