Day 30

            It’s our last full day in Germany!  We are ready to come home, but we’ve had a fantastic time.  Left Dresden this morning and it started raining again, and has been raining on and off all day.  The GPS came through again, getting us directly to our hotel in Berlin.  We arrived at noon, and the staff was gracious enough to give us a room that we could use right away.  We unloaded all our stuff from the car (we have not consolidated stuff yet, and the hotel staff was pretty wide-eyed as we kept bring more and more in from the car.)

            We headed for the airport to return the car – all of that went well also.  We tried to check in to our flights, but they were in the middle of boarding another flight, so we went and did our snacky lunch, then came back, and the Air France-KLM-Delta group was kind enough to check us in and give us our boarding passes.  We may not get to sit together on the way home, but we won’t worry about that until tomorrow.

            Took the bus back to the hotel.  We really debated going back downtown for one last bit of sightseeing, but with the rain and our energy level being a bit low, we decided to stay here, rest a bit, have a bite to eat nearby, and pack/consolidate our stuff for the morning.

            That means that this will likely be the last blog until we get home.  For those who have been following, thanks!  It’s been fun to share with you.  See you at home!

Day 29

            It was a wet and wonderful day in Dresden!  As we were getting ready for breakfast, we heard thunder, and looked outside and realized we would need our umbrellas for sure!  This was our last pure tourist day, so we wanted to make the most of it.

            After breakfast, we caught the bus for the zentrum of Dresden – picked it up just across the street from the hotel, rode for about 15 minutes, and we were there.  On the walk into town, we passed the Kreutzkirche (more on that later) and the Frauenkirche (later again) and headed for the Zwinger.  This was a kind of palace begun by August the Strong, elector of Saxony, in the late 1500’s.  He had intended for it to be like a park and museum, and really made something out of it.  When we were here five years ago, we were in Dresden on a Monday, and museums in Germany are closed on Mondays, so I made sure we could be in Dresden during the week.

            We were early!  The Zwinger opens at 10, and we were downtown by 9:15.  And it was raining.  I mean RAINING!  We found a covered area in the Elector’s Rezidence, which is also a museum, but it was sheltered so we could sit and wait in the dry about a block from the Zwinger.  It is covered by a plexiglass dome, that acted like the metrodome – it amplified the sound of rain on the roof until we could hardly talk!

            We finally deserted the dry spot in favor of walking to the Zwinger and getting in line for our tickets.  There are actually three museums there – a porcelain museum, an art museum, and an arms and armor museum.  We got an admission ticket that let us in to all three.  The down side was that pictures are not allowed inside at all, and we couldn’t find a book that showed or discussed the contents.

            First we went into the porcelain museum.  Lots and lots of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, plus a lot of Meissen porcelain made just a few miles away from here.  Beautiful stuff, but by the time we worked through the whole wing, we had seen enough to last for…

            Next we went into the arms and armor museum.  Hardly any English labels in the whole place.  Very interesting stuff – swords, guns, suits of armor, so much that we saw enough to last for…..          

            Then came the art museum.  Paintings.  Millions, possibly even billions of dollars worth of original art.  We really enjoyed the stuff by Lucas Cranach, both the Elder and the Younger.  It tied in so well with all the things we saw and experienced in our trip up till now.  Also, many paintings by Peter Paul Reubens, Botticelli, Rembrandt, and a whole host of others. We saw enough paintings to last for…..

            You get the picture.  It was really overload, especially since there were no English explanations other than simple labels. 

            Once we left the Zwinger, we sat and had a little snack from the backpack, then headed for the Dresden Hofkappelle.  This is the Roman Catholic cathedral.  Dresden became Lutheran early on, but one of the Electors, August the Strong, wanted to also be crowned king of Poland, and he had to be Catholic to do that, so he converted.  And there was no Catholic church in town, so he had one built – primarily for him.  It is beautiful. It was bombed out like most of Dresden, but beautifully restored.  After wandering through it and taking pictures, the organ started playing some Buxtehude.  I have no idea who was playing, but it is a Gottfried Silbermann organ, by the same builder as the two we saw yesterday in Freiberg.  It’s a magnificent instrument, so we stayed and listened for a while.

            We did some window (and real!) shopping, especially when we saw a Meissen porcelain store.  We got just about the cheapest thing we could find, a beautiful porcelain medallion, and saw lots of very expensive other stuff.  As Dea had said in Munich, the whole street even smelled rich!

            We worked our way to the Frauenkirche, which is the huge Lutheran church in the center of town.  It was totally destroyed in 1945 by allied bombers who wiped out Dresden, but was rebuilt using as much original material as possible, using the original blueprints.  It was finished in 2004 or 2005, and we saw it just after it opened.  Had to stop in and see it again – it is magnificent.

            Then we headed to the Kreutzkirche.  This was – and is – the largest church in town, and was also severely bombed out at the end of WWII.  It was rebuilt rather quickly, and the inside of the church is finished in a very rough manner, designed to be a remembrance of the damage war can do. I am particularly partial to this church, because one of my musical heroes (second only to J.S. Bach) – Heinrich Schütz, did some work there while he was court composer to the Elector in Dresden.  They have a little memorial chapel for him in one corner of the church. 

            It was the end of the day – and raining again, so we decided to get our bodies ready to come home on Friday.  We stopped and had McDonalds for supper – it sure tasted good!  And in Germany, I could have beer with supper at McDonalds!

            Caught the bus back to the hotel, stopped next door at the restaurant so Dea could have dessert and I had a dark beer, and now we are back in our room, tired but satisfied that we made a real fine last tourist day out of it, rain and all!

            I actually felt quite good all day long – I think I’ve shaken the cold pretty well.  Tomorrow we’ll take our time packing up, drive back to Berlin, check into our hotel, and drop off the rental car at the airport and confirm our Friday morning flights.  Home soon!

Day 28

            Another slow day.  Had breakfast in Freiberg, then headed for the Freiberger Dom (a Dom in Germany is a cathedral, whether it has a “dome” on it or not.)  This one is Lutheran.  When I was here 9 years ago with my brother and sister-in-law and nephew, we stopped to visit it.  The area was quite shabby, and they were doing some fix-up work in the Dom.

            Most of that is done.  The outside looks freshly painted, and the inside is cleaned up quite a bit, but still looks like “old stuff” – which it is.  We were early, so walked around town a bit, visiting the castle which is in the process of renovation.  We got tickets to visit the Dom, and one of the tour guides spoke some English and had some time since we were early, so she showed us around.  We got to go into a little chapel in a separate building attached to the former cloister.  The cloister was jammed full of gravestones from the family of the former Elector.  Some very impressive other things as well:  altar, statues, etc.  Then we went into the church.  It was just as impressive as I remember it.  For organists, there are two Gottfried Silbermann organs in this building – TWO!  - he was J.S. Bach’s favorite organ builder.  We couldn’t get close to them, unfortunately. 

            The former “choir” of the Dom has been converted into an electoral “cemetery.”  The ceiling is stunning – 3 dimensional angel musicians – over 30 of them – imbedded into the ceiling.  As they were refurbishing it a number of years ago, they discovered that many of the instruments the angels were playing were real renaissance musical instruments, and many of them were known only from renaissance books.  No one had ever seen a real instrument like that, and here the ceiling was full of them!  So they cleaned them up, made copies, and put the originals back into the ceiling!

            There are also two distinct pulpits in the Dom, a crucifix grouping that dates to the 12^th century, and much, much more.  It’s quite a place.

            We headed then for Dresden.  I still was feeling the effects of the cold I caught, and Dea wasn’t feeling too well either.  The GPS took us through some windey, narrow country roads again – didn’t know if we were ever going to find our way out of the country.  I was even afraid we’d run out of gas before we got to Dresden.  But we found gas, and the GPS led us right to the door of the hotel.

            Again, we were early, and the room was not ready, so we sat in the car for about two hours waiting to get in.  By that time, sitting in the sun, neither of us felt very good, so we did rest time again.  Went next door for a bite of supper, and tonight we are just laid back.

            Tomorrow we will head into the zentrum of the city, and visit the Zwinger palace museum, the Frauenkirche, and whatever else we can do in a day.  S

– Day 27

            Not much to report today, besides the fact that we have no internet access tonight.  So, I will jot down a few notes, and post them from Dresden tomorrow.

            Because of the cold I picked up, I didn’t sleep much last night.  So, we took it very easy this morning as we left Regensberg.  We really didn’t see anything of the old city, so we have to cross that one off our list just like we did for Augsburg the other day.

            It was a good 4-hour drive from Regensberg to Freiberg.  Most of it was on the autobahn, and that made for easy driving.  I don’t know who told Mrs. Garmin that we wanted to take the scenic route instead of the easiest route, so we ended up on less than 2-lane roads for most of the way.  And, of course, some of the roads were closed.  So we heard “recalculating” very often.  At one point, the Garmin didn’t even know what direction to go, so Dea acted as navigator.  Once we got through the last part of the construction zone, the Garmin announced “Turn right at the next corner, and arrive at destination.”  We were that close, and didn’t have a clue!

            That was not the end of the adventure, however.  We saw the hotel, and there was a parking ramp right next door.  A natural, right?  Wrong!  It was a shopping center ramp.  We decided to go check in first, then figure out where to park.  Of all things, there was not a single door unlocked at the Brauhof Hotel!  Signs on the doors said that the restaurant opens at 5:00 p.m. (17:00).  Well, we were there about 13:30 (1:30 p.m.).  No way in!  Finally we discovered the hotel parking lot, moved the car, and I bugged some delivery men until one of them called the hotel number, and someone let us in, but he didn’t speak any English, just gave us a key and a registration form and left us in our room!

         That was really OK, because I wanted to rest in hopes of shaking the cold, and to recover from the drive.  So we napped and read for about 4-5 hours.  Then it was time to eat.  So we went downstairs to the restaurant for supper.

            I must digress.  Nine years ago, Paul and Barb and their son Philip and I stayed in this hotel, ate supper in the restaurant, and I had pork hocks and sauerkraut – the best sauerkraut I’ve ever had.  Before we left the states, in planning this trip, the first hotel reservation I made outside of Wittenberg was for this hotel!  Besides the same menu, they also have the best German  beer of all, in my opinion.  So, pork hocks, sauerkraut, and dark beer made up supper.  It was more than we could eat, however.  The pork hock had to be at least 6-8” in diameter, way more than I could handle.  But it was worth the trip!
            Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we will start being tourists again.  We have directions from the waiter on how to find the local cathedral.  Organ fans will be interested to know that there are two Gottfried Silbermann organs in the cathedral, plus a whole lot of really neat stuff.  We will go there first, then head towards Dresden.  Time permitting, we will stop at Meissen to see the porcelain works there, then check in to Dresden. 

          I must say that I am starting to feel human again – not totally, but much better than last night, and ready to be tourist again for a few days before we head home on Friday.

           In case some of you haven’t heard, we are grandparents again!  John and Jill are in the process of adopting a little Somalian baby, named him Micah Youssef.  He was  born on Sunday, and we think they will be able to take him home in a day or two.  Please pray for this growing family!

– Day 27

            Not much to report today, besides the fact that we have no internet access tonight.  So, I will jot down a few notes, and post them from Dresden tomorrow.

            Because of the cold I picked up, I didn’t sleep much last night.  So, we took it very easy this morning as we left Regensberg.  We really didn’t see anything of the old city, so we have to cross that one off our list just like we did for Augsburg the other day.

            It was a good 4-hour drive from Regensberg to Freiberg.  Most of it was on the autobahn, and that made for easy driving.  I don’t know who told Mrs. Garmin that we wanted to take the scenic route instead of the easiest route, so we ended up on less than 2-lane roads for most of the way.  And, of course, some of the roads were closed.  So we heard “recalculating” very often.  At one point, the Garmin didn’t even know what direction to go, so Dea acted as navigator.  Once we got through the last part of the construction zone, the Garmin announced “Turn right at the next corner, and arrive at destination.”  We were that close, and didn’t have a clue!

            That was not the end of the adventure, however.  We saw the hotel, and there was a parking ramp right next door.  A natural, right?  Wrong!  It was a shopping center ramp.  We decided to go check in first, then figure out where to park.  Of all things, there was not a single door unlocked at the Brauhof Hotel!  Signs on the doors said that the restaurant opens at 5:00 p.m. (17:00).  Well, we were there about 13:30 (1:30 p.m.).  No way in!  Finally we discovered the hotel parking lot, moved the car, and I bugged some delivery men until one of them called the hotel number, and someone let us in, but he didn’t speak any English, just gave us a key and a registration form and left us in our room!

         That was really OK, because I wanted to rest in hopes of shaking the cold, and to recover from the drive.  So we napped and read for about 4-5 hours.  Then it was time to eat.  So we went downstairs to the restaurant for supper.

            I must digress.  Nine years ago, Paul and Barb and their son Philip and I stayed in this hotel, ate supper in the restaurant, and I had pork hocks and sauerkraut – the best sauerkraut I’ve ever had.  Before we left the states, in planning this trip, the first hotel reservation I made outside of Wittenberg was for this hotel!  Besides the same menu, they also have the best German  beer of all, in my opinion.  So, pork hocks, sauerkraut, and dark beer made up supper.  It was more than we could eat, however.  The pork hock had to be at least 6-8” in diameter, way more than I could handle.  But it was worth the trip!
            Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we will start being tourists again.  We have directions from the waiter on how to find the local cathedral.  Organ fans will be interested to know that there are two Gottfried Silbermann organs in the cathedral, plus a whole lot of really neat stuff.  We will go there first, then head towards Dresden.  Time permitting, we will stop at Meissen to see the porcelain works there, then check in to Dresden. 

          I must say that I am starting to feel human again – not totally, but much better than last night, and ready to be tourist again for a few days before we head home on Friday.

           In case some of you haven’t heard, we are grandparents again!  John and Jill are in the process of adopting a little Somalian baby, named him Micah Youssef.  He was  born on Sunday, and we think they will be able to take him home in a day or two.  Please pray for this growing family!

Day 26

       Almost made it with both of us staying healthy for a month. Not quite.  Last night after we got in, I had a big sneeze and told Dea “I think I’m getting a cold.”  This morning I knew it!

        We got a good start out of Munich after breakfast and headed for Dachau.  We arrived there a bit after 9 a.m., just after it opened.  I thought we might spend an hour or two there, but we were there almost 6 hours!  It is really horrible.  Lots of displays, but lots of horror at how people can be so cruel to other people.  Some of the displays are very graphic, and they have recreated one of the barracks and one of the crematories. 

            We stayed so long that we don’t really have time to see much if anything here in Regensberg.  We’ll see how it goes in the morning, but we also have the longest drive tomorrow. 

            This is a short blog, but I’ve probably run on too long on some of the other days.   The hotel restaurant is closed (Sunday) but there’s a restaurant close by, and we will probably walk over there for a bite to eat, then just take it easy tonight.  Might even watch the U.S. and Japan in the women’s world cup tonight!

Day 25

            It was quite an interesting day!  We took our time getting going, had breakfast in the hotel (we decided we really miss the breakfasts at the Luther Hotel in Wittenberg!), then headed out for the Residenze Museum in the old city of Munich. 

It was certainly an interesting walk.  We walked along the Maximillianstrasse, which is the equivalent of

Rodeo Drive

in California or the KuDamm in Berlin.  EXPENSIVE!!!  We window-shopped at Cartier, and saw watches priced at €135,000+, and other jewelry that went way up from there.  Dea said the sidewalk in front even smelled rich! 

It was only about a 20 minute leisurely walk to the museum, but do you think we could find the entrance? We almost crashed a wedding party, but were quickly chased out.  Finally someone told us where to look for the entrance.  We chose to visit two parts of the museum, the “treasure house” and the “residence.”  Words cannot describe what we saw:  opulent, overdone, overwhelming, over-the-top, overabundance…   you sort of get the picture.  The Treasury included the crown jewels of Bavaria, all kinds of church stuff, jewels, gold, silver – I can’t even begin to describe it.  We spent at least an hour and a half in there.

Then we did the Residence Museum.  There are 90 rooms open in the palace, out of I think 130 total rooms.  Most are decorated and furnished the way they were 200-500 years ago.  There was significant bomb damage from WWII, but the 90 rooms have mostly been restored to their original appearance, and have been furnished with either the original furniture from the rooms, or copies, or equivalent pieces from other castles.  We thought we were overwhelmed with the Charlottenburg and Sansoucci in Berlin and Potsdam, but they were nothing compared to this.  Really, words just don’t do it!  Besides being overwhelmed, trying to follow the procession of Electors, Kings, and Holy Roman Emperors from the Wittlsbach family (rulers of Bavaria) is pretty nigh impossible without a fat book or a computer!  We spent more than 4 hours working through it, but we saw it all – some parts in detail, some parts just an overview.  They did have the English audio guides, which were both helpful and long-winded.  Had we listened to all the available material, we were told that there is at least five hours worth of commentary.  One can stand only so much description of tapestries, painters, etc.

We finished a bit after 4:00 p.m. and made our way to the square in front of the Neu Rathouse.  While we were waiting, we discovered that the same accordion players were in the square that we heard last night.  They played the same music, but I’m still in awe – they were very good!  Then we just hung around until 5:00, and then listened to the glockenspiel and watched the figures dance in the tower of the Rathaus, celebrating the triumph and independence of the Bavarians.  We had seen this before, and I even have a video of it at home, but it was fun to see it again.

Dea gave in to my desires and agreed to go back to the Hofbrauhaus for supper.  We didn’t go up for the show, but sat in the open-air biergarten.  She had something different from the menu from what she had last night, and said it was very good.  Me?  I have no imagination at all:  bratwurst, sauerkraut, and beer.  Oh, yes, I also had a huge pretzel.

We decided that Munich has a whole different flavor than Berlin or Wittenberg.  Very busy, bustling, active.  It appears to be a much younger city, and the Bavarian tradition is different from generic German.  It has been very interesting to watch the people.  There were quite a few people dressed obviously as Muslims – the women in particular.  Very multi-cultural, and so many bicycles!

Then we walked back to the hotel, and are going to do a little research for tomorrow’s trip, and then just crash for the evening.  It was an overwhelming day!