Gorlitz

Had 18 pages in the 2012 RD Berlin Snapshot, which I used for my visit. I just went as a day-trip from Dresden and enjoyed the architecture and being able to say I'd been to Poland when I walked over the bridge :)

My 2013 RS Germany book certainly had a nice section on Görlitz - which is how I first learned of the town. (I spent a night between Dresden and Berlin.) I don't know why Görlitz would have been dropped in 2014 - perhaps because it's kind of out of the way as a stop except as a day trip between Dresden and Berlin. Maybe it the trains aren't as simple anymore or something. You could always buy the 2013 book used if you want the section Görlitz, I guess.

I enjoyed Görlitz very much - a nice town. I'm glad I spent a night, because then I got to eat dinner (on the Polish side) and take photos at dusk. And it felt very different from the rest of the towns I saw in Germany - and not touristy at all. As I noted above, trains between Görlitz and Berlin were more difficult (more changes) than expected, though there are numerous direct trains between Görlitz and Dresden.

I wouldn't say there are tons of thing to do in Görlitz, though. It's a small town. I could have spent two nights but more would have been pushing it.

I was planning to make a fairly long detour to visit Gorlitz and stay
a couple of nights. Is it still a good idea?

It's still one of the best preserved German towns (with more than 4.000 listed buildings), the hotels are still in 500yo houses, the unique Silesian cuisine is also still there, and the sights in the surroundings didn't disappear either. I don't know why Rick Steves dropped it. Probably because he had to make room for yet another Bavarian town.

Of course you can spend a couple of nights there, especially if you do day trips to other sites in the surroundings. One hour to the north of Görlitz for instance is the castle and park of Bad Muskau, a World Heritage Site. Until 1945 this was Germany, but since then the eastern part is on Polish soil (border crossing). Another must see is Bautzen, a town with impressive fortifications and a nice baroque old town. You can cycle along the Neisse river to St. Marienthal abbey. Further south is Zittau, where you can see one of the biggest lenten veils of the Middle Ages. From Zittau you can take the steam train to the Zittau Mountains, which offer bizarre rocks or a mountain that looks like a beehive, with the romantic ruins of a castle and abbey on top. Many of the villages in this area are very cute, with thousands of Upper Lusatian Houses, like Bertsdorf, Großschönau or Obercunnersdorf. For historical reasons the Polish side is less interesting, but you could still buy Polish Pottery in Boleslawiec or see the impressive northern ridge of the Giant Mountains/Karkonosze.

I remember when Goerlitz was added to the book, at the suggestion of a contact in Berlin. But it was never one of Rick's "own" finds, so when something had to be trimmed, that was it. It was not cut because of any significant changes to the visitor experience. I hope you're not making a "long detour" to see Goerlitz without also adding stops in Dresden and Berlin, if you haven't been to those.

Gorlitz recently hit my list of destinations ! For anyone interested , Wes Anderson's recent film ( just released on DVD ) " The Grand Budapest Hotel " was filmed largely in Gorlitz . In the special features section on the disc is a segment on Gorlitz and its undeniable charm . The film is great , and for anyone with an interest in pre WW 1 Europe, life in the world of high class hotels ( read some of Ludwig Bemelmans' writings ( author of the " Madeline "childrens' books ) , and a madcap comedy with loads of style , this is for you !

"NOT difficult at all - 1 change only @ Cottbus."

I don't know why that wasn't an option when I was traveling from Görlitz to Berlin in April, but it wasn't. I had to change twice. It was a Saturday. I didn't see any notices about construction etc. There just wasn't any 1-change option in Cottbus on bahn.com .

I had seen "The Grand Budapest Hotel" before visiting Görlitz. The old department store that was used for the interior of the hotel is right in town center, but you can't go inside (except for a perfume shop open at the entrance). In fact, there was no indication at all that the building had been used in the movie, though there were some old pictures at the entrance. The exterior of the building is quite interesting but looks nothing like the model used for the hotel in the movie.

The department store will open again in the near future, but it's difficult since the costs for this building are huge, and the region is quite poor. And the department store wasn't used for the outside shots of the hotel, they used the Stadthalle (pictures) instead. The Stadthalle is the biggest Jugendstil building of Görlitz and the biggest ballroom between Dresden and Wroclaw, but like the department store it's difficult to find a use for it today, since the town is much less important now since the border was redrawn in 1945 and the hinterland was lost. On a nice walk from the Jewish synagogue (pics) via the Stadthalle to the Upper Lusatian Pantheon (pics) on the Polish side you can see how the 20th century affected the town.

BTW: In case someone is interested what Baedeker, Germanys most popular travel guide, has to say about Görlitz (German -> English):

"For many Germanys most eastern town is also the most beautiful. Almost undestroyed in WW2, the historic townscape is one of the best preserved in Central Europe. Because of the ensemble of buildings from Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Historism, Gründerzeit and Jugendstil - more than 4.000, mostly restored buildings - the town is sometimes called the biggest conservation area of Germany."

I'm VERY upset to learn that Goerlitz was removed from Rick's book, as it was a great place to visit, at least in 2012. I called it "a mini-Prague, without the tourists." However, I agree that if you're going to detour to go there, be sure to see some of the places along the way (I actually preferred Leipzig to Dresden, and Berlin of course is amazing).