Day 21-23: Back to Germany

June 6 -- I said a sad "good-bye and see you in four and a half months" to Liam, and we got on a train to Berlin. In Berlin, we switched trains and started heading south. We arrived in Dresden and walked about 20 minutes to our hostel. It was nice to know that it was our last time of hauling our suitcases across town on cobbled stone streets. So far, I have been quite inpressed with the hostels, and this one was also great. We dropped our luggage in the room and took off in the drizzling rain to see as much of Dresden as we could before the downpour that was in the forecast. We walked to the Zwinger, which looks like a palace but was just a cultural meeting place and party central from some kings years and years ago. It has a huge courtyard and four gates each representing a different aspect of culture. The Zwinger was next to the Opera house and the Catholic cathedral and the Royal Palace. The cathedral and the palace are connected by arched bridges so that the royalty could attend church without mixing with the common people. We walked past a role mural the length of a football field, representing all the kings of Dresden. Dresden was almost completely destroyed during the bombings of WW2, but these tiles survived the bombing. Next we saw a mural (eye sore) from the Soviet era. The Protestant church was unfortunately closed by the time we got there, so we couldn't go inside. But it is an amazing building that was rebuilt in the 1990s, after sitting in a pile of rubble for about 50 years. We walked along the Elbe River, and then ate at a restaurant that was a little fancier than we had expected it to be. We walked home with dry rain jackets because the downpour thankfully never materialized.

June 7 -- We picked up our rental car from the airport. It is a bright blue Ford C-Max that fits all our luggage and five people but with not much room to spare. It does feel a little strange to be in Germany yet driving an American car. We drove out of Dresden to Bad Schandau, a little town on the Elbe River next to the Saxon-Switzerland National Park and only 10 kilometers from the Czeck Republic border. We stopped for some lunch at a grocery store and then drove to the Bastei Bridge in the Natural Park. The Bastei Bridge was built in the 1400s out to a castle that was built high above the Elbe River on extremely rugged rock formations. Germany isn't really known for its national parks, but the views rival any national parks in the U.S. We walked around the ruins of the castle for a couple hours. Our hotel for the night was in a tiny village about 11 kilometers outside of Bad Schandau. It was a really cute little hotel (it would be called a bed and breakfast in the U.S.). We drove back in to Bad Schandau and ate at an Italian Restaurant. I had curry turkey pizza and maracuja ice cream.

June 8 -- We couldn't be so close to the Czech Republic without adding that to our list of countries we have been in, so we drove across the border and took pictures with the signs. We didn't drive in too far or stay too long because we didn't want to have to buy a vignette for the car. We left the Czech and headed to Bamberg. It was a 3.5 hour drive with a short stop for lunch at another grocery store. Our hostel in Bamberg is again quite amazing with an awesome view of the Dom (cathedral). It is right in the middle of town, which is convenient for everything other than parking. The car is parked on the side of a street up the road a ways, so hopefully tomorrow it will still be there and without a parking ticket on it. We went to the cathedral (the oldest building I have every been in at over 800 years old) and the rose garden next to the New Residential Palace. Three of us ate very German dinner (schnitzel and sausages) and two ate very non-German dinners (shrimp salad and chicken nuggets). After eating, we walked along the river and saw what is called Little Venice and the Rathaus (town hall) that sits right in the middle of the river to ensure that the ecclesiastical side of the river and the secular side of the river had equal power. We stopped for ice cream, and I got curry banana ice cream. Mmm.