dresden

Dresden was a lot of fun. We got there in the late afternoon on thanksgiving and had some time to walk around the city a bit. Dresden was a really pretty city even thought it was fire bombed during the war. Most of the xmas markets where open and we spent a decent amount of time walking around them and eating good food and drinking gluhwein (hot red wine with spices), Met (hot honey wine) and Grog (hot water mixed with rum and sugar). All of these drinks where nice as it was a bit cold out and a hot drink was good. I will say that getting use to warm wine took a bit :)

After some xmas markets we walked around a bit and saw some of the cool buildings, churches and the river which splits up the city. For dinner for our night in dresden we found this place that had really german food. A lot of bars and places to eat are actually underground as you have to walk down a bit before you get to them. Its a cool use of space and above a lot of them are either office or flats where people live. The food and beer at this german restaurant was sooooo good. For dinner I had a rolled beef dish that was stuffed with all kinds of things and covered with gravey. On the side I had apple flavored cabbage and dumplings. It was all super rich and super good. I have discovered black beer which is very dark and very smooth and it is sooo good. Now on to what mike and shane had. They both had pork knuckles which was a giant piece of pork with a huge bone running down the middle. The skin of the pork was all crispy and soo good as shane let me try a bit of it. The meal was sooo good and german food in general is really good. Not sure its the best for you but who cares right?

We where all pretty beat and turned in early in dresden due to the fact that we had some more exploring to do the following day before catching our train to prague at 5. The next day we went into a couple churches, the opera house, and this area that is filled with museums and such in a really old, almost castle or palace building. It was huge and really pretty. In there we went into the armory which had some of the first german guns along with swords that where very cool. Mike shane and I where into it but I think Pam got a bit bored and took a rest on one of the benches.

After wondering around and checking out a bit more of the city we ended up at another xmas market. They are cool and have tons of little shops with all kinds of different xmas things that all seem to be hand made and painted. A bit more drinking and we had a few monk brewed beers that we bought from a nun which was kinda funny but the black beer they made was actually pretty good.

Ultimately we made out train to prague and got a little cabin with just the 4 of us. Pam and I actually went to the dining car and hung out/talked so we would not bug shane and mike who wanted to read/nap for a bit on the way to prague. We made it to prague alright and its a very beautiful city but I will get into that later.

I know Im probably cutting some things out from our time in dresden but I am not going to lie, Im a bit tired as we walked around prague today for about 6 hours...i will get into the details tomorrow or something. But for now we are off to dinner.