An American tourist visits Gardelegen

In planning my trip to Gardelegen in May 2002, I searched through all the travel guidebooks that I could find: Fodor's, Frommer's, Rough Guide, Let's Go and many others. None of them mentioned Gardelegen whatsoever. When I arrived in the town, it was instantly clear to me why this town is not a tourist stop. The train station was boarded up tight and although Gardelegen is on a main railroad line which runs due east from Amsterdam to Berlin, the high-speed ICE trains do not stop there. In Germany, the Autobahn does not pass through towns like Gardelegen, so it is well off the beaten path.

To me, as a casual observer, the people of the town of Gardelegen seemed to be unhappy and beaten down. There was no joy in Gardelegen. It was not a happy place. There were very few sidewalk cafe tables where tourists could exchange pleasantries with the natives, maybe because there were virtually no tourists. I noticed that the habit of leaning out of an open window and looking out onto the street, which is a typical German custom, was very common in Gardelegen, but I did not see any happy exchanges of conversation with passersby. The two photographs below were taken on the main street of the town.

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This page was last updated on March 29, 2007