We awoke to the lovely bells of the Friar's Church near our hotel. It was raining and cold, but eager to see some sights, we dressed in layers and soon, Lysann picked us up at the hotel with her friend, Antje, who came along as navigator and co-pilot. Over the years, we have heard a lot from Lysann about Antje and were very glad to at last meet her. She was delightful company and I hope she will come to visit us someday soon!

We drove the back roads out of Altenburg so that we could see Yvonne's home she and her husband, Dirk, are renovating. Over a century & a half old, the half-timbered house and barns had been neglected, and now their life project is to rebuild it. What a wonderful and interesting place, and when they are finished, it will be a palace for them!

We drove through the countryside to Dresden and, by the time we reached the city, the rain had stopped, but it was a cold day nevertheless. We parked the car near the old city Zentrum (Center) and when we came out of the parking garage, before us was a beautiful sight: the Procession of Princes, an amazing mosaic of Meissen porcelain tiles depicting the history of Dresden from Augustus the Strong to the princes of the 1800s. Amazingly, the firebombing of 1945 destroyed only a few of the tiles.

We then walked to the Hofkirche, a Catholic cathedral built in the mid-1700s by Augustus the Strong when he converted to Catholicism to become King of Poland. When built, Dresden was a protestant city, and in order not to upset the citizens, the builders created a huge walkway around the seated congregants and an upstairs balcony for their processions. Beautiful marble and gilt statues throughout. As we entered, we heard someone playing the beautiful gilt and massive organ, but later figured out it was being tuned for a concert. Still, it was quite impressive.

After leaving the church in awe, we walked to the Opera House, then across the street and up a little way on the Augustusbrucke (Augustus Bridge) over Elbe River to take photos, looking back at the old city. Then we returned to walk up the promenade where we met a few women dressed in white, selling lovely Plauener Spitze lace ornaments to help preserve this traditional handwork. Of course, we bought three.

Cold and dampish, we stopped at a food wagon for some gluhwein (warmed wine with spices) and an original Thuringer Rostbratwurst (Thuringen is the state in Germany where her home is located, rost is roasted, and she made sure the brat truly was made in Thuringen). That brat was so long it stuck out of the loaf of bread it was served in! The town was already setting up for the Weihnachtmarkt, or Christmas Market, and vendors selling wooden ornaments were coming to sell their items. But we waited to buy - we were going to Seiffen instead.

Antje, being a vegetarian, did not partake of our bratwurst, so we looked for a place for her to eat. We slipped into a wonderful restaurant underground, the Pulver Turm, or Gunpowder Tower. It was like eating in a fortification. The wait staff was dressed in costume, and it looked like a medieval fort, stone walls, flags and banners and spears. Antje found a good meal of rigatoni, while Darrel warmed up with Sachsische Kartoffelsuppe, a Saxony potato soup with sausage, and I had the Tagessuppe, soup of the day - a nice cheese soup. Lysann ordered Sachsische Quarkkaulchen, another Saxony specialty of potatoes & curd, fried and rolled in sugar, served with applesauce. Then, to our amazement, we were offered a taste of Dresdner Tricktertrinken, a green schnapps with a cute tale: it is said that Augustus the Strong had a drinking problem, his wife's tears had been collected and turned into this delicious schnapps, but in order to drink faster, Augustus ordered a funnel be used so he could drink it faster. So the green liquor was served to us in tiny little funnels which were placed in a wooden tray, especially built for them. But how to drink it? If we picked it up, we would lose the precious liquid out of the bottom before we could it get to our lips. The waitress explained how, and Antje demonstrated for us - rubs your hands together very quickly, then place your palm over the top of the funnel, pick it up with the other hand and open your mouth. Antje followed the directions perfectly, but nothing came out! It was then we realized it was a joke, (look at the word again: Trickter trinken) and we fell for it, laughing heartily. Then we sipped our "funnels" of schnapps the usual way.

Then we went to see the Church of Our Lady, Frauenkirche, built in 1726 as a protest to Augustus the Strong's conversion to Catholicism. Two days after the firebombing in 1945, the church collapsed completely. The burning of the city produced a huge heat storm of more than 1000 C. The remains of the church lay in a huge heap, unchanged during the GDR period of control, until 1993 when reconstruction finally restored the church to its magnificent beauty. Numbering and cataloging every one of 7,000 pieces of stone, it was possible to rebuild the façade using 45% of the original stone, which can be recognized by their dark patina (part of the effects of the firebombs?) Here, every year on the 13th of February, the citizens of Dresden gather to place candles in memory of those who lost their lives.

Time was moving on, so we left Dresden for Seiffen, up in the hills, near the Czech border. In fact, Darrel's phone rang him to notify him he was now in the Czech Republic. No, Lysann assured us, it was just that we are so near the border. From then on, Darrel teased her - when do we get back to Germany? Interestingly enough, his phone never sent a notification of that!

Seiffen is a little town known for its wooden Christmas decorations. We stopped in a toymaker's shop and saw his workplace, went shopping in several stores, and visited with a lady who was gluing the little pieces of members of a choir together to add to a pyramid windmill that turn from the heat of candles. (photo) After spending our allowances, we stopped in the Holzwurm, or Wood Worm, a darling little restaurant for cocoa, coca cola and some bread spread with fat, in Lysann's words (or lard?) decorated with pickles, tomatoes, onions and carrot. Doesn't sound good? Well, it was very tasty! Sitting next to the olden tile fireplace, we enjoyed our little treat, and then loaded up the car for the drive back to the hotel.

We sat in tour hotel room for a while, as I presented Lysann her Skittles and gifts from home, and we made plans for tomorrow. Hugs and kisses to Antje & Lysann as we said good night. What a lovely day!

TOMORROW: On our own in AltenbUrg (my emphasis) and a trip to Kraschwitz