Tuesday 5th September 2023
We left Bamberg first thing in the morning to continue our drive eastwards towards the Polish border. Our first stop was briefly at a roadside ice cream parlour to buy tickets online for a Ghibli play in London next year! I spilled my sticky drink everywhere and then fell on my face, which is quite an impressive bit of buffoonery for a half-hour stop.
Our next stop was the town of Greiz nestled in low hills, where a lovely naturalistic park was laid out in the 19th century, a river flowing amiably through it. Far too low-key to attract tourists, I think it was only locals out for a walk. It’s funny to see how the vast majority of Germans, even enjoying a stroll in a beautiful park on a sunny September day, do so with a face like a grumpy raincloud. I’m sure they’re happy inside.
And so we reached our destination for today: Meissen. Although renowned for its porcelain, the most wonderful thing about Meissen for me is the absolute fairytale of a castle-and-cathedral that perches on a hill over the banks of the Elbe with the rest of the old town huddled in its lee. The only viable adjective is “Disney-esque” (yes, completely aware that Disney backdrop painters were probably inspired by pictures of German castles!).
We thought we would wander in to explore the town and book a likely place we’d picked for dinner, then come back to the hotel to freshen up. Our mistake was in not noticing that our chosen restaurant was on the Domplatz, at the very top of the crag; we wheezed our way up the final flights of steps already realising that we would be repeating the climb a couple of hours later.
Luckily the restaurant, Domkeller, as well as being the oldest in town, with a stunning view of the old town at sunset below, was also excellent for food. For some reason herring were a speciality so I took a break from meat for at least one evening.
Meissen is the first place we’re stopping for two nights, so the rather dull and featureless chain hotel rooms with views of the car park were a bit disappointing. It’s clearly a business hotel and so will charge for anything they can, knowing most guests will cheerfully put it on expenses. 21 euro for a buffet breakfast ain’t happening. And how can they charge 14 euro per night for parking? The hotel is in a quiet residential area away from the town and we parked for free on the street less than 100 yards away!
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