Back to Dresden Part 3

Our trip was starting to wind down.  Just a few more days.  We were not in a hurry to get from place to place anymore, it was nice.  We woke up and ate the breakfast we had got the night before and caught the streetcar back to the town square.  We went to the Transportation Museum.  

This is the first motorbike.  It was made in 1865.  Isn't that a fantastic seat, and all wooden.

The kids got to sit on bikes and drive trains.

What good looking people.

There was an interactive room in the airplane section.  Cora practiced driving a plane.

We spent a long time at this museum.  It was past lunch time when we were done.  They still didn't have bikes out in the courtyard to ride.  Blake made sure we checked.  For lunch we decided on a Canadian restaurant  called Ontario.  It was nice to sit down.  Of course I couldn't read the menu.  After sitting for a while our waitress came up and just stood beside us.  We waited a beat for a greeting, when getting nothing I questioningly ordered stilled water.  I was not positive she was there to help us.  After we all ordered our drinks, she asked if that was all.  Dave said we would be getting food as well.  Again she just waited.  Afraid she would go away and I would never eat I recognized the word pulled pork and ordered that.  Cora tried one more time for lemonade.  She got a pink grapefruit lemonade.  It was really good, but still fizzy.  No still lemonade was to be found for us.  When our food arrived the waitress said, 'here is your pulled pork poutine'.  Uh oh, I really don't like poutine.  I had not seen that part.

It ended up being delicious.  Canadian German Poutine I like.  It still had fries, but the gravy was just sorta drippings from the pork.  The pork was amazing.  It was topped with greens and halfed cherry tomatoes.  The white on the plate is the cheese curds, I just set those aside and it was great.  Ate the fries fast so they were not to soggy.  Blake ordered a burger and declared it was the best burger in the world.

It was neat to eat outside by the cathedral.  When we were finished we sat for 20 mins until our waitress asked if we were done.  We said yes, she took two plates.  Another 10 mins and we see her walk out of the restaurant with her jacket and purse.  Now what were we supposed to do?  At first it was nice to sit and relax.  It was perfect weather, we were enjoying being still, but after 45 mins of waiting after we had eaten we were anxious to go.  After all we had gelato to get.  Finally another guy came and cleared our plates and gave us the bill.  I was tempted to dine and dash, it didn't seem like they wanted us to pay anyways.

We then went for a walk along the river.  Dave was looking for info about doing a steamboat river tour.  Next we got on a streetcar to take us to our church.

This is the church were the mission offices were, so Dave spent the 6 months he was A.P. here.  The parking lot is cool with all that stone.

Outside of the church we saw this little trabant.  This is the type of car Davesaw a lot when he was serving here.

Across from the church is Gossner Gartner. (In the German language they have this cool symbol that looks like a fancy B, but is actually a double s sounds.  Since I don't have that symbol on the computer, Dave told me just to put a double s)  This park was beautiful and very peaceful.

We wandered for and hour and half around these paths.  There was a tiny kids train that went around the outside.

In the middle of the park there is this castle.  It had been restored a lot since Dave was there,but still needed work.  We were not allowed inside.

After the park we found a bench to sit on and people watch.  We saw a few of these street skier.  Weirdest thing. It seemed like a lot of work.

Finally we were ready to go back to the hotel.  Again we had our evening bread.  Had some down time made a plan for the next day and we all went to bed.

Leipzig and Area

This morning we got a train to Wiemar.  It is an hour ride from Leipzig, but this day it took us almost 4.  I think there was some problem with the track.  We were put on a bus and routed around to another train that didn't leave for over and hour after we got there.  It was a little frustrating.  We had planned on visiting Dave's apartment in Wiemar and Buchenwald, but we lost all those hours.  Buchenwald is a concentration camp.  It was not open on Monday's so this was our only chance.  We were all glad for the peanuts and apples I packed.  When we finally got there our first stop was the cafeteria for lunch.  This was the only place in Germany that the ladies were not patient with our language barrier.  Most of us ordered the schnitzel to try.  Dave got the mushroom sauce with it.

We then looked around  the camp.  This was something that Dave and I felt was important for the kids to see.  I will never understand how awful it was for them there, but this gave us all a better perspective.

Seeing the crematorium was so sad.  I won't go into a lot detail, but it was very eye opening.

We watched one video that talked about them measuring nose length and shape of the eyes.  I didn't realize it was that specific.  Also there were a couple walls with people's pictures and why they were imprisoned.  One was he owned a bike, one was walked on the left side of street.  Crazy things.  It was a somber experience.  For one of Leah's assignment to make up for being away, she has to write a persuasive paragraph on whether it is better to learn in the classroom or out.  After being here she decided while some thing are better in, like math, seeing Buchenwald first had was a lot more educational than reading it from a textbook.

This is Block 17 were all the Canadians were kept.  

after we didn't have enough time to go into town as hoped.  We caught a bus back to the train station and tried to find our train back.  After asking around we were told there was no train back to Leipzig.  At this point it is almost 5 and we are a little panicked.  A few more questions at the office and we found out we could go to Gera, which is in the opposite direction, then catch a train back to Leipzig.  So that is what we did.  Dave also served in Gera and we would have like to explore, but there was no time.  We did see his apartment building from the train as we passed.  We were so glad to make it back to our hotel that night.

The next morning, looking at maps, Dave found that we were one block from his apartment in Leipzig.  We checked out of the hotel and went for a walk.

Blake and Dave tried a pastry on the way.  After taking this picture we went to find the church.  As I started to take this picture, my phone starting buzzing.  My phone had picked up the church wifi and all my notifications were coming in.  I found this amusing and cool.  Not only is our church the same all over the world, but apparently so is the wifi password.

Next we jumped on a bus to take us to downtown Leipzig.  We looked at the University and found a lot of cool things around it.  Cora and I loved this second hand book store.  It was just like you read about.  Shelves and shelves of books, stacks on the floor, piles on tables outside, all for so cheap.

We found this lovely travel book to some country called Kanada.  It looked beautiful, We hope to visit sometime.  :)

We continue meandering through the streets.

And came upon this amazing street market.  Dave said there is always a street market here.  And a real one, so many little vendors.  I loved it.  We walked around for quite a while.  The street market is set up in the town square.  Dave said that this is the place they would come to street contact on Christmas Day. Dave mentioned how he kept looking around at the bus stops and town squares for people to contact and then realized he didn't have to.

At the street market we had lunch.  Dave, Blake and Leah all had bratwurst again.  Tried two different stands.

Cora and I had something else.  I wish I could remember what it was called.  It was a big flat scone that she made right there.  It had a few different topping.  Cora chose bacon and cheese.  I chose the one that most people seemed to be getting.  She put on a thin layer of sour cream and then topped with fresh diced tomatoes and basil. I added the ham for protein, but ate it separate.  This was so good.  I am totally making it again.

We then got waffles with cream inside.  This guy had it down.  Look at all those waffle makers and he was working alone. He served so many customers so fast.  I do think perhaps my parents local ice cream shop could use a few tips from him.

The waffles were amazing, but I was a little disappointing in the filling.  It was more marshmallow cream than whipped cream.  Still good, but a bit of a let down.

After the street market we wandered around to see the cathedrals that Bach had played in.

It was then getting late in the afternoon and time to catch our train back to Dresden. When we arrived back we were please to see for our last hotel we again had a little apartment and that there was a grocery store around the corner.  Dave decided we were having abendbort.  This is evening bread.  A common meal in Germany.  He said they have a big lunch then usually have this smaller meal for dinner.  It always consists of open face sandwiches of dark bread, butter, meats and cheeses.  But never meat and cheese together.  We went to the store to get things for abendbort, breakfast and snacks for the next day.

There is some questionable selections in Germany.  Bread they have got covered,  lunch meat...not so much. You can't really see but this is deli meat slices.  A lot of rounds on top of each other encased in a clear jelly.  Dave said he has seen some with tongue in jelly.  You can see the taste buds on it.  Sadly we were not blessed to see that delightfulness.

We got our stuff and headed back to the hotel for some relaxation.

We found one channel in English and watched that.  It was some demolition program about blowing up a bridge.  It was another beautiful night and we went to sleep.

Dresden -2

This morning we slept in till after 9.  I don't remember the last time I slept near that late.  We must have needed it.  We almost missed breakfast.  We checked out.  The hotel was kind enough to still hold our stuff.  Next we bought our train tickets to Leipzig and then went exploring again.  The kids played a little game of Marco Polo.  This picture was Blake's idea.

We then went to the Zwinger.  In the below picture you see the courtyard.  The Zwinger is a block from the castle and it is were all the games, such as jousting, were held.

We walked all around the top and bottom.  If you look at the top railing at all the white dots.  Every single one of those is a statue.  No cutting back expenses at this place.

I had tried to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace to no avail, but I did find Marie Antoinette at the Zwinger. She must have been visiting also.

There were statues of ladies around the whole bathing area.  All four walls, except two spots.  Cora and Leah decide to fill in for them.

At one point we thought we might lose Blake, but nope he was right there, the sign said so.

From the Zwinger we walked to the Dresden Castle.  But we took a short cut through this courtyard.  That day they had bicycle demonstrations outside.  Blake hopped on to give it a try.

He should have stuck with the bigger bike.  His knees were banging the handlebars.  He made us go back every day after to check if they were out again.  They never were.  We just hit it good the one day.

Cora also gave it a try.  This nice young man also stopped for a few extra minutes with her and told her all about it and some stories.  He then gave us a demo.  We were starting to realize that having Cora along was helpful.

We made it to Dresden Castle.  It was was fun to look around.  They had an armory for us to look at.  Leah loved these jousting sticks.  She was laughing at how it looked like one was fighting with nails and the other clouds.  Wonder who would win.  Some displays had glass around, other a square line you didn't cross.  It was full of all these old fighting outfits with the royal seals, and gold trim.  Big poofy pantaloons in velvet.  I jokingly told the girls they really should be looking around for Grad Dress ideas.  Leah picked one and said it was lovely, as she pointed at it, swinger her arm towards it, she crossed the line.  We didn't even realize until all the alarms went off.  Whoops!

The first few years we were married Dave tried to get a good bratwurst and doner.  Finally he gave up.  He was excited to go back and get some. He had been telling Blake about them for days.  They found a good street seller and got their first bratwurst.  Dave, Blake and Leah loved them.  Ate a few over the next couple of days.  Cora and I had one tiny bite to say we did, then always found something else.

After dinner, and possibly more gelato, we got our backpacks and boarded our train to Leipzig.  We got in in time to catch the bus to our hotel.  Once again we had an apartment.  Little bigger this time.  Dave said it would have been a nice missionary apartment.  We got the kids sorted out into rooms, read, journaled and went to sleep.