Photo Finish and Balance Sheet in Rheinberg (6,839 km)

(2024-06-15) The last stage of the tour covers 537 kilometers from Leipzig to home, i.e. to Rheinberg. Each post on the last 23 stages contains ten photos, and this one is no exception. Only this time there are photos that didn't make it into the previous posts, mostly for thematic reasons. Wouldn't it be a shame not to share them with you? Voilà:

Asterix with the Dutch

Free Float for the Olympic Games in Paris

Renault R4 in Perpignan (mine was orange, my favorite car ever)

Roma in the St. Jacques District of Perpignan

Clear Path for the Olympic Flame in Perpignan

Bleu de Chine [Blue Overalls] Dedicated to the Port Workers of Marseille 

Staircase in Menton (my cousin from Paris has a secondary residence here)

Fancy Snail in the Giardino Giustin in Verona

Stowaway on Board my Motorcycle in Mantua

Going East by Heading West • Antwerp (198 km)
The Golden Scoop • Lille (400 km)
Xi Jinping and Edgar Hauster in Paris (630 km)
Four Years Too Early In Bourges (894 km)
The Capital of Comics • Angoulême (1,176 km)
The Gentrification of Bacalan • Bordeaux (1,337 km)
Some Things Are Upside Down in Toulouse (1,624 km)
At the Center of the Universe in Perpignan (1,852 km)
Replay in Montpellier (2,132 km)
A Slight Detour from Avignon (2,313 km)
The First, the Second and the Umpteenth Youth in Old Grenoble (2,726 km)
Joie de Vivre and Survival in Marseille (3,040 km)
From Marseille, via Sanary-sur-Mer, to Cannes (3,290 km)
All the Glamor is Gone in Genoa (3,576 km)
Trame Sonore - The Mantova Music Experience in Mantua (3,834 km)
Being Young in Ljubljana (4,225 km)
My Grandfather, Europe and the World in Vienna (4,623 km)
The Graden of Haviva Reick in Banská Bystrica (4,954 km)
The Jewish Cemetery in Lesko (5,287 km)
To the Space! To Katowice! (5,652 km)
The Eleventh Hour in Wrocław (5,877 km)
Multicolored Alternative Leipzig (6,276 km)

Distance: 6,839 km = 4,250 miles
Travel period: 28.04.2024 - 15.06.2024 = 48 days
Countries: 9 (D - NL - B - F - I - SI - A - SK - PL)
Photos: about 2,500
Traffic tickets: $ 60.00 (so far, I'm faster than the post and police)
Major problem: motorcycle drop in Montpellier (without any consequences whatsoever, only shame)
Travel expenses: not quite as cheap as in previous years, with a clear west-east downgrade
Personal meetings: not as many as in previous years, but all the more intense
Experience: priceless
Risk of repetition: (still) extremely high

Multicolored Alternative Leipzig (6,276 km)

(2024-06-13/15) Always these decisions I have to make, Katowice or Krakow, Leipzig or Dresden, Plagwitz or Connewitz! Leipzig and Dresden are the same as Katowice and Krakow. While most tourists probably opt for Dresden, I prefer the livelier to the supposedly more beautiful city and go to Leipzig. With Connewitz and Plagwitz, Leipzig has two alternative and colorful districts with a distinctive art and cultural scene. Plagwitz is a former industrial area that is not immune to gentrification; it reminds us of Bordeaux. Street art is everywhere and even the ATMs here are colorful and alternative.

Nine of the ten photos are from Plagwitz, but one is not. The tenth shows a mural with people demonstrating for peace, democracy and integration. It wasn't created citizien-oriented, but temporarily camouflages the major inner-city construction site of a large German construction company; actually a socio-cultural appropriation, in my opinion. In the evening, we head to Saxony's biggest European Championship fan mile, not so much to watch the opening soccer game of the European Championship between Germany and Scotland [5:1], but rather to attend the concert by the "Meute" [Pack]. Great!

The Eleventh Hour in Wrocław (5,877 km)

(2024-06-11/13) It's the eleventh hour in Wrocław. Outside the historic old town, modern office and apartment buildings are springing up everywhere. Soon there will be neither the blue factory wall with the steam engine nor the lonely house on the elevated railway line with the crashing locomotive on its gable. Both murals were created by urban artist Mariusz Waras in 2008. I discovered Mariusz around the same time and ordered three large-format paintings from him, one of which adorns our living room. Okay, Waras is not Banksy, but he too has achieved international fame and his works can be seen on the streets of Warsaw, Gdansk, Berlin, Paris, Budapest, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Jakarta, Bolzano, London and Prague - and two of them (still) in Wrocław!

And what else is there here besides beautiful old and new buildings? Lots of funny bronze dwarfs, about 400, nobody knows for sure, not even the local tourist office. Lots of poster art in galleries and on the streets, although Russia and Putin are not treated with kid gloves here. Visit Wrocław before it's too late!

To the Space! To Katowice! (5,652 km)

(2024-06-09/11) Krakow and Katowice are only 80 kilometers apart. If they have the choice, nine out of ten tourists will probably choose Krakow; I am the one who goes to Katowice. Katowice doesn't have a medieval old town and there aren't excursions to Auschwitz on every corner, but the city has other highlights. The exceptionally good restaurant Śląska Prohibicja [Silesian Prohibition] advertises it like this:

"Conquest of space! This is the goal of the inhabitants of the world in the middle of the 20th century. After all, the race of powers was also held in the dark blue skies. Katowice is being built anew. All over again - in space style! Gagarin is greeted with flowers in Katowice by crowds and astral buildings are erected on empty squares. Spodek [UFO] lands in our city! [...] The new trend inspires architects working to expand the city. One after another, buildings are being built that refer to the astral current."

From the interstellar heights down to the lowlands of the Silesian coal mines: The Silesian Prohibition is not in the center, but in the middle of Nikiszowiec. This is a very well-preserved listed miners' settlement in the east of the city, with original brick buildings from the early 20th century. The contrasts are what make the town so charming. The individual tourist who has chosen Katowice over Krakow will definitely not regret their decision.

The Jewish Cemetery in Lesko (5,287 km)

(2024-06-07/09) Lesko is located on the San River, at the south-easternmost end of Poland. Wikipedia lists four sights, a family castle, a parish church and a Jewish Cemetery from the 16th century and the Synagogue from the 18th century. Is that enough to conquer the highest road pass in Slovakia over the Low Tatras with a pass height of 1,240 m? Yes it is, because unlike the Synagogue, which is now a gallery for arts and crafts, the Jewish Cemetery is really famous.

As is right and proper for cemetery in the Subcarpathians, it is located at the top of a hill. The oldest of the approximately 2,000 gravestones date back to 1548. The local tourist office writes: “Disorderly scattered, often tilted or overturned, they create a unique atmosphere of reflection on transience.“ In plain terms, this means that no one has looked after the cemetery for ages and the vegetation has gained the upper hand over the gravestones. One of them, which of course cannot be found, must be that of Hirsch Fleischer, my great-granduncle, who came from Tarnobrzeg but found martial happiness here in Lesko with Sara Anna Heibos. Most of their direct descendants now live in Great Britain and the USA. They are all related to my family, whom I visited in Paris, Angoulême and Marseille during the first part of my tour. Six weeks and 5,287 kilometers lie in between, from now on I'm heading west, back home.