By Linda Thalman & Pierre Nagel |
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Sunday, 7 June 2009
Linda has a last cup of coffee and... We are finally off; it's 9 am. This is, almost, the beginning of the 15,000 kilometer BIG trip around the Baltic. We rolled out of the driveway and did a U-turn one kilometer down the road to pick up a laptop charger before really starting off. We zipped along the autoroute heading for Metz and into Germany. Germany We stopped at the UNESCO heritage site in Volklingen Hutte. By chance admission was free that day... perhaps because it was the first Sunday of the month? Previously vibrant iron works have been turned into an unusual museum. The huge industrial equipment, furnaces, rail tracks reminded us of the computer game called Myst. It was eerie and full of rusting iron, boilers, pipes, furnaces. In one section we even had to put on plastic hard hats. Finishing our first day having done over 700 kilometers, mostly in the rain on the Autobahn once we'd hit Germany, we arrived on time: 18:00 in Neuhof for the night at Hotel Schutzenhof. A bucolic Spraziergang, a walk in a park just two minutes from the hotel got the kinks out of our legs. Then a lovely Spargel, asperagus-themed evening meal with lovely red and wine German wine by the glass was perfect. Monday, 8 June 2009
An hour's drive on the Autobahn and we were at the amazing UNESCO heritage site: Wartburg Castle just outside of Eisenach. Our tour was at 9:50 - in German and we were given a brochure in English. It's a bit tedious to listen to a tour in a language you don't know. My German was slowly coming back so most of the time I was able to follow the story and reading the German, French or English information boards filled in missing vocabulary for the tour. It is a stiff walk up from the parking lot, but there is a shuttle bus as well. There are beautiful views of the Thuringian countryside and walking trails that go as far as Budapest Hungary if you're really up for a hike. Cost: 5 euros parking and 8 euros each for the entrance fee. The castle dates back to the early 1100s but the restoration has been to such a high standard that one almost can't quite believe how old it is. There's little furniture and few objects to look at. But, the glass mosaic tiled Elisabeth Bower, probably the women's quarter, dating from medieval times and the dining hall with its wooden-beam ceiling from trees felled between 1159 and 1162 are stunning. The huge banquet hall is the most beautiful room with three chimneys, a paneled ceiling from the 19th-century restoration period and marble-like column shafts in the arcades add up to a very impressive end to the tour. Weimar is the prettiest town! Lunch at the Schwarzen Baren on the Markt Platz and a pleasant stroll around the compact old town and along the Ilm River took about an hour and a half including a stop for coffee and sour cherry cake. Mmmmm good and the Sauerkirsch Torte is a local specialty. Then 200 kilometers more along the freeway and we reached Dresden. First travel challenge... the hotel didn't have us on the reservation list... who knows why... and the inn was fully booked. Disaster was averted and we checked into a lovely bed and breakfast just down the road. Parking, free wifi, breakfast included: 73 euros per night per room. Run by a Russia couple, it's a beautiful, calm, recently built house of the highest standard, with a patio and garden to relax in. Located along the Elba River east of the city center, it is a haven of peace.
Villa Am Walschlosscen
Germany has been great fun: lots of rain and wurst. On Wednesday as the rain continued intermittently while we were visiting various Dresden museums, we had to take refuge in the special sculpture expo combining the best of the Dresden and Prado collections of Greek and Roman statues. This was taking place in the Japanese Palace across the river. To get there we took a rickshaw taxi to avoid getting soaked. Then the museum guide (a women from Ohio) suggested we visit the famous city of Meissen on the Elbe to the north. So in the afternoon we took the local train and visited Meissen. Tuesday, 9 June 2009
From the guesthouse we used the efficient tram into town, getting off at the Zwinger Teig and had wonderful views of the moat, castle walls and the impressive courtyard. But why or why was the physics/mathematics section of the museum in renovation until 2010? We'd come especially to visit that part of the museum. Next time, I guess. Thunder, lightening and into a cafe we went. Another museum we wanted to see was closed on Tuesday - just like in Paris... reminder: the Louve is also closed on Tuesdays. So we took a rickshaw electrically aided bicyle to the Japanese Palais which was open on Tuesday. The exhibit was ever so nicely presented and the rain had stopped while we visited. It was a special sculpture exhibit combining the best of the Dresden and Prado collections of Greek and Roman statues.
What a lovely visit we had. 14 euros round trip for two on the quietest, modern suburban train to the porcelain capital of Saxony. We didn't buy any porcelain, but we had a nice walk up to the Albertsberg castle and down again. It's a delightful castle with views on the red tiled roofs of Meissen. The return trip to Dresden took less than 30 minutes, and then the tram back to our B&B. We went into town by tram for dinner in the Neustadt, or new town, which is actually not that new. Apparently it is even older than the 'old town', but it seems a lot newer and slightly trendy. We found great ambiance and lousy service at a restaurant that doesn't merit mention in a most interesting artistic passage. They forgot our drinks, couldn't bring bread to the table next to us until the client's 3rd request and it was really ages until we got our wine and food. No tip for those folks. Elbe Valley & Saxony Wednesday, 10 June 2009
We took the car. What was meant as a two-hour trip took all day as we discovered "Swiss Sex" (Saechisen Schweiz) and its special rock formations and Schlosses [castles]. Swiss Saxony is named so by Swiss folks who felt at home in this part of Germany, which for them was reminiscent of the Swiss Jura region and not the Swiss Alps. Deep dark hardwood forests, the meandering Elbe river, quaint villages, the imposing fortress Furstberg which we didn't visit; then lunch in the spa town, Bad Schanau. We stopped at Bastei national park with unusual geology. Without haste we headed for Piltniz Castle. Three euros for parking right at the entrance and a stroll down to the Elba and through the large garden courtyard with views of the palaces - water and berg - with strikingly Chinese influence. The roofs sloped oddly and the facade decorations were clearly Chinese in influence. Ever so odd for 18/19th century German castles. Our evening meal back in Dresden on the banks of the Elba, which is a UNESCO protected area, was at a biergarten with postcard perfect views on the old city. Sunset was about 21:30 and the city lights came up... what views! To summarize so far we have been to: Saarland: Volklingen, Hessen: Neuhof-Fulda, Thuringia: Eisenach-Wartburg, Weimar, Saxony: Dresden, Meissen.
Baltic Trip By Linda Thalman And Pierre Nagel
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Sunday morning Boullay les Troux, France. First we go to the mairie
to vote. Don't forget there are 27 candidate lists in our region!
We're heading for Dresden, stopping first in Wartburg and in Weimer.
Our visit all around the Dresden's old town was on foot and my feet were suffering from a blister and a swollen ankle.
Long live quaint cobblestone streets.
Deidre from the museum suggested taking the train from Neustadt train station to Meissen for the afternoon.
On the last day in Dresden, we were dilly dallying, and although initially we were going to rent bicycles to ride down
the southern stretch of the Elbe to the pretty Schloss Pilnitz, we were dissuaded by the continuing random rainy downpours.
Paris