Travels to Dresden, Pirna, and Lübeck...

Tea Time in Pirna - this was the white tea

A Beautiful View - on top of the Pfaffenstein

Moritzburg Castle

Here I am in front of Moritzburg!

And Marita on top of Pfaffenstein

The Frauenkirche in Dresden - notice how small the people are next to the church.

Lübeck - Mediaevel Hanseatic Majesty!

Here I am trying to loosen up this guy ....

A side view of Florian - he could be on a coin... We are at the Indian Bar here.

Florian at Niendorf Beach.

Florian and Andreas at the Korean Restaurant - who said north Germans are cold and distant?

Thank you for your patience while I live an interesting life. I have been traveling and visiting people these past weeks. Here you see some photos. For Easter I had off from Work from Wednesday evening until Tuesday morning, so I went to Pirna just south of Dresden. We hiked up to the top of the Pfaffenstein, a mountain with a big flat top. That took all of Friday afternoon. Friday evening we simply visited at the apartment. Then on Saturday we went to the Moritzburg Castle – perhaps the most famous castle in Saxony. This is a classic moated castle built to show all who is in power. After the castle and lunch in Moritzburg we drove to the city centre of Dresden for shopping and a walk through the Frauenkirche – the church restored just about 2 years ago – a beautiful baroque church in the round – an architectural masterpiece! Then I bought three shirts in a shopping area, and of course, several stops for coffee, and even cake, were standard fair for such an outing. Sunday had us in Pirna’s old city centre and at a café, where I enjoyed a pot of white tea. Then it was back to Leipzig.

But no rest for the wicked, for on this past Friday I was in the high-speed train again, this time on my way to Lübeck on the Baltic Sea not too far from Hamburg, where I spent the weekend with Florian, my friend I met via the internet. Lübeck has been deemed a world cultural heritage city by UNESCO – it is matchless. Friday evening I had ice cream and café au lait on the main market square, then Florian met me, and we walked through the old narrow streets and courts, stopping in an Indian bar and restaurant for a Kilkenny Irish beer and a vegetarian pizza. Then it was on to a little bar named Kandinsky, after the expressionist painter, where I had a glass of Merlot. Then it was back to the apartment, where we talked into the wee hours of the night (right, Florian?). Saturday – and Friday also – brought perfect weather: cloudless pure blue sky with sun and temps in the low 70s, so we drove to the beach – to Niendorf next to Travemünde. On the way we stopped at a posh farmers’ market where I bought some of the best Assam and pineapple and coconut flavored green tea I have ever tried. Then walking along the rushing water for several hours, having cake and coffee at a seaside café, a fresh fish sandwich while we strolled, and catching up on so many topics. (You see, in person you talk about things different than when you type in the internet…) Then Saturday evening we drove to Bad Schwartau to a well-known Korean restaurant to eat. Sunday I took the train back to Leipzig. And here I am again, thankful for the blessing of finding friends like Florian on the internet! So, the moral of the story is, don’t simply remain virtual friends, but have the wisdom and courage to make some into real friends – it can be a serendipitous surprise.