Muskau Park straddles a river and a border. The Neisse flows through it, and since 1945 it has been the frontier between Germany and Poland, which means that half the park lies in Bad Muskau and the other half in Leknica. Visitors walk across a reconstructed bridge from one country to the other, with no checks, and pass from the German part of the park to the Polish part in a few minutes. UNESCO listed the park as a joint site in 2004.
The park was created by Prince Hermann von Puckler-Muskau, a nobleman, writer and garden designer, who began work on it in 1815. He spent a fortune turning the estate into a landscape of meadows, trees, water and views, shaped to look as natural as possible, and when his money ran out he sold the estate and moved to Branitz, near Cottbus, where he built another park. He wrote a book on landscape gardening and travelled widely, and he was a famous character. A kind of ice cream, layered with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, is named after him in Germany.
The Neues Schloss, the palace in the centre of the park, was damaged in the Second World War and rebuilt, and it houses a visitor centre and exhibitions. Paths wind among old oaks, along the river and over little bridges, and you can walk for hours. The town of Bad Muskau has a spa tradition, with peaty water, and the smaller Polish town of Leknica has cheap shops and cafes.
Riding here is gentle, with quiet roads through pine forest and heath, and the surface is generally good. To the south, the Jizera Mountains rise on the Czech border, with winding roads, and to the south-west lies Dresden, about a hundred kilometres away. Fuel is easy in Bad Muskau, and often cheaper on the Polish side, so check the price. Spring is lovely, when the trees are bright green, and autumn brings gold. A cup of coffee on the terrace is a good start to the day.