SandCams European Adventure: Day 23 Berlin to Dresden

Our dislike of Germany has continued this morning. We got up at 5.45 and put on yesterday's clothes, dressing in the dark so as not to disturb Nick. His flight back to Paris doesn't leave until midday. We got to the platform in heaps of time as were nervous about our 1st German intercity train experience and how it works. I showed Cam our seat and carriage numbers and when the train arrived we struggled on with our bag...nowhere obvious to put it. Then someone got on and said we were in their seats...we were on the wrong carriage. We jumped off to move 2 carriages forward and the doors locked and we couldn't get back on...not a good feeling as we watched our 6.46am train leave the platform. I was grateful that Cam stayed calm. I left him with our bag and went upstairs to the information desk. The unfriendly lady there told me to go up another floor to the ticket office. Up there I was sent from counter to counter and then told to take a number. Because it was so early my number came up virtually straight away. I told the lady what had happened and she couldn't have cared less. Just said you need to buy another ticket for the next train. I paid up and she gave me a ticket without a smile or thank you. Went back to Cam & we looked at the ticket which was in German but it appeared to say Prague rather than Dresden...so back up to the ticket office...took a number again...and got the same lady. She said she had sold me a ticket to Prague, but I said my original was to Dresden & we have a ticket to Prague the next day. I asked does this train stop in Dresden and she said no. I told her that's no good to me as I have booked a hotel in Dresden, not Prague for tonight, so she reprinted a ticket to Dresden and then tells me it is the same train (so obviously does stop in Dresden) & that it is the same price as going to Prague. Not sure if I've been ripped off or not, but she had no apology. I guess we are lucky we can still get there ok , just 2 hours later.

Cam agrees that Germany is our least favourite place. We have enjoyed Berlin but It doesn't compare to Paris & London.

So we went to our platform (platform 1) in plenty of time. Noticed a woman on the platform with a red wooly hat with DB (the railway company) on it and I said to Cam it would have been good if a helper was there when we missed our earlier train. The sign on the platform had our train number & destination but I decided to double check with the woman since she was standing there. It was only 5 minutes until our scheduled departure. I showed her my ticket and said I'm checking I'm in the right place and she said no go to platform 3 it is leaving from there now... You've gotta be kidding! We had to go up a large flight of stairs (escalator not working) with our heavy suitcase, across to another section of the station & down more stairs. Not a good feeling....and there was our train already. Holy shit we were not impressed. That lady hadn't talked to anyone or told them about the platform change & there were others waiting. We didn't hear any announcements & why would the electronic board still show our train on platform 1?

Got on the train & found our correct seats...sigh!

Very relieved that we have the compartment to ourselves so room for our suitcase. Other seats are reserved but people must be getting on after Dresden (the first stop in 2 hours).

The train goes all the way to Budapest via Prague.

Looks like a grey dreary day in Berlin today, so we timed it right to move on.

The scenery between Berlin & Dresden was not that exciting. Brown fields, some forests with leafless trees, and a few wind turbines.

Saw a few houses & buildings as we got near Dresden, but not a lot.

We had a good 10 minute walk to our hotel from the station past a lot of shops....lots of gorgeous good brand shoes here but not enough time to try on and no room in our bag. It's going to kill me when I see the quality brands in the shops at home for hundreds of dollars and I've had to walk past them here. Anyway we got to our hotel and things got better - our room was ready straight away & it's lovely. Possibly the best yet and it's the cheapest of our trip. The sun had also come out for us and beautiful blue sky. The view from our room was also lovely...

We are just on the edge of the old town of Dresden, which of course was what we had come to see. We had a few notes from Internet searches of what to see, so headed off in the general direction. We quickly came upon a gorgeous museum building with massive courtyard - this was the Zwinger -a must see.

It dates back to early 18th century & is baroque style, which I love! It was all on a very grand scale and felt special to just be able to wander at our leisure with not many other tourists.

Would love just one of the statues in my yard. As we arrived the clock tower chimed ...very cool.

We climbed the steps and walked around the circumference of the Zwinger admiring the views.

We didn't have time to go in the museums here but it is famous for the building rather than its museums. From here we just kept coming across one magnificent building after the other. The old town covers quite a large area and everything about it is beautiful. Even the less grand buildings have a quaintness to them.

We walked past the Semper Opera House on Theatreplatz, with a black statue of Johann on a horse.

We then walked past the Royal Palace & a wall with a procession of Princes on it (made of 25,000 porcelain tiles).

We were getting hungry by now so chose a traditional looking restaurant called Kurfurstenschanke for lunch.

There was a board outside with a picture of some potato rosti & some kind of meat that looked nice so we decided to both order this...along with a beer (cheaper than soft drinks & soda water). It came & Cam gobbled his down.

The rosti was delicious but I wasn't keen on the taste of the meat. The texture was fine but it had a strange aftertaste. When we left we checked the menu board and it said we had rosti with geflugelleber...we googled it and it said some sort of poultry which seemed wrong... Googled further & realised we had eaten chicken livers! I'm impressed with Cam... He thought it was ok except a bit grainy.

We then went back to the palace & paid to enter the Traditional Green Vault - the treasure chamber of the Saxon Prince Electors. We weren't allowed to take jackets or bags in here and so we were charged for the cloakroom as well as our entry fee. We had to go throught some doors into some sort of scanner chamber before we could enter the vault. The vault is full of objects of gold, silver & precious stones & metals along with lots of Ivory. It was over the top fancy and ostentatious....so many large diamonds, rubies & gold that they almost looked fake. The rooms were also super fancy with gold and gilt everything and mirrors galore. We had audio guides to listen to but they gave too much detail at times. It was incredible but not really Cam's thing.

We went through the scanner process again to get out & then moved on to Frauenkirche Church. It was another lovely church and though it said no cameras, taking photos was what everyone was doing.

We then paid to go up the top of the dome. This started with the luxury of a lift, but you still had to go most of the way up stairs and ramps. When we got to the the view was spectacular - such a pretty city!

Every angle was interesting.

Next we walked along the river bank taking in the old town views from different places.

The river itself looks relatively dirty ..but from the distance looks lovely.

We walked across the bridge to have a look at the new town. Nothing that special over there compared to the old town and we were starting to get sore feet from all the walking by now, so we went back to the old town. We saw an archeological site that was interesting & then wandered towards our hotel.

We decide to stop in a less touristy area to have some cake.

I had a delicious berry cake (light & fluffy) & Cam chose a Toscana-Torte which had a bit of everything in it...sponge, cherries, marzipan, liqueur cream & chocolate...divine & not too sweet.