Amy & Adam's European Highlights

Bautzen
The town of Bautzen is known for its spicy mustard, beautiful buildings and squares, leaning tower, Sorbian community and an interdenominational church, St. Peter's Cathedral. St. Peter's welcomes both protestant and catholic worshipers--although not simultaneously. Interestingly, the Cathedral has two main doors and one serves as the protestant entrance (A), while the other is the catholic entrance (B).
A.

B.

Sadly we don't know many more details about St. Peter's beyond what we could observe. In the interior, it appeared that the space was divided into two. The majority of the worship space was for protestant worship, while the smaller side was for catholics. Amazingly, while sharing a ceiling and walls, the setup was slightly different for each "church." The differences I noted inside were less ornate decorations on the protestant side and different positioning for the pulpits/altars. It was a really unique and inspiring sight.

I find Bautzen's leaning tower rather uninspired (and resembling male anatomy a bit too closely). But, it isn't nearly as weird as the cartoon figure of the tower:

Bautzen's main square. I was particularly fond of its yellow town hall. Also show here is a typical, lovely Bautzen facade:

Bautzen is home to a community of people (I previously knew nothing about) known as "Sorbs." The Sorbian language is written on all street signs beneath German. It appears to be a cross between German, Czech and Polish. Thanks to wikipedia, we all can learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbs
Example of Sorbian written beneath German:

Other interesting scenes from Bautzen: an amazing door, reflection on a theater wall, and a senf (mustard) restaurant. Mustard soup, anyone?

Görlitz
Görlitz drew our interest because it was divided into two after WWII. On one side of the river is Görlitz, Germany, and on the other is the town of Zgorzelec, Poland. I can't express how bizarre and interesting it was to cross the pedestrian bridge (recently built) that links the two countries! I was honestly quite surprised with how different the two towns, and subsequently, the countries felt. While Görlitz is filled with tourists and mostly perfectly restored buildings, Zgorzelec appeared not to have many tourists nor much extra money to refurbish their lovely buildings. When we told our landlady that we had crossed the border into Poland, she replied: "Did you go for cheap gas or cigarettes?"

Görlitz's main square, cool fountain and view of the tower we climbed to the top:

Below, the story is that a wealthy protestant man had these bible stories created to adorn his house in defiance of the catholic church (who didn't want the stories to be told outside of the church). I'm particularly fond of the watchman above his archway that appears to look toward the church:

We enjoyed a beer on a patio that overlooked the towns of Görlitz (as shown) and Zgorzelec (not shown):

Zgorzelec, Poland
Sadly, the only photos I took in Zgorzelec were of this building that looks like it has a civic purpose and a monument we don't know what it is commemorating. The second picture is us walking across the main bridge that used to be a major border crossing. With the Schengen Agreement (free border crossings within the EU), border control is no longer necessary!