DM and MM's Germany 2007 Diary

Day 6 - Dresden to Bamberg

Thursday, 26 April, 2007

08:57

Our train to Leipzig and on to Bamberg via a connection has just left Dresden Hauptbahnhof, on time as usual.

Continuing on from last night: After leaving the Schloss we meandered back to our hotel, taking a route past the Kreuzkirche. Unfortunately it had closed at 17:30, so all we could do was walk around its impressive bulk, mostly of original blackened stone, with only a few new reconstructed blocks scattered here and there on the facade.

On our way through the station, Michelle was attracted by a buffet-style restaurant we'd seen earlier. We wandered in and discovered it was more like a cafeteria, where you fill plates with food and then pay for it. For €15.20, the result was one of our cheaper sit-down meals of the trip so far. Michelle filled a plate with roast potatoes covered with seeds and cumin, I grabbed a hefty chunk of grilled fish covered in onions and some cheese, and topped up the plate with sides of champignons and fried apple chunks with onions(!). Michelle also grabbed a small bowl of fruit salad and a freshly made strawberry/orange/banana drink. When we went to pay, the woman at the cash register said we'd be paying for the plate full of potatoes and suggested we go add more to it, including stuff form the other vegetables on offer. So Michelle added some cucumber, mushroom, and apple and onion(!) salads. There was also some slices of something white and chunky and sort of watery, which neither of us could identify. Filled up, we headed back to Hotel Kipping for an early night, to rest up for the early start the next day.

This morning, we got up at 06:30 and headed straight down to breakfast. I stuck with more healthy options today, avoiding the meats and cheese and scrambled eggs and sausages on offer. But the dessert today was a cheesecake with some sort of green fruit or something in it. I would have called it rhubarb if it was at all red, but it was a pale yellow-green colour. Celery was the closest match I could come up with for its appearance, but when I tasted it, it was sweet. Then Michelle said, "Is it asparagus?" and I had to reply, "You know, I think it is."

We packed and checked out, leaving a Flickr photo card at reception. We wandered out to the Hauptbahnhof and bought some sandwiches and pretzels for eating on this morning's train journey. And now we are passing through the Saxon countryside, looking out over views of gentle hills planted with flax in bright yellow flower, alternated with grassy fields, patches of forest, and little country towns. There are also large clusters of modern power-generating windmills. We are now pulling into Riesa, halfway to our change of trains in Leipzig.

Note added on 10 November, 2007: I've just been reading Michael Palin's New Europe travelogue. He was travelling around the former communist bloc Eastern Europe countries, from late 2006 to early 2007. The last country on his trip was Germany, where he visited sites in the former East Germany. The first German city he saw was Dresden. Michael Palin arrived in Dresden on 26 April, 2007. That is, today in this diary.

10:35 ICE 1407 Hamburg-Munich

We joined this train in Leipzig not long ago. We were assured that the connecting train would be right across the platform from where we pulled in on platform 10 by a Reiseplan brochure on the train, however our train arrived on platform 9, giving us a frantic few minutes of walking the length of the platform to the main concourse, finding platform 11, then panicking when the indicator board didn't contain anything that looked like our train. But as we stood, gaping and wondering what to do, laden with all our bags, the sign changed and the ICE 1407 to Munich appeared. So we walked up the platform, locating a poster indicating our car was near the far end of the platform. But when the train pulled in a minute later, Michelle noticed the number of our car passing us, destined for the end of the platform nearest the concourse! One mad scramble later, we were safely ensconced in our seats, hearts still thumping at the prospect of having missed our train. Amazingly again for DB, the train pulled out of Leipzig four minutes late.

We're now passing by a hillside along the track, planted with rows of grapes. A few minutes ago there was a huge industrial complex with giant storage tanks, chimneys, and so on, as well as more windmills. We have a 2:30 trip on this train ahead of us. A display at the front of the carriage shows our speed, which has topped 200 km/hr at times.

21:50 Room 12, Hotel Brudermühle, Bamberg

Wow! What an afternoon. Our train arrived at Bamberg a minute or so late, and we scrambled off with our bags. First order of business was to find out just where the heck our hotel was. It wasn't one recommended in the Lonely Planet. We had trouble finding a place with a room free and resorted to an Internet search to find this one. The address on the e-mail from them was "Schranne 1" - at least I assumed that was an address. We asked an information counter at the station, and the lady there showed us on the map in our Lonely Planet where Schranne was, right in the middle of town and a good distance from the station. She advised us to get any bus outside to the Zentral Omnibus Bahnhof (ZOB), where we could change to an 8 or 12 bus to take us to Schranne.

We waited a bit for Michelle to finish a coffee she'd bought at a place near the info stand, then emerged into the hot sunlight to cross the street and walk down a little way to a green bus stop. A bus pulled up almost immediately and then we tackled the difficult problem of explaining where we wanted to go to the bus driver. He asked a question, but I could do no more than say apologetically that we spoke English. The driver immediately turned around and yelled to the passengers already on the bus, asking if anyone spoke English. A teenage boy came up and asked the driver what was up, and the driver said something. The boy asked us in absolutely flawless American-accented English if we had just arrived by train. When we said yes, he explained that meant we only had to pay half fare for the bus: €0.60 each. We handed over the coins and received a stamped ticket from the driver, who then waved us aboard, closed the door, and drove off.

Two stops and a little more than a minute later, we pulled up at the ZOB and everyone got off. We walked around the corner to find a large bus interchange. We found a spot for bus 12, but it was occupied by a bus of a different number. Spying a timetable poster, I discovered that bus 12 only ran once an hour, and the previous one had left 5 minutes ago. So we wandered up the terminal looking for which stand served bus 8, but never did find it. We gave up and decided to walk the rest of the way, figuring it couldn't be too far.

Stopping several times to consult the suddenly woefully inadequate Lonely Planet maps amidst the tiny twisting streets of the medieval town, which showed main streets and none of the tiny pedestrian alleys that served to connect them all together, we managed to navigate a rather zig-zag route across the Alte Kanal and then across a bridge to Schranne. At various points along the way, we would run across various four and five star hotels, looking extremely appealing to our weary bodies lugging all our gear along. I would say each time to Michelle, "See that hotel? That's not ours." When finally we reached Schranne, the first building I saw was an equally inviting but very cosy looking establishment in an amazing old but obviously immaculately looked-after building. There was an obviously fancy restaurant on the ground floor and the upper levels were plaster with gorgeously shuttered wooden windows and another row of windows poking out of a steeply sloped red tile roof, the whole decorated with elaborate carvings, statues, and intricate wrought iron light fittings. I said, "See that hotel?"

Michelle wearily said, "Yes..."

"That's ours."

Michelle said, "You're kidding."

But no I wasn't. We checked in and the very friendly young woman at reception showed us up to our room (Number 12 again like in Dresden) on the top floor. She spoke only a few words of English, but we managed to get things across clearly. She asked us if we were staying for one night, and when I said no, two nights, she checked the bookings and changed us to a different room. The room that we thus got by way of this turn of fortune was cosy, but very nicely appointed. The woman apologised that the bed had been made for one person, and said it would be remade while we were out, then she left us to settle in.

There was an odd noise coming from the windows, so I went over and opened it fully, letting in the roaring sound of rushing water from a flood sluice in the river immediately below our window. Not only that, but we have a view directly over to the Alte Rathaus in the middle of the river, on a bridge not 50 metres away - the number one iconic landmark of Bamberg. What's more, there is a very cool dragon shaped waterspout jutting from the gutter right near our windows. All up, this is one of the coolest hotel rooms with the most spectacular views I have ever stayed in.

And now, my photos are downloaded and I want to let that sound of rushing water lull me to sleep. We have an easy day planned tomorrow, so I'll leave until then to describe the astonishing sights we saw today as we spent the afternoon and evening exploring the World Heritage listed streets of Bamberg.

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