Dresdin, and a cameo by Berlin.

Hello people!
How are you all going? Well I know it's been a while since I made a post, so I'll try and catch you guys up on what we got up to.
After prague we caught a 2 hour train ride to Dresdin. Dresding is this city of about half a million people, and it got heavily bombed in WW2. What it does have is a whole pile of beautiful old buildings that got restored, a whole pile of new buildings built to look old, and is generally a pretty spiffy place.
It was also the capital of Saxony, a country back in the days of the Holy Roman Empire. One of Saxony's most successful kings, Augustus the Strong, really liked expensive things, and a lot of his collection has survived. I have never seen anything like it! I guess it could be compared to the Faberge egg collection, but more impressive. Among the highlights was a model ship, well over 2 feet tall, made entirely out of ivory. The sails were ivory, cut so thin it was translucent! Obviously we couldn't take any photos in there, but we'll describe it all in detail when we get back.
Here's a veiw looking over the bridge from newer areas of the town to the old town. A lot of the old town actually sits on the old fortress that went around the town, thats the strip down near the water.







Here's the main square in the old town. Dresdin is building heavily, trying to recover from being under the control of the Soviets, and there are cranes everywhere. The large church has been heavily repaired, and you can tell. Those buildings to the right are actually almost all new when you look close, but they've done a great job, and the overall effect is very pretty. Dresdin is definately a place to visit, and will be even better in a few years time when all the contstruction in the centre of town is done with.









A bit to the left of the picture was a transport museum. We were allowed to take pictures in there, unlike the super impressive museams. Here's me trying out the Penny-Farthing bicycle. Awkward thing, let me tell you!




We went for a few wanders through the city, it was very pretty. Most of the building are built on big blocks, with large courtyards in the middle of the block that you can walk into. I just happened to wander into one particular courtyard, turned around, and saw this attempt at plumbing. I had to take a shot. Incidentally, although a lot of the buildings retain conservative, old town exteriors, going a bit funky with the walls facing onto the courtyard is pretty normal.




We also tried out the Dresdin night life. There's like a dozen clubs within 2 minutes walk from each other, and the place crawls with people during the Friday night we went out. Unfortunately the places we tried out weren't especially inspiring, but were very busy. I think we just got a little unlucky with our choices, so be sure to take a guide when you go out in Dresdin.






After Dresdin, it was off to Delft, in the Netherlands. It's about 10 minutes train ride from the Hague, and 50 minutes to Amsterdam. Getting there, however, was a 2 hour train trip to Berlin, followed by a 7 hour train trip to Amsterdam. It did give us enough time in Berlin to at least prove that we'd been there, however.








And that puts us where we are right now, Delft. Yesterday we got driven around Rotterdam, which is the financial centre of the Netherlands, and is the biggest port in Europe. It was pretty big, to say the least. Amazing! Amsterdam is on the cards tomorrow, we might just wander around Delft today. Delft is the origin of Delft blue, a particular colour for patterns put onto white ceramics, and apparently can only be produced here. The Hague is also on the to do list.

Anyways, you guys have fun, wherever you are. We'll probably post again when we reach London.

Bob