Above - Frauenkirche - rebuilt after having been destroyed in 1945.
Above - The street long mural of all the Saxon Dukes.
Above - inside the Youth Hostel.
Above - the outside of the Youth Hostel.
Above - an interesting building in the Kaufen Passage.
Compared with what was originally planned (a 6h breakfast) I got up at the more reasonable hour of 8h. I needed to pack as today I was heading to Dresden. The original plan, as I have said, was to go to Leipzig. I was then going to make my way from Leipzig to Dresden in the evening and spend Sunday there. Instead I headed straight for Dresden giving me the Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday there. This plan also gave me a more leisurely, less rushed start to my weekend! As planned breakfast was at 9h up in Renée and Heidi’s kitchen. We ate American pancakes. I had three. (Don’t worry! They’re not the size of UK pancakes or French crêpes! They’re more the size of crumpets. They are however thicker than UK pancakes or French crêpes – about half the thickness of a crumpet.) Anyway, so I had 3 – one with natural yogurt and two with maple syrup and freshly squeezed orange juice. My first encounter with American pancakes, albeit in Germany, was nothing but a positive one. Delicious. I may even have to ask for the recipe so as I can take a little bit of American back to England with me! (Oats soaked in buttermilk, flour, two eggs…) After breakfast we drove to Bautzen and I caught a train to Dresden. I said goodbye to Jannik and Jenny at the train station. (They were going to spend the day in Bautzen with Heidi). They’re going back to England on Monday so won’t be in Herrnhut when I get back. It took me about an hour to get to Dresden on the train. I arrived at around midday. When I arrived in Dresden I went in the News shop. I was travelling ultra ultra light and wanted a notebook so that I could write what could later be typed up and published to my blog (what you’re reading now was actually written at the various stages of my journey). The newsagents however didn’t have something as simple and straight forward as a notebook so I ventured outside of the station into the rain. Only a light drizzle but nevertheless rain. I put my umbrella up and had a wander around the outside of the station in search of a map. I didn’t find one but I did find an elderly-ish couple who had one so, it was time to be brave – Spechen Sie Englisch? They did a little, enough to tell me, or should I say point, that the map came from the bus tour lady. I went to get one. Not the most useful map as it was specifically for the bus tour – a hop on hop off as you like at various designated sightseeing hotspots across the city kind of tour. I decided against the bus tour but did however take advantage of the map to direct myself towards the all the touristy things in the Old Town. Strange how every city has an Old Town – Marseille, Geneva, Lyon, Dresden - and all so originally named too! En route I bought a guide book and proper map – something that would actually by of use to me. I also bought some postcards. I was wandering along in the rain beginning to question whether it was actually a good idea to have brought myself to Dresden… I stopped for lunch in a café. I, with the help of my dictionary, managed to find and order Tomatencrèmesuppe mit Sahnehäubchen und geröstetem Toast and a Pott heiße Schokolade. After lunch I asked ‘Haben Sie eine toilleten?’ which they did – upstairs. Any doubts I had been having about having come to Dresden alone were soon wiped out when I fell across the Old Town. I spent the next 3 hours wandering round, completely in my element, snapping away merrily with my camera although fully aware that I hadn’t brought my laptop with me so I wouldn’t be able to download my photos from my camera. Therefore my snapping had to be kept under control – you all know how many photos I like to take of all and everything! Yesterday (gosh, was that only yesterday?! It feels like so much longer) I took 105 photos of Oybin! I was sure my memory card would be able to cope though – I’d had enough space when I went to Lyon, Grenoble and Geneva. After my wandering and snapping, with my umbrella going up and down as and when the weather dictated, after I’d walked along the banks of the River Elbe, seen Dresden’s Old Town, discovered that I can walk to the top of the Frauenkirche tomorrow and also, if I so desire (which I don’t think I do due to time restrains) take a boat up/down the River Elbe to neighbouring places. After all that, I plonked myself in a café in the square I’d first stumbled across after lunch and did such a German thing – I had Kaffee und Kuchen – Dresdner Eierschecke Kuchen to be precise. I sat reading my tour guide I’d bought earlier and looking at the photos I’d taken, and just generally watching the world go by. I began to get a little cold so decided to make my way to the Youth Hostel. I started walking back to the main train station as I had directions from there to catch tram number 7 in the direction of Weixdorf. I didn’t have to walk as far as the station as I fell across a tram stop beforehand displaying, among many other numbers, a number 7. Now all I needed was a ticket… The shop which appeared to sell tickets was closed. Time to consult the phrasebook. I located the phrase ‘Wo kann ich Fahrscheine lösen?’ and picked my victim wisely. A lady, maybe in her fifties. I pointed to the phrase and attempted to pronounce it. She pointed across the tram track and said ‘yellow box’ in English. Funny how people always automatically go to English even though she couldn’t possible have known I was English as my phrasebook is French-German as I bought it in Marseille. Anyway, I thanked her and crossed the tramway to the ‘yellow box’. Never before have I seen so many ticket choices! Thank goodness for the English translations below or I’d have been there for hours with my dictionary! I bought a ‘Einzelfahrt’ for €1,80 and crossed back over so as to get on the tram going in the right direction. I didn’t have to wait long before my bright yellow guided vehicle, aka tram, arrived. Bless the Germans for being so high tech, modern and organised – there wasn’t just a map of the tram network showing all the tram stops but also a computer screen showing the upcoming stops and displaying the next stop so I knew exactly where I was going and when to get off. I got off at ‘Bischofsweg’ – the stop I wanted, and followed my instructions to the Youth Hostel. It was very easy and only about a 5 minute walk. Right, time for the phrasebook again! But no, no need. The man at reception may as well have been bilingual – his English was excellent. I filled in a form, decided that yes, I did want bed linen and yes, I would like breakfast. I then paid and was given a key and told to go to the second floor and use said key to open the door with the white rabbit on and then I was in room 14. When I went into room 14, there were 2 people in there and 2 beds out of the 6 were taken. I’m very pleased with my bed and the hostel is nice. It’s clean, the staff are very friendly and helpful, and it’s comfortable – not too big but not tiny either. As I unpacked and settled down I felt proud: proud to have navigated my way here; proud to have had a wonderful afternoon. I felt happy: happy to be there and looking forward to the rest of my holiday. But now I’m exhausted and so to bed. But not before I tell you about my shower experience. The bathroom’s fine – there’s a shower, toilet and wash basin. It’s clean, the water’s hot. The problem wasn’t with any of that. The problem was with the bath: it’s filled with soil and has cacti planted in it… in a bathroom!! Not many things I can say freak me out, not all that much disturbs me, but, for reasons I cannot explain, a bath filled with soil and planted with cacti in a bathroom is just plain wrong! Goodnight!
