A stopover, a film-set and a new stamp

Today Astrid and I traveled from Leipzig to Prague. We met early 9am for another Mitfahrgelegenheit trip to Dresden. In Dresden we took a stopover of about three hours. I have heard quite little from Dresden in the past so it was a bit of a surprise to find a really beautiful city with lots of baroque buildings, the winding Elbe river and even a bit of sunshine. We walked from the "New City" to the "Old City" - as always, both are old by Australian standards. There we had a self-guided tour. I took plenty of photos, especially of the Zwanger, the former royal entertainment centre and the highlight of Dresden. I will upload them when I return to Freiburg.

After a Bratwurst lunch (yummy) we bought a ticket and hopped on the train heading for Prague. (The actual route is Hamburg-Berlin-Dresden-Prague-Bratislava-Budapest!) Here came another pleasant surprise. From Dresden until about 10k's beyond the Czech border the train follows the Elbe river. It is a fantastic scenic trip that I rate better than the Austrian Alps and almost up there with the Ghan (Alice Springs to Adelaide). Heading south we actually traveled through a gorge on the western bank of the river. Along the length of this gorge are beautiful German houses wedged somehow been the steep cliffs and the river itself. Every time a valley came in from the side there would be houses crammed into the valley to form a small village. It really was like nothing I'd even seen and I couldn't help but feel joyous and was beaming inside.

Approaching the Czech border came German and Czech policemen through the train, a form of passport control. They both inspected my Australian passport very closely and I was the only one I saw who received a stamp. (Although it's so easy for Australians to travel in Europe it's even easier for European Union citizens.) I now have evidence in my passport of visiting six countries (although the actually tally is 8).

After continuing the train-trek as much through classic bohemian villages as ugly grey ex-soviet constructions we arrived in Prague, withdrew some Czech crowns from the ATM, and after a slightly geographically displaced round-about trip landed at our hostel from where I now write. I was also pleased to find that I can understand some things (actually very little and only when they are written) from my ex-knowledge of Russian.

Looking forward to exploring the city tomorrow and Sunday and hopefully catching a mass tomorrow morning (Good Friday).