Dresden

Dresden is only a two hour drive from Prague so we arrive too early to check in to our hotel, The Westin.  We meet our local guide and start our tour of the 'Old Town'.  Before we head to the Old Town we are driven by the huge Volkswagon Factory.  They are very proud of this facility and its warranted.  Quite futuristic as it involves several floors and is all glass.  You can see the workers wearing white lab coats and the cars they are working on through the glass.  You can see how the cars progress until the final finished product on the top floor.  

Amazing but kind of creepy!

We then enter the Old Town and walk around all these amazing old buildings.  

There are bells made of porcelain on the front of this building.  They chime every 15 minutes and sound beautiful.  It's such a delicate sound compared to bells made of brass or bronze.

This mural consists of 26,000 individual porcelain plates that are put together to form this picture.  Absolutely fantastic!

Our hotel was just a short walk over the bridge in the background.  Great location.

Most buildings have been reconstructed as Dresden was almost totally destroyed at the end of World War II.  Apparently Churchill gave the order to bomb Dresden after the end of the war was announced.  The guide was unclear why this happened but suggested that it was either in retaliation for London being bombed or else it was so that there would be nothing left of value in the city as it was part of Soviet territory at the end of the war.  Either way it is a shame and they have done a wonderful job reconstructing it.

It is getting quite hot now.  About 28 degrees and the cobblestones and old buildings seem to radiate heat.  We find some shade at a restaurant and have a delicious Bavarian smokie and cold beer.  This is becoming my favourite meal here.  We walk the bridge over the Elba River to the hotel which is just on the other side.  Again the hotel is in a perfect location.  

We decide to have a swim in the beautiful pool to cool off before supper.  Here we are dressed in our robes ready to make our way to the pool.

Supper is a buffet but has wonderful food.  Again we eat too much but force ourselves to go for a walk to the Old Town to admire the lights and the setting sun.  

It's a full moon tonight and we can hear bagpipes!  Sure enough there is a Scottish band playing down by the river.  

Nice finish to a perfect day.

Off to Berlin in the morning.  This will be the end of the tour so we will be saying good bye to friends we have made and travelled with over the last three weeks.