Rainy Monday in Dresden

We've been on the road for more than a week now and this is the first time we've had a chance to sit still and get an Internet fix. And I'm not sorry. It's been far too interesting to waste time in front of a computer.

We flew from Izmir to Istanbul and then Vienna a week ago yesterday. Ron had found us a nice little hotel a block or so outside the historic center of the city so we were able to walk to nearly everything of interest - if we'd had time. But the first evening we went to a concert in the Baroque summer palace at Schönbrunn (a nice little place where the Habsburg family could get away from things and relax with 2000 of their closest friends) - same room as Mozart and Salieri had their head-to-head competition (Salieri won, the movie Amadeus notwithstanding). The next day we had a bus tour around the old city and Schönbrunn, then scored some tickets to Verdi's opera Otello at the Staatsoper, which we toured in the afternoon. Most interesting to see the stage being set up for the show we watched that night. Our seats didn't have the best view - back of a box - but the music was magnificent and we could see well enough if we stood up. The opera house was destroyed in 1945 (by accident), and it says something about the Austrian people's set of priorities that it was one of the first things they restored.

Tuesday we had a most interesting bus tour into the countryside - a historic house, an old and beautiful (and growing!) monastery, and the second-largest underground lake in Europe. Loved it all. Beautiful cities full of historic buildings (which Vienna certainly is) are all very well, but the unique thing in any part of the world is the countryside.

Wednesday we headed off to Prague by train, which is really the only sensible way to travel in Europe, fast and comfortable and environmentally friendly. But it is slower than plane, so we had only a short time to walk around after settling into our apartment-like hotel suite. Again we were in the middle of everything. Prague made a great impression. It's less uniform in style than Vienna. Not being the capital of the empire means the city doesn't get remodelled every time fashions change, so Prague is a delightful mix of medieval, baroque, classical and modern styles (Frank Geary did a great building there that I hope I have a picture of - looks like a couple dancing). The language took some getting used to, and I never got used to feeling illiterate there, but many Czechs speak fine English.

We got a trip out into the country there, too, on Saturday - a bus tour to the brewery at Pilsen. That was nice, especially the old parts, but one factory is very much like another. The best part for me was the tour of a vast cave system in the limestone area near Pilsen. It had been used by coin forgers in the 15th century and then forgotton until the limestone diggings nearby hit it. It has some wonderful stone formations and was fun to visit. The beer in Pilsen was great, too, and helped us continue our eponymous degustation tour: Pilsner in Pilsen (and wieners and wiener schnitzel in Vienna).

So now we're in Dresden. We got here yesterday by train to a border town, paddlewheel steamer along the Elbe river to a town on the outskirts, and train into the city. What a spectacularly beautiful area the Elbe flows through! And we were the only English speakers on the boat - the tourist industry hasn't discovered this part of Germany yet. The Black Forest is nothing compared to the Elbe. Come before it's ruined by tourists.

We're staying right in the centre of Dresden, the part that was fire-bombed into oblivion. There wasn't much restoration done during the communist times. They just built cement monstrosities, which are gradually being knocked down and replaced by something closer to what the city used to have. And the only people who speak much English are the under-30s, although I'm sure the older ones are fluent in Russian. It's very different from other parts of Germany we've seen, but worth a visit - if only for the Saxony wines, unknown and underrated in the rest of the world.

Time's running out but that's it for the most part. We're still able to walk. My broken wrist is healing little by little. We're at a comfy, warm and dry Internet cafe. What more can we want? (Just a kezboard that has the z and y where I expect them instead of switched. grmp.)

Cheers, y'all.