Well here we are in East Germany, in a small village called Cunewald, east of Dresden. The village is full of attractive loom houses, made of wood, all of which have the typical three arches. The looms were located behind these arches in a giant wooden box. The houses were made of wood because the looms shook the foundation's so much and the loom owners lived in the floor above. Sadly there are no working looms left in the village.

Our accommodation this week is on a farm owned by an English couple. We are helping look after Scooby the horse, Purdy the spotty dog, rabbits, quail, chickens, sheep and ducks. As well as moving muck we have been weeding the veg patch. Chris has been tasked with building new rabbit hutches for the winter. As usual the weather has been great and we have been out and about exploring the area, walking through the woods to a tower viewpoint on the hill above. The village has a mountain on either side each with a tower on, one white and one black.

The view from the top was amazing. Luckily, next to the tower was a pub selling local beer!

Our hosts took us to Oybin next to the Czech border. It is an attractive village with a narrow gage railway which meant Chris could run up and down the platform enjoying the steam train. Above the train station there is a large hill with a monastry and castle on the top as well as an impressive outcrop of rock made of sandstone. We decided against walking to the top and chose to sit and admire the view from the coffee shop in the station.

On the way back we called into a shop/museum that still uses the old looms to make curtain drapes and articles made of linen. They decorate the hangings with hand embroidery and beads. It was truly fascinating to watch. Most wooden houses in the area were made to hold these looms on the ground floor with the animals kept in the other room downstairs. The family lived on the floor above.

This weekend we also visited Bautzen, a small attractive city north of Cunewald. It's old city wall is still standing overlooking the river below, and we enjoyed a walk through the old part of the city and had beer and cake in a local cafe.

We then drove to Gorlitz on the border of Germany which was split in two when they decided the river down the middle was going to be the new border. On one side is German Gorlitz and on the other Polish Zgorzelec. We walked across the bridge to buy an icecream on the Polish side that was half the price of the German side. Everyone near to the border shops in Poland as it is much cheaper. Germans also travel across the border to buy their petrol.

On the way back we stopped by a small river and saw beavers that had been reintroduced into the river. They were easy to spot right beside the road sunning themselves, no fences, just the on the grass verge of a main road - really amazing to watch.

10/9/16
Chris has been very busy, this past week, building two multi-story rabbit hutches, as well as mending two bikes, one of which was electric and replacing the plastic fuel pipe in the strimmer as well as a host of other jobs I can't remember.

I've been splitting my time between the veg patch, painting windows and picking apples. Every morning and evening we both help with the animals. The weather has been in the upper 20's and we've been out walking along the village cycle path. Cunewalde has a plethora of amenities. There are fantastic sport facilities and a brilliant swimming pool, as well as a large park with lakes. There is even a miniature village showing the old loom houses and their history, each individual house a perfect reproduction, beautifully painted. All in all it has been a relaxing two weeks spent in wonderful countryside - somewhere we would both like to return to again in the future.

Tonight we are going to see a couple of bands playing in the village and tomorrow is our last full day. On Monday we move on to Naumburg, not far from here but still three train rides away.