Jeff,
Thanks for the Dresden art gallery tip–don't know about me and 2nd life though–first one is more than I can handle at the moment, although it might be a litle diversion.
Jeff/Sharon: as for the lace for Bob; do wait until you get to Bruges for that.
I'm sure you will find something more fetching and more suitable there for Bob's frequent London appearances.
Yr Lace Fashion Consultant Extraordinaire,
Dee
26 May
Comment for Dee. Dresden gallery has their full old master collection available on second life. Might be worth a low cost visit. Second life is quite interesting for those who have not as yet tried it.
The Elbe ride is, of course, very didderby than the Danau. The river is much less wide, flows slower, has an asphalt bikeway punctuated ever 500 meters or so by a cobblestone section that is not fun.
The sign posting was not clear leaving Dresden we ended up ridind 5 plus km of single track paths accross farmer fields. Not easy with fully loaded bikes and not clear when a road might be found.
Site seeing in Meissen, did not get any thin fine or extra fine service for Bobby. Did consider it. QB found some carbon fiber , silver, and gold jewlery that too was just night for Bobby. The lace looked good and might also be just right. So hard to decide on an approriate visitation gift. Trying hard to model it correctly based upon his Boog hall visits.
Pictured are the porcelain bells on the central tower. Heard them ring at 1 PM. Rather tinny.
Original wildflaster from when real men, when men were men, pulled the boats up the Elbe.
Lots of cobble in the last 15 km to Reisa, a somewhat modern city.
25 May
Sunday to tackle the 6 to 100, or so it seems, museums in the Zwinger, Augustus' place. Augustus wanted a simple showplace for his Meissen porcelain collection, but the architect went overboard.
The old master room was almost as stuffed with masterpieces as the Vatican museum. So many masters, maybe everyone, that focus is lost.
Sponsored by Tip Top Tea (The Tea of Record). Our Canaletto Blend is on special Monday only. It is one of the more obscure teas.
Special exhibit on Canaletto restoration and school of vedute was perfect in size, scope and examples.
Bike ride South to the Blue Wonder and the sees around. Very heavy two bike traffic on a perfect Sunday on the Elbe.
No idea yet why the bridge is so named. It is a key sign post on the bikeway. Maybe it is the large number of beer gartens.
24 May
Wandering around Dresden today. Apart from city and shops, the many old churches, the reconstructed city after the fire bombing, worth seeing Wikipedia.
New city is really the old unbombed city. Famous walking street lined with trees, statue of Augustus 2, elector of Saxony and city builder.
Excellent dinner, similar to downstairs at Harrod's, at Karstadt.
Off then to music festival in front of the Dom. Could hear Libby's voice ringing out from the large choir.
23. May
Train ride to Dresden.
We leave on time and load our bikes. The usual poor design forcing all to lift and manouver in tugt spaces with racks designed for road bikes while every bike is a city touring one. Does look best and tidy after loading. The design seems ubiquitious in Germany Austria and chezk.
The countryside is rural and looks far poorer than earlier in the trip. I do not know the relative wealths of the three counties but the clothing and architecture makes it look as if the Chezk are far less well off.
The paperwork. Of course the mist change crews as they cross each border. Of course no crew can trust the work of the previous crew. Of course each crew acts as if they have never seen this type of paperwork before and new places for stamps are required.
The EC , according to the onboard schedule should be running at 90 km per hour beteen stops. In fact it is running slow, falling further behind schedule but is fab compared to Amtrak.
Train is full. Long train and we are in the bike car. Maybe 60 seats all taken. Maybe 10 are taken at most.
The last 60 or so km into Dresden the train rides through the Elbe valley with a preview of riding to come.
Entering Germany the train was immediatly cleaned. Neither Austria or Czech cleaned.
Jeff,
Recognized your Secession building immediately, from old art history days-Josef Olbrich. Gave me a start to see it.
So, has the final judgement on the Sacher Torte been delivered (known as the Judgement of Vienna)? I actually am rather fond of Sacher Torte–must be the Austro-Hungarian blood in me or maybe my chocolate genotype.
What gallant folk you must be, taking on two sacher tortes at one sitting. No wonder you needed a nap before having some kucken–all in the name of science.
Well, I can imagine that the prehistoric forebears of the BSD sacking gruppe II, were also sitting down to a nice little snack of multiple Sacher Torte, to give them strength for more pillaging and plundering. A Sacher Torte A Day Keeps the Mastodons Away (old proverb found scratched in some caves along the Lower Danube dated to about 1.5 million B.S.D.).
Yes, these ancient peoples also took note of the Albertina Museum–they loved the Impressionists, though they didn't quite understand them.
Dee
22 May
Albertina museum. The best and possibly the biggest impressionist collection I have seen. I like much better that even MOMA. Over 500 great works from the newly released Batlinger collection. Needs to stay intact by their gift rules.
A nice nap, then off to the reknowned Dremel for coffee and Kucken.
More museums. MAK to see the Biedemeirer period furniture, a wonderful collection of stained glass church windows over several centuries, the best lace collection in Europe, is spectacular, and an outstanding textile display covering 1000 plus years.
Dinner at the museum restaurant, one of the best chef's moved here. Yes, the best kitchen by far in Vienna. Dinner pics to be pb flickr.
Next, off to the Fingsten mass at the Dom. there is to be an organ concert with the mass. Turns out that today is a holiday, a religios one and all shpa and businesses closed. Museums open. Tourism rules.
The museum specializes in glass and ceramics. Wow!
Oops. Mass was at 08 30 and not 20 30 hours. Nice walk instead he says smiling.
22 May
Almost finished with the Vienna portion, a comment made with mixed
feelings. I liked Vienna, mostly for the atmosphere and architecture. Good
city to roam but am ready to get back on the road and see the smaller
locals. Much of the rest of the trip is yet t be planned but the next
stage is decided as we have tickets.
Train to Dresden, then bike Berlin via the Elbe and other routes. Then
from Berlin to at least Hamburg or possibly Cuxhaven before turning South
for the final legs.
The eeePC has been a real pain. Continual problems with their disk space
management. Reporting errors that are not real and then requiring me to
unplug all devices, remove the battery and reboot – all compliments of an
excellent eeePC user forum. Have used only about 12% of the alloted space
but cannot often remove or save files. May well be out of iodes as well.
The net connection, at least for me, has been working well on the eeePC so
that part is a plus.
Just put up three days of pictures on the flickr site. Has taken me three
days to get the eeePC to the state that I can again upload; more problems
are expected as I do not believe I have fixed the root problem – nor have
others.
The pics are not in the order that they were taken (I did not fuss with the
photo uploader ) so Vienna is two to three screens in. Have attacked a few
just as examples.
Off to a great breakfast in the hotel, then to museums and palaces and
cafes. Last night, pic included, George purchased the original Sacher
Torte from Sacher as well as the the one from Dremel (see google for the
story of their decade long legal battle over where the apricot should go,
under the frosting or between the layers, and who gets to use the word
original).
What! You mean you don't have the whole place?
Are George and Michelle going cheap on you?
Dee
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