Dresden

We had a very easy tram journey to the train station, though it got a bit complicated once we got there due to some confusion over platforms, which are arranged into 'north' and 'south' - because the Czech work for North starts with S and the word for south starts with J. And when our train did show up on the board, it then didn't specify either - perhaps because it was long enough it spanned both sections? Either way, we got on it.

We got there a bit late but got an early check-in at the hotel so we put our stuff in our room and jumped on the first tram we could get that would take us to the market square - we'd booked a 12pm walking tour and needed to get there ASAP.

The tour was good for historical context but a bit light on the actual walking; I think in terms of amount of distance covered per hour it'd be the least I'd done on any tour ever. While this otherwise might be good for the sake of tired feet and legs (a constant when I travel), it was freezing in Dresden while we were there, and since the old town is mostly on the river, the wind chill factor was making it even more of a challenge. But we got moving and then the sun came out, so it was a bit more tolerable.

Straight after we finished the tour we found a bratwurst stand and then, a coffee - we somehow ended up at an Italian place staffed by douchebags, but we needed coffee so we stayed. Then, of course, it turns out they would take card for anything less than 20€ - since we'd come from Prague and hadn't had time to stop at an ATM, we didn't have any, so off I went again to get some. Fortunately, there was an ATM next door.

Oh, and I totally misread the instructions for where the toilets were and ended up catching a lift up a floor (the cafe was at the bottom of a rather fancy hotel ) and blundering my way into the toilets of the equally fancy restaurant. But I didn't run into anyone, so it didn't really matter. And I got to dry my hands with a cloth towel.

Next up was getting to the tower of the Frauenkirche, since it provided an amazing view over the city. Then we went to the Neues Grünes Gewölbe and looked at the fancy things owned by the royal family. Sadly, we couldn't take pictures - but I found most of it hideous anyway, even if it was expertly made. They did have a pretty impressive collection of gemstones and a gold drinking bowl made for and used by Ivan the Terrible, so that was cool.

For the rest of the time we just wandered around on foot, and then caught a tram over the river so we could take pictures of the buildings across it at night. Then, dinner (hard to find a place 'cause everywhere was busy, but at one place we were told we could sit at the bar - fine by us) and then home - we somehow ended up on a tram going nowhere near where we wanted to go (thanks yet again, Google) but we fixed that pretty quickly and got back to the hotel.

The weather cleared up a bit. It was much nicer when the sun was out.

Inside the Frauenkirche.

The view from the top.

And back down again.

Inside the cathedral.

This was...weird. All hail robot Jesus?

We started to get very annoyed by this stupid dome thing in the middle of the courtyard.

A view of the old town from over the river.

My first bock beer.

I don't know what this bin wants me to do, but it appears to involve my penis.