01. Sep 2025

Görlitz - Hirschfelde

Photo 1: It was a very sunny morning today when I crossed the bridge from Zgorzelec to Görlitz. For three days now my feet will be walking on German ground until I reach the border of the Czech Republic. Almost immediately I had a sensory overload. All the letters in a row on signs were now words that I understood. Bits of conversations that I would hear when I would pass by people who were talking I could understand. That is something that I did not experience since I landed in Tallinn on June 13th.

Photo 2: The Neisse River which since the end if Worl War II divides the city and sets the border between Germany and Poland. The German border marker can be seen on the left.

Photo 3: My first stop in Germany was the post office to send my tent and a few other things back home. This lightened my carrying load by 4 kilos (8.8 pounds). There were just five more nights where I had planned to sleep in the tent, but only two of those were places where there were no other options for accommodations. I decided to change my route at those points and was able to book a room at each place. The hills and mountains are coming and this way I will have a dry place to stay should it rain... and it will.

Photo 4: What was once an open brown coal mine is now a recreational lake near Görlitz. I walked about 5 km along the east shore.

Photo 5: The rest of the day I was walking along the Neisse River to Hirschfelde. German border markers could be seen here and there along the way.