A weekend in Saxony

Well now I'm REALLY behind on this whole blogging thing, but I will try to catch up before I head to Ireland on Friday. After this I still have to write about Easter in Cologne as well as the football game I attended in Berlin! So here it goes with Riesa and Dresden.

I left Prague bright and early Saturday morning by myself, leaving my program group behind to visit and old friend, Johannes Kröhnert who was an exchange student at my high school my senior year. I hadn't seen him in two years and it was absolutely wonderful to see him again!

I took the train from Prague and switched trains at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in Dresden. There is something exciting about traveling by train by yourself. I had already traveled by train numerous times, but not alone, and certainly not through eastern Europe. I arrived in Riesa, a small German town in the state of Sachsen (Saxony), between Dresden and Leipzig. Johannes was waiting to meet me at the train station. We went to his house where I was treated to a huge piece of kuchen. And, of course we spoke only German (nur Deutsch) the whole weekend (die ganze Wochenende!)! I sounded like an idiot the entire time, I'm sure, but Johannes was nice enough to answer all my questions about German words and grammar. It was really cool to get to finally see Johannes speaking in his mother tongue as well, because it really makes a huge difference when you can speak without thinking. After kuchen, Johannes, Mr. Kröhnert, and I got in the car and drove out to Sächsische Schweiz, the most stunning thing I have viewed in all of Europe.

Me and Johannes overlooking the Elba River

This is the figure of a wooden man.

Yes, that's right, I was standing on a stone bridge carved into the cliff face in the late 1800s. It was only one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Mr. Kröhnert got a picture of me taking a picture.

Bridge from the side.

The Elbe at sunset

It was also -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) while we were hiking here, though for me it was completely worth it. I didn't even notice that my legs had gone numb. 

That evening we spent playing board games and talking. The next morning was church (Mr. Kröhnert is a Pastor) where I got to witness a German confirmation and pretend to understand everything that was happening (it helped for the sermon that I knew the story already). 

Also, the Kröhnert's have a dog, Charlie. I love dogs and haven't really been around one in a few months, so it was really nice to play with him. 

In the afternoon, we hopped back in the car and made our way to Dresden. It was FREEZING, so don't let the sun fool you in these pictures.

Dresden from the top of the Frauenkirche

 Like most cities in Germany, Dresden was completely destroyed in World War II, though Dresden is particularly known for being completely and utterly annihilated as it was firebombed. The city has gone a great job of rebuilding, despite having been central to the GDR during communist times. Many of the buildings still have blackened stones from the fire that raged across the entire city in a deathly storm.

Frauenkirche

August der Stark was a king of Saxony and Poland, and is very beloved by the Dresdeners

Kuchen!

One of the oldest steam ships in the world that is still running

Gorgeous picture of windräder (windmills) in the sunset

Dresden was a beautiful city. Overall, I had a delightful stay with Johannes and his parents. There is something about staying in a house with people you know that is so much nicer than traveling from hostel to hostel as I have been doing during most of my trips. It is really nice to be taken care of and treated well. This weekend in Riesa and Dresden was a perfect end to my week of travel in Nuremberg and Prague. After this stay, I was refreshed and ready to head back to Berlin, feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.