The bed was soft and the sleep came easily, as did the full bladder, so the sleep was a bit interrupted.
Breakfast was negotiated with the minimum of fuss, heck do they have a lot to offer for breakfast. More varieties of Yogurt than you can imagine.
Bags packed and delivered for pick-up, I headed off to the old town of Dresden, which is a bit odd really as it was pretty much destroyed by the allies in WW2.
I hit the Elbe River and was reminded of Napoleon’s words “Able was I ere I saw Elbe”. It is a fast flowing river with the old town on the other side. There nothing for it, I’ll have to use the bridge.
It has been rebuilt and very well done too. I hope the pictures do it justice.
Walking around an old city on Good Friday is a rather quiet occupation, especially early on. It’s also cold, very cold and I not that well prepared. My ears are icy.
After walking for nearly 2 hours I succumb to the temptation of a Hop on Hop Off bus tour, and I must say it was excellent. Apart from the rather loud German commentary that is. I had a headset with English commentary, however the German commentary was beamed through the loudspeaker, so we had that blasting in the background. The commentary at one stage pointed out an old building that the used to have a neon sign flashing “Socialism is winning” we were told, there was laughter from the mostly German passengers.
I did one round of the bus thing, and then decided it was time to find my train to Bad Schandau. This wasn’t too hard. The train was impeccably clean, quiet, until it braked, and quite fast. I’m at Bad Schandau before I know it, standing on the opposite bank of the Elbe to the town. Luckily there is a ferry, though I couldn’t read the notice that told me what I needed to do. A young bloke helped out and we crossed uneventfully. My hotel, the Elbehotel is on the riverbank and quite nice. My room is OK, though looks into the back street, which is the main street. The town is quaint, cobblestones rule. It is quite odd to walk around and not hear one word of English The people at the hotel have rather poor English skills, albeit miles ahead of my German ones.
I head off for a long walk, end up with sore feet. There are very few concessions here for non-German speakers.
Dinner was interesting, as I picked something off the Ostermenu with only one word that I recognised-gnocchi! What I got was some meat, nicely cooked, with gnocchi and some long white things that were rather stringy and i think were white asparagus, if there is such a thing. They were the disappointment, all else was good.
Feeling pretty knackered and I have my first real walking day, and it's forecast to be a maximum of 4!!
I did one round of the bus thing, and then decided it was time to find my train to Bad Schandau. This wasn’t too hard. The train was impeccably clean, quiet, until it braked, and quite fast. I’m at Bad Schandau before I know it, standing on the opposite bank of the Elbe to the town. Luckily there is a ferry, though I couldn’t read the notice that told me what I needed to do. A young bloke helped out and we crossed uneventfully. My hotel, the Elbehotel is on the riverbank and quite nice. My room is OK, though looks into the back street, which is the main street. The town is quaint, cobblestones rule. It is quite odd to walk around and not hear one word of English The people at the hotel have rather poor English skills, albeit miles ahead of my German ones.
I head off for a long walk, end up with sore feet. There are very few concessions here for non-German speakers.
Dinner was interesting, as I picked something off the Ostermenu with only one word that I recognised-gnocchi! What I got was some meat, nicely cooked, with gnocchi and some long white things that were rather stringy and i think were white asparagus, if there is such a thing. They were the disappointment, all else was good.
Feeling pretty knackered and I have my first real walking day, and it's forecast to be a maximum of 4!!
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