Seiffen

Getting to Seiffen was more of a challenge than it should have been. After Deutsche Bahn rearranged the connecting trains so I couldn't arrive at the original time of 1600 without leaving two hours earlier, they also provided me with trains that were late. I made the first connection, but was worried about the second, which was 5 minutes, and the train was running 8 minutes late. "Not a problem," the conductor told me. "Your connection is also running late." And so it was - 20 minutes late! Which meant that I missed the fourth train and the following bus. Finally arrived in Seiffen around 7.30pm.

The room was actually an apartment, with two rooms and a kitchenette, and was lovely. Shame I was only in it for a little over 12 hours.

Bedroom and bathroom through the door

The Pension is run by a family who also have a shop in the main street.  Seiffen is in a valley and is very hilly - reminiscent of Vernazza or Muerren.

Here's the shop.  The Pension is in the yellow house just above (and behind the tree on the right)

View from the main street

View from the back street

The entrance is here, around the back

I'd grabbed some food at the Bahnhofs, so I went walking when I arrived. Seiffen is quite a bit larger than I expected, and the number of shops selling Holzkunst - wood craft - is enormous. Definitely well over 20; could easily be 50. The houses are well-kept and interesting, and there's plenty of stuff to look at in the windows.

This one appealed - they're certainly looking forward!

Of course, photos taken through windows don't turn out very well, so here's just a couple.

There are also lots of interesting things in the street.  Seiffen is geared up as a tourist town for Christmas markets. I can just imagine what it would be like in December.

Carved out of wood

A Schwibbogen between two buildings

These lanterns are lovely. There are many throughout the town

Life-sized!

Even the paving has a Christmas theme

A large pyramid on the right, and a smokerman at the back

And a larger-than-life-sized smokerman

The church is lovely, too.  And walking down from there through a little park, I came upon a cute little statue - carved from wood, naturally - and a war memorial.  Seiffen is full of surprises.

The church is up a hill

"Heim" is home

Lanterns lining the steps

And a memorial to locals who died in WWI

Even the signpost is worth a photo!

Next morning - shopping!! I asked in my shop about posting things home. The lady said not to send anything large - so no pyramids, none of the Schwibbogen. Very disappointing. I had to be content with photos in the shops, and they were quite happy for me to take them. So...

Coloured figurines

Everything you could ever want in the way of Chrissie decos

Lots of pyramids

Schwibbogen

Triangular ones, too

And so many beautiful Pyramiden

It was a really hot day - mid 30s - so a visit to the church provided some welcome coolness.

The Friedhof is so colourful and extremely well-tended

There are even carved wooden figures holding lights in the church

And a couple more photos from the main street...

Mountain people's house and little mountain people's house

The blue and yellow man's legs move in and out

And, yep - another large pyramid

And on the bus ride back to Freiberg, the nearby town of Neuhausen has an advertising wall - carved out of wood!

Certainly makes you look

And this family was also in Neuhausen