SATURDAY OCTOBER 8TH
As much as we were looking forward to seeing Jana and enjoying some of her surprises, it was a sad good bye to Claudia and co. The Löbe family are a genuine, lovely bunch, and their hospitality was complete without being overwhelming. Their little town of Seifersdorf was a perfect place to stay and enjoy some real German day-to-day life. I really, really hope we get to see them again sometime.
And, of course, seeing Claudi again was priceless. If she was tired, lethargic and a little down at times, it didn't show. If I didn't know better I'd say she was as happy to see us as we were to see her. She spoiled us rotten.
The beautiful Schloss Moritzburg, good friends, and a ripper German pastry. What more could you want...
But, travels don't plan themselves so it was off to Jana's in downtown Dresden. First up Jana, her Dad and his partner Chrystal whisked us off to the Czech republic to see Prague. It's a whole different thing, going from Germany to a real "Eastern Bloc" country. Prague shows plenty of signs of opulence, thanks to hordes of tourists. The drive in through the rest of the country says otherwise. Unlike even East Germany (with it's high unemployment) the CZ Republic shows real poverty and hardship.
our loyal tour guidesThe only hardship I experienced was a 2 hour drive on slow, windy roads, squeezed in between two women in a little Renault Laguna. Although, Jana's Dad is a jolly man and he makes every little trip as jolly as possible. He had much to tell us but his daughter found the translating a chore.
But not to be outdone by anyone, Jana played tour guide, describing Prague as "A nice city. It has lots of really old buildings".
Wow, we just don't pay her enough! It doesn't just have a LOT of old buildings, they are REALLY old. She spent the rest of the trip saying something about being "just a translator machine".
Prague is , most definitely, a tourist highlight. It does not quite have the baroque splendour of Dresden, but the classic architecture is spread as far as the eye can see. Around every corner is a cobbled market square, surrounded by an ancient church, town hall, theater or palace. And all this goes for miles. A slight bohemian feel in some less-restored areas simply adds to the character.
All this, I suppose, is just another way of saying...it has lots of really old buildings....
I saw my first Pagini Zonda in Prague!I've lost count of the number of well known movies shot in Prague. It really is worth seeing, but I secretly wondered what it would be like to venture deeper into old Eastern Europe and get off the tourist trail. Bucharest, Budapest, Zagreb...maybe next time...
Me and my translator machine, Czech Republican Presidential Palace grounds
Prague's most famous brigde- "The Charles", built in 1357.Another highlight of Prague was the hordes of Dutch soccer fans in town for the NL v CZ World Cup qualifier. We lunched in the main Market square to the sound of thousands of loud, funny raucus orangey-dressed people and the sight of soccer balls bouncing off cars, people, and really old buildings. About the time we were driving back to Dresden, Prague was probably being painted orange as I believe the score was NL-1, CZ-0.
the game wasn't until the evening. Some of these people would not have made it that far
St John of Nepomuk, one of 30 statues placed along Charles' Bridge. With literally thousands of Saturday tourists on the bridge, many of them touching the base of the statue for good luck, as per an old superstition, it took Sharon forever to get this photo
The crucifix and calvary statue. The first crucifix was 14th century, but this current one was actually made in Dresden in 1630. The Hebrew text around the crucifix reads Holy Holy Holy...Lord of Hosts and was put there in the late 1600's to punish a local Jew for defacing the statue!The drive home was as uneventful as the one over. Uneventful except for the bit where Jana's Jolly Dad did an illegal u-turn across and bridge and got sprung by the good folks from Prague's reputable constabulary. Now, I know the iron curtain is long gone but I couldn't help but sweat a little waiting for the raised voices, loud pleas of innocence, finger pointing at the westerners in the back seat, the frisking, the being carried off to some dark cell to be interrogated about what magazines I'd brought over.
It's not quite like that anymore, however, Dieter had to barter them down from the proposed fine of 2000 Czech kroner (about 80 Euro) to around 350 kroner. It seems the weekly wage of the boys and girls in Blue sometimes just isn't enough.
So, we waved goodbye to the friendly Prague Police as they headed off, doing an illegal u-turn in the process...
Back to Dresden, we were lucky to have Marko and Betty back in town just for the weekend so I went out with the boys. Marko took me to the Neustadt of Dresden (meaning "new city" but is just as old as the "Altstadt") which is the traditional pub jaunt for students.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 9TH
After a good sleep and foot-resting, it was up at 8am with Jana to catch the train to the local hiking and mountain-climbing paradise, Saxony Switzerland. It's not actually in Switzerland, it's just called that for reasons I did not research so too bad if you want to know. Jana, ever the nature loving bush type, drove her little Renault unimaginably fast from Ackermanstrasse to the train station, as she didn't want to miss the early train. Her driving scared me more than being on a turbulent plane infested with tarantulas.
We missed the early train anyway and, being a beautiful Sunny Sunday it was packed with other nature-loving bush types. Being 9am I remembered the Bathurst 1000 would be just about be run and won so I texted Aussie land to find out that Mark Skaife won. Pity I couldn't share the news with anyone!
It was arduous walking, especially with my newly-discovered feet deformities, but stunning scenery. It's a little like the Grampians, but more dramatic, and in Europe. It is a hit with rock climbers. When you reach the lookouts, you can see the rock-climbers dotting the mountain faces like lots of colourful, slightly nervous-looking starfish.
Total and absolute nutters, every last one of them
The forest was fairy-tale like. It was so cute, I'm sure I saw a little hut and heard some bears complaining about their breakfast. There is an open air theatre here- classic stuff.
Open air theater. Off season, unfortunately. So I didn't see why I got told off for trying to get onto the stage
Inside the magnificent SemperoperMacbeth was playing. It was a modern interpretation. Since it was my first time to the Opera since Mum forced me, at age 13, to see Dame Joan Sutherland, I must say I was surprised at the nudity, sexual themes and violence. I suspect if more blokes knew about this in Australia there would be more people at the opera. But this was Dresden so the place was full of businesspeople, teenagers and middle-class. There was only one hitch in the production- after a scene with lots of gore and dismemberment, a stage hand forgot to remove a severed arm so it stayed there for the rest of the show. But overall it was quite an experience- the sheer opulence.
The Semperoper
The chicks who took me to the Semperoper. We were all a little underdressed
