McLays in Europe

After a 15 hour flight we arrived in Frankfurt airport for a short stop before a connecting flight to Dresden. The airport is amazing - it was a 10-15 minute ride in a bus to meet the connecting flight along rows and rows of airplanes. We met 2 boys from Bendigo at the information desk at Dresden airport! Luckily we were able to obtain train tickets right through to our first exchange house in Freital as we would have never been able to organise connecting trains due to the fact we could not read the train timetable! Finding a bus from the train station to the house was as equally difficult but we engaged the assistance of a local lady who guided us in the right direction. We were thrilled when we finally arrived at Katja and Chris's apartment. It was small, split level but very modern and quaint. Ian opened a window and it frightened him by falling over at the top. Closer inspection found that all windows and doors incline due to weather conditions encountered. We then tried to stay up for as long as we could to beat jet lag but only made it until 3.30 pm and on going to bed found a double bed with single doonas (which appears to be normal for Europe) and slept for around 16 hours.
Whilst in Dresden we were kept busy negotiating our way on public transport each day but had some good offers of assistance from locals and even managed to travel into the city in the midst of a train strike which we were completely unaware of! On 3 October which is German Unification Day holiday, we went on a 'red bus tour' of local highlights which allowed you to get on and off as you required and had English translation via ear phones. We were lucky at one stop to be the only two English speaking tourists and had our own guide - otherwise German speakers were about 30 to a guide. We were impressed that so many German people are seeing Dresden for the first time following the reunification. There is still a lot of rebuilding happening as Dresden was flattened at the end of WWII and they are rebuilding as they can afford. One cathedral, Frauenkirche which survived the bombing but collapsed days later due to the heat of the resulting fires, has recently been finished and is absolutely spectacular. Other highlights included the Zwinger built by Emperor Augustus the Strong in early 1700's. He is famous for his 30 mistresses and 365 children and at one stage was Emperor of Rome. There was also a piece of tiled wall called Frurstenzug portraying all of the emperors of Saxony which survived the bombings and is very beautiful.
Other highlights included a visit to the National Hygiene Museum (all about health - including nutrition!), a saxony meal of suckling pig, sauerkraut and potato dumplings and of course beer tasting.
We were blessed with sunny, dry conditions and Alison commented on the smell of fermented apples which perhaps accompanies the autumn leaves and apples falling from the trees.

Ian's view: Dresden is an architectural dream place, enhanced by the rebuilding program after the devastation of WWII. Climbing to the top of the Cathedral was truely a highlight however taking off in the wrong direction to return home was not but was validated by the discovery of 'Ayers Rock Pub' in Downtown Dresden. We presented ourselves as Territorians to an all German bar crew and did not manage to impress them at all!
The Cat's scarf managed to find an Aussie from Brisbane in the Dresden crowd who came up and said I must be very proud.