Karl's Travels: MEISSEN AND DRESDEN

Sailed overnight and arrived in Meissen in the morning. Meissen is known for its beautiful porcelain since the early 1700’s. We had a tour of the factory, the museum and the outlet store. The tour was very interesting because we saw different stages in the production of the art work by different artisans doing their specialty. It is very precise work, hence the expensive price. As beautiful as it was I didn’t buy any because for me it would just be another knickknack gathering dust on my shelf.

After touring the factory we walked around the town square. I bought a light weight scarf in a men’s store. I’ll get more use out of that than I will a porcelain figurine. We returned to the boat and sailed to Dresden.

We arrived in Dresden after lunch and had a fantastic tour of the city. Dresden is a place that is definitely worth a return visit. Dresden was 90% destroyed in the bombing raids of Feb. 1945. The rebuilding effort is phenomenal. We saw the cathedral, the museum, the opera house, the town square etc. We met the mother of a friend of Ladee’s at a café in the town square across from the cathedral. I had white asparagus with hollandaise sauce. This area of Germany is famous for white asparagus and they are only in season for a very short time. They were delicious. Of course I also had liquid bread (local beer). We then walked back to the ship and again had a wonderful dinner.

All the symbols over the years for Meissen Porcelain.

A winery tucked away in a corner of the town square.

A colorful bush in the town square.

Interesting buildings.

Castle on the river. Taken from the boat.

The cathedral in Dresden. To read and see pictures of it before the reconstruction click here Note that in the picture of the destroyed cathedral, the statue of Martin Luther appears to be untouched.