Visiting Bautzen and Görlitz on the same day trip?

Frankly , I think this is really pushing it . I spent five days in Gorlitz in 2017 , and would have liked even more time there . Coupled with a return trip from Berlin , I'm exhausted just reading this .

I haven't checked any bus details, but trains between Görlitz to Bautzen take 30-40 minutes. The return train connections from Bautzen to Berlin tend to take 3.5 hours. So adding Bautzen adds about 1.5 hours travel time, as well as the time to visit.

Hi,

It can be done logistically but it's better to do a day trip to Görlitz from Dresden and likewise to Bautzen from Dresden....more cumbersome from Berlin. It depends on how desperate you want to both of these towns.

If you're going from Berlin Hbf to Dresden Hbf, take the direct EC train, not the ICE which has you changing in Leipzig.

Aside from the cultural aspects connected with Bautzen, it is also one the battles in the War of Liberation waged by the Allies against Napoleon. They lost at Bautzen.

As Fred says,the trip from Dresden is a Lot easier, we did it from Dresden and we really enjoyed it.
Mike

@Steven--

I'm looking at a Görlitz trip in the near future. If you return to this thread, would you mind sharing how you filled your 5 days there?

Hello Dave , nice to hear from you - Start out by watching ( at least once , multiple viewings are better ) " The Grand Budapest Hotel " , the film was virtually all shot there . There are nearly 4,000 architecturally significant buildings in the city , which escaped the bombs of the second war . The department store in the center of town served as the hotel in the film , and is a beautiful Art Nouveau work , we were able to go inside to enjoy it . This article , if you have not seen it , will give you a decent overview - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Görlitz This short feature will also give you a start - https://youtu.be/p7xD92rBPVA We stayed at The Hotel Schwiboggen , just around the corner from the mustard and bratwurst joint that Bill Murray visits , and I still haven't forgotten the Thuringian Bratwurst they sell . Wandering around and exploring Gorlitz was terrific .Take a look at this site also - https://www.earthtrekkers.com/photos-want-to-visit-gorlitz-germany/

@Steven-- I'm looking at a Görlitz trip in the near future. If you
return to this thread, would you mind sharing how you filled your 5
days there?

I'm not Steven, but here are some ideas, mostly day trips:

Zittau and the Zittau Mountains
Zittau is a small town and mostly preserved. The two town squares are pretty picturesque, the Museum of Cultural History very good for such a small town, and the Lenten Altar Cloths fro the Middle Ages quite unique.
From Zittau you can take a nostalgic steam train to the Zittau mountains, which are a mix of eroded sandstone formations and extinct volcanos. The main sight is Oybin, a small, cute village surrounded by mountains, and overlooked by the impressive ruins of a royal (Bohemian) castle and monastery on a mountain that looks like a bee hive.

Bautzen
Bautzen is a Baroque town surrounded by impressive medieval fortifications, and it's the "capital" of Upper Lusatia and the Sorbs, a Slavic minority.

Bad Muskau
The English landscape park, now partly on the Polish side, is a World Heritage Site. Nearby is the Rhododendron Park with the Rakotz Bridge, which strangely became quite famous recently

Herrnhut
If you are religious, or interested in religion: that's the "capital" of the Moravian Church. The main sights are the cemetery, which is quite unique, a ethnographic museum, and the company that produces the Moravian Stars, a symbol of Christmas in the Protestant part of Germany.

Umgebinde houses or Upper Lusatian Houses
Typical for the southern part of Upper Lusatia are these unique houses, which are a mix of German timber-framed, and Slavic log houses. The villages are utterly cute, but to see them it helps to rent a car.

And by far the best hotel in Görlitz is Frenzelhof, a small, privately owned hotel in a 15th century merchants house with a Late Gothic chapel on the main square.

As of Summer 2018 the department store in Goerlitz was not accessible for tourist visits, though I suppose there might be occasional special tours that can get inside.

For me the town is architectural eye-candy, including quite a lot of early 20th century buildings over toward the train station. On my second visit I had a chance to spend a bit of time in the Polish part of the town (Zgorelec) across the river and was pleased to find some nice buildings there as well, though certainly the German side has far more.

Steven, Martin, and acraven--

Many thanks for your responses.

@ Dave....Another incentive for going to Görlitz aside from the movie and the other cultural aspects is the museum on Schlesien, ie Das Schlesien Museum zu Görlitz.

More exposure to history hardly ever covered in anglophone historiography. I heartily suggest that Museum.

Thanks, Fred.

Max... sorry I hijacked your thread.

Another vote for the silesien museum in Gorltz , fascinating place , Fred always has great suggestions .