Paris - Day 4

Oh, our last day in Paris. We fly tomorrow back the states. We decided to get up early and catch a quick breakfast at Mc Dees before heading out. I was seriously looking forward to a sausage biscuit and those hockey pucks they call hash browns. We get there super early so as not to miss it (like we did the day before) and when I try to order the sausage biscuit, she tells me 'sorry, only breakfast items.' I am a bit confused so I try to order the hash browns and she says the same thing. The only thing they have on their breakfast menu is a bacon, cheese, egg biscuit and pancakes. Two small pancakes... Grrr. What is it with the tiny breakfast here? How can you possibly start a day with only a croissant and coffee?

After Mc Cheese we head to the Louvre to finish what we started on Friday. We have the first floor and second floor remaining. The paintings are housed on these levels, we primarily saw sculptures and other non-painting items before. The main attraction of course is the Mona Lisa. The photo taking rules changed since Alan was last at the Louvre two years ago. You can now take photos in the galleries housing the paintings, but no flash (right...). In the room with the Mona Lisa the regular crowd surrounds it. Everyone is taking photos, even people who only have cell phones. Alan went for the challenge shot of taking a photo of someone taking a cell phone photo of the Mona Lisa, so that you can see both the image on their phone and the real thing at the same time. Who takes a cell phone photo of the Mona Lisa... really?

We see more lovely Egyptian items, more sculptures, Napoleon the III's apartment, and then we reach a point when 'art goes stupid.' I do not claim to know art or even a tiny bit about art but I do know that a soiled mattress, shiny bug bodies, and part of a spine does not art make. Real nice Louvre. Love how you put it in with the Dutch paintings and not in with the French.

The Louvre completed, we headed to a different part of town for a bit of shopping. We headed to brand name lane and find giddy girls, high heals, and even higher price tags. We stopped in at Chanel and after a tiny purchase, we run like mad back to normal land. We found refuge in the hotel and rested a bit after the morning jaunt around the Louvre.

A trip to Paris cannot be complete without a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower. We headed out late in the afternoon with fresh cherries, a chunk of Camembert, a fresh baguette, a bottle of champagne, and a strawberry tart for dessert. We find space in the shade and spend the rest of the afternoon shooing pigeons and doing yoga in front of the Eiffel Tower. The park is amazing. There are tons of flowers, trees, and of course a view of a brilliant architectural feat.

The final item on our to do list was to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We decided to take the elevator having climbed so many stairs in so many places in so many cities. The wait in line was short and soon we zoomed up in the first elevator, which is at a slant. You have to change elevators at the second level so as we were in line to go to the top we got a chance to see the views. Even from the second level you can see so much. We get in a huge elevator and are again whisked up, this time to the tip top. We stepped out of the elevator and ran up a short flight of stairs to the open air viewing and saw a breathtaking view of Paris as the sun was about to set. Paris is truly beautiful and the amazing shade of pink cannot be explained, it must be seen. There were a lot of people but we wormed our way to the front to watch the sun set.

It turns out that there is a champagne bar on top of the tower. It also turns out that we happened upon a high school tour group at the top. It didn't take them long to figure out that they were of drinking age and soon some of them were paying quite a premium for a tiny amount. We had a good laugh as we watched them. It wasn't so funny later when we had to follow some of them down the stairs and listen to them try to claim they weren't a bit tipsy.

As we descended, we were lucky enough to be a part of the first round of sparkle lights. Every hour on the hour for about 10 minutes, hundreds of bright lights twinkle randomly up and down the tower while large blue-purple lights shine constantly on the tower making it glow. We could see this from our hotel room at night but it was even cooler to be on the tower, to see the lights up close, and hear the crowds cheer from below. To come from a town where our biggest tourist attraction is a large pit of acid water left over from strip mining, it is definitely humbling to experience something so beautiful.

We ended our final day in Paris at a tiny crepe stand in front of the tower. There was a merry-go-round filled with mostly adults and a couple of guys sketching portraits. I could not decide what crepe to get so I splurged and had two.

Paris - Day 3

First stop today was the catacombs... very interesting from an historical standpoint and also very sad/morbid. There are bones from millions (!) of Parisians down there, transferred from cemeteries all over.

Next, we headed to Rue Mouffetard, supposedly the oldest street in Paris. There, we found a lively street market. We picked up baguettes from the famous Les Panetons bakery, some cheese from a Fromagerie, and a smoothie from a smoothie stand and headed to the nearby park for a picnic.

From there, we headed to the Musee de Rodin, which is apparently the residence where Rodin lived later in life. It was a state owned apartment that he was able to live in rent free because he agreed to leave his art to the state. It houses many of his most famous pieces such as The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, and The Kiss.

Nearby is the Dome Church, and our Paris Museum Pass gets us in for free so we dropped in to check it out. The Dome Church houses Napoleon's remains. Yes, that's a huge coffin, but the little guy is encased in six coffins, though we're not sure why (maybe to make him look big?).

We headed to the Arc de Triomphe next, which is a very impressive monument at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. From the top, we survey Paris, from the Eiffel Tower, to the Louvre, to the skyscrapers in La Defense. There was some kind of ceremony going on with the Tomb of the Unknown soldier there, and the police folks didn't like us trying to move around the arc to take pictures of the massive statues.

We took a nighttime climb up the towers of the cathedral of Notre Dame. We saw the sparkly lights from the Eiffel tower (hourly) from afar. After climbing down the steps, we found some quick dinner and near the end of our meal the Euro2008 final game finished with Spain beating Germany 1-0. Even though we were in France, there were tons of fans celebrating immediately. The same honking, yelling, and other behavior that has followed us from Dresden, to Venice, to Juelich/Cologne, has followed us here to Paris.

We took a stroll through the Latin Quarter, got some crepes, and wandered about. There's quite a bit going on there on a Sunday night. Still, the fans of Spain were all over, and when we returned to the Metro stop, we saw that the fans were all over in the fountain of Saint Michel (Fontaine Saint-Michel). Three police officers were right behind us as we watched, but they didn't seem to care.

Paris - Day 2

Morning of day two starts at a little cafe down the street from our hotel. We had to pass 2 other places before we found a place that had more than a pastry and coffee to eat. Apparently they are not big on the Brails-styled breakfast here. Tasty hot chocolate, fresh orange juice, ham, eggs, toast, and crepe with jam and we are ready for a day of Museum d' Orsay and of few other things.

As you can see from the pictures, the museum has a nice collection of statues and paintings. There were two Van Gogh self portraits, a lovely Monet, and of course Young Dancer of Fourteen (1881) by Edgar Degas. The museum itself was great, it was once a train station. You could see the center area with most of the sculptures as you moved from level to level and there were giant clocks from several views.

After the museum, we headed to Notre Dame. We were able to see the outside but the inside was closed until 4:30 for priestly ordinations. A tiny cramp in our style but we made the most of it by moving on to the flower market (Marché aux Fleurs), Sainte Chapelle, and Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. The flower market is one of the last remaining and it smelled lovely. Shakespeare and Co. was a bit difficult to find and even more disorganized than Smith Family by the UO campus. I had just finished A Moveable Feast by Hemingway and wanted to pick up a copy of Fiesta or The Sun Also Rises as it is known in the US. Sainte Chapelle proved impressive. We have seen a lot of churches while traveling but this definitely had the most stained glass windows. The pictures do not do it justice.

After Sainte Chapelle we still had a bit of time before they opened Notre Dame so we decided to swing by the Crypte Archéologique. It is about 400 ft underground and shows the remains of walls of a settlement of the Parisii, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the island about 2000 years ago. This is how Paris got its name. It is quite an interesting display and there was no line to get in.

After the crypt, we headed to the line for Notre Dame. It moved fast even though it was stretched pretty far out. The church is pretty popular and feels nothing like a church. There is visible confession, a concession stand of trinkets, and even a machine to make a medallion to prove you were there. It was all a bit silly. The church itself is quite large but not as impressive, in my opinion, as the Kölner Dom. We wanted to climb to the top of Notre Dame but the line was really long. We decided to wait until Monday and maybe some of the weekend tourists would be gone.

Paris - Day 1

We began the day in Juelich with the regular breakfast. We had time to catch the bakery before our (free, lab provided) shuttle to the Aachen train station. We got pretzels, rolls, and some meat with mustard for the train ride. The weather was cool in Juelich, even cooler in Aachen, a welcome feeling.

From Aachen, it's a 3 hour train ride to Paris on the Thalys line. Once in Paris, it didn't take long to reach our hotel on the RER lines, though it's too bad only one ticket machine was working at the north train station (grr...). From our room you can see the top half of the tower itself! It's very exciting because at night, on the hours, all sorts of flashy lights light up all over the tower, and then there are colored ones that stay on for longer periods of time (we would wake up during the night and see that the tower is blue).

It was still afternoon, so we decided to use the remainder of our day to check out a museum. Luckily, the Louvre is open until 10pm on Fridays, so we headed there. We both picked up 4-day Paris Museum passes and headed into the giant museum. During our first visit, we scoured the first and second floors, where all of the sculptures are. There are amazing pieces from all over the world, stretching from Egyptian to Iranian to European.

After completing the first two floors (two more to go), we headed out to find a crepe. Not too far from the Louvre, we found a small cafe where we got a camembert sandwich, french fries, and a couple of crepes. Yum!

Jülich - Day 2

Alan headed off to work again so I am posting about my day, which is probably more interesting for you all to read about. :)

I headed outside to explore more and right outside the hotel I found it was market day! Not quite Saturday market Eugene but it did make me smile. Fresh fruit and veggies, candy, breads, fresh meat and fish, flowers, and a people. I picked up some fruit for the train ride to Paris and a few other treats and continued on to take pictures.

As I walked, the church bells rang. It is a small church but it still has some clang to it. Every half hour and every hour here you hear something. If it isn't the church, it is the metal tree with bells in further down the road. If it isn't the bells, then their is a Euro Cup 2008 game on. (Yep, tonight it was Spain vs. Russia.) After walking for several hours, I decided to find lunch. I stopped in at this bakery/meat counter place and spent a good couple hours eating slowly and watching the goings on. Wow, there were a lot of customers. They had about 6 ladies working out front, two in back cooking up stuff, and one more behind the bread counter. I was there a couple hours and lost track of how many people came in. Schnitzel, potato salad, and sausages were the main sellers.

The bread has been really tasty, I have had a couple of tasty pretzels. The meat situation is very interesting. Crazy stuff in the case and I could only understand some of what it was. I can tell they are not afraid of gelatin here though. There was this vegetable/egg mix in gelatin that a couple of people bought. I had to get a picture of it because it looked so strange. The other funny thing is that they handle everything with their bare hands (and arms). One of the ladies just kept walking out of the back with sausage links strung all over her arms.

Not much else in Jülich today. Tomorrow we take a train to Paris.

Jülich - Day 1

We got in really late to Köln and a driver met us there to take us to the hotel in Jülich. He didn't wear a seat belt and at one point the speedometer reached 190 km. As I looked out the window I was pretty sure it was really fast but I was a bit too tired to do the conversion. I googled it later and it said 118 mph. I hope my eyes were deceiving me.

The cornflakes followed us again as did the rest of the granola, yogurt, meat slices and cheese. The hotel is in the center of town and the town is small so you can walk pretty much any where. Alan headed to the lab after breakfast and I wandered around on my own.

First up was the fortress and moat. Apparently it was designed so that the cannons at the time couldn't reach across the moat. By the time it was finished, the Baron who commissioned it was out of money and the shots could easily get across the moat. Poor fellow.

Alan and I met at the hotel at 2:00 and we caught a train to Köln to visit Stephan, a friend from Eugene that moved back to Germany after grad school. The first train to Düren was small , only two cars (Rurtalbahn). It is neat that they have such connectivity between the little towns though. We arrived in Düren and waited for our next train but it never arrived. We caught a train a half hour later and finally arrived in Köln. As we boarded, the entrances were packed with German fans (young fans) drinking and singing. This was not the first time we have experienced fans of Euro Cup 2008. We also were in Italy when they played Spain. The mood the following morning was telling of their loss. Anyway, we met Stephan a the steps of the Kölner Dom and he mentioned that he asked about the other train and apparently it had been canceled.

The Kölner Dom is incredible! We climbed to the top first. Yes, climbed. There is no elevator and it is a spiral staircase, 509 steps and 321 feet off the ground. The views were of course amazing and one can understand why it took over 600 years to build. There is so much detail. After a dizzying decent, we stopped inside the Dom and happened upon the orchestra and choir practicing for the night's concert of The War Requiem. We could not have been there at a better time. The sound was magical.

After the Dom, we ventured to the Lindt Chocolate Museum. It was closed, early, so that folks could watch the Germany vs. Turkey game. It was interesting to see the excitement for the game as we were in a German town with a significant Turkish population. We did get a chance to visit the chocolate store even though the museum was closed so we walked away pretty happy with some treats.

Dinner time brought us to the Kölsch brew house. The food is incredible. This was by far the best meal we had in Germany. Sausage and cutlets of meat with fried egg on top, fried potatoes, and a cabbage salad. Mmm...

After dinner it was time for us to head back to the train station and Jülich. We wandered the streets a bit more and watched the German and Turkish fans as the game started. A little bit of gelato, a couple short train rides, and a short walk later and we reached the hotel. Funny, even in tiny Jülich they were out in mass to watch the game. Our hotel has a pub connected to it and they were showing the game on numerous tvs, screens, and multiple speakers. Even with our windows closed we knew that Germany had won the game. There was fireworks and celebration all night. Go Deutschland!!

Venice - Day 5

Our last day in Venice :( We ate our traditional breakfast at the hotel and then ventured out to catch the remaining sites and do a little souvenir shopping. First, we went to Saint Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco), which amazingly only charged money to go upstairs to see the view from the top as well as the four bronze horses they stole from Constantinople (the ones visible outside are replicas).

The churches and most museums do not allow photography, but these rules are blatantly ignored and few even bother to turn off the flash on their camera. We saw some folks taking some pictures, with flash, and saw the security guard approach, but all he did was shake his radio at them and then move on, at which point they resumed the photo-shoot.

After visiting the basilica, we crossed the square to the Campanile, the large tower where Galileo demonstrated to the Doge. These days it has an elevator to the top (the tower itself was rebuilt after the collapse in 1902). The views from the top were spectacular, and you can see pretty much everything in Venice and beyond. Oddly, the line to get down was longer than the line to get up. We wanted to get down before the bells ring at the top of the hour, deafening everyone up there.

On the way to our next destination, we found refuge from the sweltering heat in a relic from our homeland, Mckee Dees. There, we acheived the glorious feat of getting ice water (well, ice in a cup, and we added our own water). We also got some salty fries (very tasty).

Next, we headed to the church, St. Mary of the Friars (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari), which was closed for a wedding the first time we stopped by. It was quite, peaceful, and ornate, but not so extravagant and decadent as St. Mark's Basilica. For example, the entire ceiling wasn't a solid gold mosaic.

Right next to the church was the super-thin crust pizza place we ate at on our first full day in Venice. We filled up on water (twice, before and after). On the way back, we stopped in at mask and glass stores and picked up a few choice items here and there.

We made our way back to the hotel to grab our bags (we had already checked out), and waited a few minutes before heading to the Alilaguna water bus stop. We braved the heat and humidity once more aboard the extremely slow water bus to the airport (it's either this, or a 95 euro minimum water taxi).

Venice - Day 4

A day trip today to Lake Garda. We first took a vaperatto to the train station and then took a train 2 hours to Desenzano Del Garda. On the train we passed through Padua, Vincenza, and Verona. Once we arrived in Desenzano, we walked from the train station to the harbor to take the steamer to Sirmione, stopping only to grab an orange and some powerade from a little corner market. Walking toward what we think is the way, we stopped a young woman and asked her the way to the boats and she said in perfect English "the problem is that I do not speak English very well." She did explain the way and we made it in time to catch the next steamer.

The steamer was quick, only 10 minutes. Once at Sirmione we were able to wander the streets and view the castle. We grabbed some pizza and gelato too. There were cars here, a few cool old ones but mainly just locals driving. The castle is the Rocca Scaligera. The Roman poet Catullus, born 84 BC, owned a villa there. We walked along the lake and I actually walked barefoot in the water. The water was quite warm. The color of the water here is a tad more blue than the Venice green than we were used to seeing. We strolled back to the steamer dock after strolling for about 2 hours. While we waited we fed Pringles to the sparrows. They will eat right out of your hand!

After the steamer and another 2 hour train ride after an hour delay, we grabbed a quick dinner of spaghetti and pizza. We ate outside at a place where the owner tried to tell us that air conditioning is bad for your lungs but we were pretty sure he meant bank account. One thing to note about Venice restaurants, they have a cover charge. The charge you to sit at their table. It is a per person charge, usually a couple euro. They also add a service charge that is not gratuity. It ranges from 12-16% as far as we can tell. Well... I do not have much more to say about that right now.

After a roasty day and dinner, we headed back to the room for sleep and much needed air conditioning.

Venice - Day 3

Today we took advantage of the deal the Hotel has with a glass maker on the famous island of Murano. We took a private taxi from the Hotel's dock straight to the dock of the Murano Gallery glass makers where we were met by one of the staff who spoke very good English. He gave us a full tour of the furnace and showroom, and a demonstration of the glass making technique, both blown and sculpted.

After exploring the rest of the island, we took the Vaporetto back to our island and took a break from the heat in our hotel room. Later that afternoon, we ventured out for dinner, gelato, and a night time stroll through the town, including San Marco Piazza, which is quite nice at night. The restaurants each have musicians set up in the square just outside their place. It's a battle of the bands, except that they are not amplified, so you can really only hear the one at your own restaurant.

All around town, people were watching the Italy v. Spain game. It was blasting out of ev building. Unfortunately, it hosed our dinner experience too. We had gone to Trattoria Giorgione, the only restaurant so far in the DK guidebook. The meal started out just dandy, albeit with a snippy waitress. Once the food arrived, we were quite pleased too. I had Gnoccichetta, and Misty had a seafood spaghetti dish. But then the owner arrived, who appeared as what I described as "the classic fat Italian bastard." His first order of business was to turn the AC off (can't waste any money), then he sat down at the table next to us with a dish of risotto and the remote control. The Italy v. Spain game wasn't on yet, but he blasted the volume (is he deaf?). We now had heat and noise through the rest of the meal and to top it off, when we got the check (from him, not the waitress) it was the illegibly hand-written kind that the guidebook says is illegal. Awesome... no tip for you...

Venice - Day 2

After a good amount of sleep, we got up and ready for breakfast and a day of exploring Venice. The cornflakes followed us from Germany, along with the fresh fruit and yogurt. Cold meats and cheeses were offered but they did not smell. They also have packaged biscuits and cookies. And seriously, who doesn't love a place that has cake on the breakfast buffet? A dense yellow cake with a paper thin chocolate top. The chocolate wasn't frosting or glaze, it was like it was baked in.

The hotel person gave us a map and circled a couple places where we could see masks being made and other cool buildings, like churches and palaces. Venice is compact and the distance to walk is not far but it is easy to get lost and we spent a lot of time stopping in shops. We decided to walk in the early morning and then spend time inside the various museums and places in the late afternoon when the temperatures are the highest.

We started walking along the route that the hotel person gave us and even that early the heat was amazing. We both bought hats (very touristy) and I also bought a fan. Those and the sunblock were very helpful. We walked for about 3 hours just enjoying the paths and crazy stores. The amount of glass and masks with costumes are unbelievable. Carnival happens right after lent and still they sell stuff to tourists year round. Some of the masks are glass and you see the same style in multiple places but we did get lucky enough to see some leather masks.

After a quick stop at a chocolate store (yes it is still early in the morning), we stopped in a smaller church (S. Polo) and enjoyed the cool air while we wondered about what it would have been like to be at the church in times past. It is strange to see how much detail, time, and effort has gone into Venice. It is surprisingly clean and there are dogs that just wander the streets but they are really quiet and seem friendly.

We happened upon a small music museum that was free and housed really nice instruments (violins, cellos, and some combination of a violin and wind instrument that obviously went the way of the dodo from how complicated it looked). The place had some connection to Vivaldi but we are not sure what at this time. We will have to look that up.

It is here that we find gelato and pizza. In that order of course. We decided to grab a quick bite after we cannot get into the St. Mary of the Friars (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari) because of a private wedding (lots of weddings happening here, this is the third we have seen in 2 days). The gelato here is soooooo good. Very soft and lots of flavor. The pizza is indescribable. Huge slices with thin crust with yummy cheese and spicy, thin, crispy pepporoni. Oh my. Tasty enough for 2 slices each!

We stopped in at the Academy Gallery (Gallerie dell'Accademia) and looked at the beautiful paintings. The color on some of the paintings is unbelievable. The technique to make some of the clothes look iridescent is really cool. The place was cool but not air conditioned. One thing to note about this place is that the women's rest room should be avoided (no toilet seat, no toilet paper, no soap, and no hand dryer or towels). This museum is lovely and the paintings are a treat to see, they should use some of the entrance fee (6,50 euro/person) to work on the rest room situation.

A bit more walking and we ended up back at San Marco Square and we headed to the Doge's palace. There were no lines so we were able to walk right in. Wow. The palace is extremely extravagant. Words cannot describe the detail of the place. We walked through the Doge's apartment as well as where the real work got done. The Court of 40, the Bridge of Sighs, and of course the prisons. Every ceiling in the apartment shined gold (is it real?) and the murals are massive. Crazy. The Bridge of Sighs is where individuals crossed before going to their cell. I am not sure why but a coworker wanted me to think of her as I crossed it... hm. She doesn't strike me as someone who would end up in a cell but it did make me smile when I thought of her.

After the Doge's opulent Palace, we needed to calm our eyes and brains so we decided to eat at San Giorgio, which has a lovely view of the Canal and Venice. A couple of Bellinis, a Quattro Formagi pizzette, and a giant plate of Spaghetti alla Carbonara and we just sat and watched people walk by as the sun was setting. This place is so unreal!

After dinner, Alan took me for a sunset gondola ride. Our gondolier was an older gentleman, very charming, who hummed, whistled, and sang as we glided along the water ways were we had walked all day. Gondolas are only used by tourists (and Venetians on their wedding day) but seeing the remnants of old house docks and the decor that once was from the water side was bitter sweet. Oh, to have seen it in its day.

Venice - Day 1

We got up in the wee hours of the morning (4am) to make our way to our second destination, Venice. We hopped on the train at Dresden Mitte, to the main station, then got on the IC to Berlin. From there, we take a bus (Bus TXL) to Tegal airport. Things went smoothly overall. TUIFly, though offering rock bottom prices, had good service. Air traffic at San Marco airport caused a one hour delay in our departure from Berlin, which we unfortunately spent sitting on the tarmac. Misty and I had our own row of three seats to stretch out on, so it wasn't that bad.

From San Marco, we picked up our luggage (yes, they made us check them), grabbed some pizza (yes, real Italian pizza!), and walked to the water bus dock. The water bus is very slow, since it slows down for every other boat passing it (the water taxis just speed by with their maniac captains, no wonder they cost 95 euro minimum). Still, the views from the water are incredible (as is the green water color itself).

Our hotel is barely a stones throw from the Arsenale dock. The room is small, but elegant, and impressed us both. We'd had enough of the modern art version of a hotel room that we'd had in Dresden.

After settling in at the hotel, we took a stroll to San Marco Plazza, stopping in at shops along the way to look at masks and other Venice favorites. By the time we walked back, it was dinner time and we ate pasta and salad at a genuine Italian restaurant (in Venice!).

Dresden - Day 5

For our last day in Dresden, we decided to take it easy. That was sort of the idea the day before, but unexpected running and bombs made that difficult. We began the morning by taking the tram to Neustadt to stroll around and grab some food for breakfast the next day (milk and corn flakes).

I headed to the conference to meet with folks while Misty headed down to the coffee shop to knit. We met up for a nice lunch with my friend and colleague, Phil. For the afternoon, we took the trams around town to try to see some more sights. Yet again, we are here a few years early as the Albertinum, hosting the new master's gallery is closed until at least 2009. Oh well, so we headed down to the Kruezkirche, found a cold apple drink (with ice) from a friendly Subway and then headed back to the hotel.

We ate close by at an italian place (practially inside the hotel) and then packed up and went to bed, preparing for our 5am pull-out the next day.

Dresden - Day 4

Well, after Days 1-3 what could we possibly need to do? Day 3 really wore me out so we decided to take a leisure trip up the Elbe on a steamboat. The river was lovely and during the 1 1/2 hour trip we saw castles, canoes, bicyclists, and birds. We also had a cup of tea and some apple cake with a side of french fries. We knew that we had hit the jackpot when the brought ketchup AND mayonaisse with the fries.

The destination of the trip was to the Palace at Pillnitz. A vacation/summer residence for Saxon royalty. It has several buildings, multiple gardens, several museums, and they even grow oranges there. For photos of the steamboat ride and the palace, you can visit our picture page. We did eat lunch at their restaurant, which was cafeteria style. The food was tasty and we sat on a patio with lots of little birds and big umbrellas. After a couple hours of wandering amongst the extravagance, we headed back with 15 minutes to spare in catching the steamboat. Of course, I realized I have misplaced my camera lens lid and we ran back to find it where we think we left it. After searching and then checking in at the pottery store, we found that a kind person has turned it in there and we ran with 4 minutes left to catch the steamboat. Nothing like a last minute rush to the finish!

As we boarded the steamboat, the guys punching tickets tried to explain that we had a stop in a town on the way back to Dresden. No one spoke English but we figured it was normal and didn't think anything of it. About half way back, one of the boat staff approached us (only us) and asked if we spoke only English. Then he proceeded to say "they have found a bomb in the water, this is no joke, yes?" Apparently we were making a stop for an undetermined amount of time in some tiny town until they figured out this bomb thing. Well, that is interesting isn't it? We get off with most of the other passengers and follow a group of interesting looking high school students to the tram so we can get back to Dresden. We found the tram stop and figured out the ticket machine (again, people here have no concept of a line). We hopped on and zipped back to Dresden. The tram was a great way to see the little spots along the way. It is also cool just to have access to quick transportation.

When we got back to the hotel we searched for news on the bomb and found nothing recent. We found a lot on the bombing from the war though. We still aren't sure what the bomb thing was all about. A nap and a quiet dinner at an Irish pub ended the day.

Day 5 will be our last full day in Dresden. We have a few more things to see and then we take a train to Berlin and a plane to Venice. Tschüss!