My goal today is Zwiesel, in the Bavarian Forest. This is a glass area. The train, from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart, Stuttgart to Nürnberg, Nürnberg to Plattling and Plattling to Zwiesel, offered plenty of chances for delays — and we had them. We got to Nürnberg about 20 minutes late, so I missed the connection to Plattling. Since the train there runs about once an hour and we were so late, the wait wasn’t too long.
In Zwiesel I needed a taxi — and that was a trick, but I finally got one. The Aparthotel Zwiesel, which I found online, turns out to be a 15-minute hike to the train station — through a narrow underpass that’s used by cars and has no sidewalk. I hope to survive the experience….
It turns out that today, beginning at 6 p.m., is the 16th Zwieseler Glas Nacht (Glass Night), complete with a glass pyramid at Zwiesel Kristallglas, tours, a visit to the showroom, glass-blowing demonstrations at the Fachschule für Glas (a government-backed glassblowing school), a glass flea market, a glass chapel, and several music events around, mostly in parks. The pyramid is made up of 93,665 white wine glasses, stacked (but not glued) in 65 layers.
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- Zwiesel Glas Nacht
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- Zwiesel Kristallglas with Pyramid
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- Zwiesel Kristallglas pyramid
Hundreds of people were out and about. The music events were often competing, but the listeners didn’t seem to mind. Würst and other stands were at the music venues — it’s too bad I’m a vegetarian. The potato puffers at one would have been veggie, but looked soaked in grease.
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- One of the many music performances, this one in the park
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- Zwiesel park
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- Glasfachschule Zwiesel, down the street from Zwiesel Glas
I wandered through some stores, especially the Zwiesel one, which is huge and includes a bakery, a condiment/wine shop plus all the glass. It would be a great opportunity to get really nice glasses (but not hand-made) at a great price — but shipping would be prohibitive and I don’t trust the postal services, since my other packages seem to be lost.
Zwiesel also seems to have a sculpture program – I found at least three that were labeled. Here are two:
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- “Regenbogen”, sculpture by Oswald Faber
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- Another Zwiesel sculpture on the Skulpturweg
diane's fused glass 