Magdeburg; Monday, 30 July, 2012

After a restless night caused by an annoying mosquito in the room, that I finally managed to kill just after midnight, I got up had breakfast and then headed into town for the morning. First stop was the Cathedral and after then a wander through the centre of the city, trying to discover something else that was open to look around. Sadly, nothing. Magdeburg is a city that completely abides by the concept of being closed on a Monday.

Eventually I wandered back to the station and caught the train north into the Altmark, one of the most deserted parts of the country with more horses than people.

I caught the train up to Stendal and then picked up the connecting train down to the small town of Tangermünde. Tangermünde is at the point where the River Tanger flows into the Elbe and is a beautiful medieval town, with almost all of its historic walls and gatehouses surviving, a picture postcard beautiful town centre and a romantic castle overlooking the rivers.

I had a long wander around the town before it was time to catch the train back to Stendal to have a look around there.

After the beauty of Tangermünde I was less impressed by Stendal, which is probably impacted by it being the major population and commercial hub of this empty region, so a little DDR’ed in places.

Having looked around Stendal I caught the train back to Magdeburg and then got the tram out to the Elbauenpark to have a look round that at considerably less than it would have cost the previous day.

The park was created for the 1999 BUGA Horticultural show which included landscaping a former land fill tip into a grass covered rolling hill acting as both a viewing point and the location of a dry toboggan run. In places the park is starting to show it’s age a little, but much of it is still in good nick and it was nice to wander around such an empty space with so few other visitors around.

After looking around the park I headed back into town and had a bit to eat before heading back to the hotel to kill a few more mosquitos before bed.