Dresden and Kamenz, Sachs, Germany

Took a late train into Dresden, and then took a train to Kamen,switched to bus for the last leg of the journey. In Kamez, a good 45min from Dresden and more a small city near dresden than a suburb, we met Jeff, a friend and classmate of Gina's who was working in Kamenz for the summer and was hosting us for two nights.

It's a Trap!

So we woke up after Jeff had left for work, and had breakfast and got ready to go, and walked out the door...

The door was locked. We struggled with it fo a bit and confirmed the smaller deadbolt was set and only a key would open it. We searched for a key and then for tools to pry the door open. No luck. Investigated the windows and the three story drops to ground. Tried to contact Jeff but my Kindle was not grabbing a working signal. So, locked in the apartment, we took naps and did some reading. Jeff failed to come home for lunch as expected, and so a bit before 1300, our agreed upone meeting time at the train station, I finally got 3G signal by leaning out of the kitchen window, and sent Jeff a "please come rescue us" email.

After being rescued, we walked to the train station to catch the next train but we walked onto the platform as it pulled away, discovering it left three before he hour, not three after like the preceeding train. So we walked back to the town center and (with difficulty) found a Kebap stand for lunch. We misjudged the time it would take to get back to the train station, and again walked onto the station as the train rolled away. Damn.

We used the new hur to explore the local Lutheran parish church, which was of very high quality and had a lot of religious art from the 1500s. Gina snuck up the steeple for good views. We finally caught the 4 o'clock train to Dresden

Dresden was much smaller than I expected, I believe it is around the size of Indy and felt around that size. Nonetheless, its rebuilt historical center delivered. The Lutheran church was stunning, and its architecture was interesting because the space was designed to emphasize the podium (lecturn?) and the reflected the Protestant emphasis on the sermon as the center of a service, in contrast with Catholic churches where your attention is drawn to the altar and the sacrifice of Mass. Possibly related, the Protestant church was painted in light, cheerful colors that celebrated the salvation of Christ with happiness, which was delightful but definately felt different than the more somber mood I am used to, like in Gothic churches.

We snuck into the Catholic Cathedral, which was post reformation Baroque. It was very grand, but in a few of the side altars it appeared that instead of restoring the orginal atlarpiece when everything was destoryed on Feb 13th, 1945, they had constructed new memorials made by modern artists, which were very well done (probably because they got them built before the 1960s showed up). One was three human figures carved of wood such that they appeared shaped of flames. The time spent in the Cathedral was very spiritually fullfilling, I think because I haddn't been in a Catholic Church since Mass in Sarajevo.

We crossed the Elbe and walked north, and I rolled down a hill and got very dizzy. We caught the 20.00 train back to Kamenz (on the first try!), and at Jeff's we scrounged through his kitchen and pulled together a meal of homemade currywurst, instant potato soup, reheated corn, and old rolls. Jeff and I cooked, Gina did the dishes. Since wregularly do the dishes by hand at our lakehouse during the summer, Gina later said the dish washing made her homesick.

The next day, we caught the seven am train out of Kamenz, with a six minute layover in Dresden Hbf before our train to Cottbus, and then quick transfer to train direct to Krakow Glowny. Our train from Kamez was of course 6 minutes late, so I talked to the conductor (strictly speaking, I pointed at my timetable and watch and was worried expressions on my face), who came back twenty minutes later and said, "we hold train for you." The Germans come through again.