Discovering Dresden

We hadn´t initially planned on a trip to Dresden, but after some research and reading that it was a "top five highlight" of Germany we decided to add it to our itinerary and it has turned out to be quite a nice city.




We´ve been typical tourists again and taken a double-decker bus tour, always a good way to see a city we don´t know too much about. Although we were a bit surprised when English-speakers could only sit on the bottom deck of the bus (were we being segregated from everyone else? Felt like it for a bit! LOL). We hopped on and off to see an aquarium and some lovely gardens with pretty blooming flowers, and a palace surrounded by greenery.





And I learnt that Dresden housed one of my favourite paintings - Sistine Madonna - bonus! So we had a bit of a cultured morning and went to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. We also visited the local brewery to discover if we really were over beer after Oktoberfest, and it turned out to be ... true! We could only stomach a pint before heading off again.





Today is a public holiday in Germany - Day of German Re-unification - which we only discovered when we took a walk to the brewery and discovered a bit of a festival going on. Lots of stalls selling all sorts of food - bratwursts, schnitzel, sweets, roasted nuts, cakes - delish. This time it was a bit of a mini-Ekka. It was nice.

We also managed to squeeze in a bit of not doing too much. We´ve both been suffering from a bit of a cold, so we figured some down-time was in order. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for a week. We´ve booked an apartment so that will be great - more home-cooked meals!

Cruising Bankfurt and beyond

We left rainy Munich and arrived in rainy and super chilly Frankfurt (or as we later came to know it, Bankfurt). And unfortunately my once sexy husky voice (from too much screaming in Oktoberfest) had turned into a bit of a sore throat. So not only were we cold and wet but also a bit grumpy (yes, I´ll admit it, grumpy!).

Everything seemed to get a bit better after some throat lozengers and the discovery that our hotel had about 5 English-speaking TV channels, yee-ha!

So our first day in Frankfurt was overcast but at least not too rainy. We managed a walking tour of the city, which proved to be quite nice and very full of banks - they even had their own version of Wall Street. The walk turned out to be very fortunate for me as we discovered the shopping district and you know cause the weather wasn´t the best we had to spend time in them..! We also discovered an Aussie pub and specialty ice-cream shop with macadamia ice-cream..hmm.




We´d decided to spend two nights in Frankfurt and also do a bit of cruise in the Rhine River but after watching the weather channel we decided to stay an extra night in Koblenz as the weather looked to be clearing the next day. So our plan was a train ride to Koblenz, a night there, and then a cruise back to Mainz to get the train back to Frankfurt. A bit of a trip but it was all worth it when we woke to lovely blue skies on our planned cruise day.



All up the cruise went for about 8 hours, quite long, but it was lovely. It was warm in the sun and the numerous castles and tiny villages along the river were spectacular (loads of photos were taken! See our album for all of them). We would have liked to have gotten off and had a bit of stroll, but it wasn´t to be. Nonetheless we enjoyed the bar on the boat and the views. One of us also managed to squeeze in a bit of a kip (too much of doing nothing makes me sleepy!).



So our Rhine River cruise was gorgeous and the extra night worth it for warm sunshine. Actually, we´re starting to appreciate the sunshine now that we´re not getting too much of it. It´s starting to get quite cold and I´ll need to go coat shopping soon, there´s only so much layering I can do!