"On Finding Gems Unplan ..." a Görlitz Travel Page by richiecdisc

If Görlitz was located between Munich and Mickey’s favorite, Neuschwanstein castle, it would be a justifiably famous lunch stop for the mass of tourists that collect such “must see’ locations like Eiffel Tower ornaments on gaudy charm bracelets. But thankfully, that is not the case. It is tucked away on the far eastern fringe of already off the beaten path German state Saxony, right on the Polish border. Though it has a recorded history dating back to 1071, its various incarnations from Lusatian village and Prussian darling to post WWII divvied-up trophy, nearly culminated in ruination when lack of funds in the Eastern block left many of its architecturally diverse gems in disrepair. Today, the lucky visitor will find a magnificent city that has undergone an incredible restoration of its great array of buildings from various stylistic periods. Despite this, even on a busy holiday weekend, crowds are not annoyingly large and better yet, are uniformly German and Polish-speaking. Only time will tell if its relative isolation will keep it that way and many would argue the city needs tourist dollars more than authenticity, but for this weary traveler, it was a blissful find and hopefully remains so.