Hof is a city located on the banks of the Saale river in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria. It is in the Franconia region, at the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge and Frankenwald upland regions. Hof was originally called Rekkenze and established around the year 1080. The settlement was first mentioned 1214 and became a town in 1319. After a rather uneventful history, the town became Prussian in 1792, French in 1806 and finally Bavarian in 1810. In 1823, the town was virtually destroyed by a fire. In 1945, it suffered minor destruction due to aerial attacks. From 1945 to 1990 Hof was situated very close to the border between East Germany and West Germany. In 1989 thousands of East German citizens, who had demanded the right to travel or emigrate to West Germany and had been allowed to do so, first arrived on western soil at Hof's railroad station, having been placed on a special train and officially "expelled" by the East German government. Hof is also known as "Bavarian Siberia" because temperatures are usually several degrees lower than in most other parts of Bavaria, particularly in winter, and because civil servants were often transferred to Hof as a punishment. The nicest park of Germany is the Hofer civil park Theresienstein. A jewel in the style of an English garden with zoo and botanical garden - and only few steps away from the city center. And last but not least - my sister lives there :)