Magdeburg and Quedlinburg

gilded medieval statue of a knight outside the town hall in Magdeburg

the old quarter

Hundertwasser building completed 2005

in the inner courtyard

just about to have cheesecake and strudel

a town that is still full of medieval buildings, street after street of them..

some big, some small..

cute..

steam train in the National Park

Today we went to two towns, Magdeburg and Quedlinburg .

Magdeburg was flattened in ww2 and rebuilt with East German tower blocks.  A little part survived, some churches, ruined Abbey etc...but the most interesting building was the pink one...Hundertwasser's last project.  (Kawakawa was the year before).  Those readers not from Whangarei might not know who Hundertwasser is, just google him!

Apparently there was a lot of controvercy around the project but it certainly is excellent.  Outside and in the courtyard are shops, offices etc and people live in the rest of it.  we have heaps of photos so can show you later Alastair and anyone else interested.

Then we drove to Quedlinburg which was the most amazing town, still completely with it's medieval layout and hundreds of buildings all half timbered.  Each new road and market place had new photo opportunities!  My camera didn't work today so I had to keep telling Malcolm to take that one!  We had lunch at a Greek restaurant, we ordered soft drinks but also got a free shot of ouzo!  Actually we spent so long over lunch we didn't have time to go in the castle/church that is on a cliffy hill at one corner of the town.  We only had a 2 hr parking and as it was we were half an hour late.  Not towed or anything luckily!  Oh well, highlight of that town missed!

Before we looked for a camp site we drove through a picturesque part of a National Park and saw a station with steam trains in.  While Malcolm was taking photos another one came in.  They have routes all over this part of Germany.  Then on and found a campsite with unlimited wifi for 1 Euro so I have had chance to do the last 3 days bloggery.