September 8

Travel Day / Meissen, Germany

Because the Elbe River is at a historically low level preventing us from sailing, this morning we had our suitcases outside our room at 8:30 am as we boarded the buses for our excursion.  Had the river been at normal levels we would have simply left and gone to Meissen, then returned to sail up river to Wittenberg.  So we traveled about 40 minutes northwest to the quaint German town of Meissen and our first stop was at the porcelain workshop.  Meissen Porcelain is known world-wide as the finest of it's kind and we were able to watch craftsmen mold the porcelain and hand paint them.  Remarkably detailed.

We climbed back on board the bus after spending about two hours here and headed to the town square.  The first item on the program was a full scale lunch provided by Viking at the Ratskeler restaurant (did you know that ALL restaurants housed in the town hall are called Ratskelers?)  It was delicious!

Three choices were provided for us for the next two hours......(a) we could have free time to explore the square and do some local shopping; (b) we could go on an "easy" walking tour of the market square and town area; or (c) we could climb to the top of the town to visit the cathedral and palace.  Laurie and I opted for this choice and began the climb up 102 steps!

At the top of the steps we walked out onto an observational platform and could see the entire panoramic view of Meissen over the rooftops.

At the top we crossed the medieval bridge and entered through what was once one of three city gates.

The cathedral and the palace sat side by side.  The cathedral was built in the late 1200's and after a fire led to the loss of the spires, they were rebuilt.  The palace is unique in that it was THE FIRST palace built that was as a residence, not as a place of government.  It was built in 1485.

Following our descent (we went a different route so we only descended about 65 steps while navigating a descending, narrow cobblestone path) we had about fifteen minutes before the three groups met up with our guides and we headed back to the buses.  We took off for the about 2 1/2 hour drive to Wittenberg where the Viking Longship Astrid awaited us.  It is identical to the Beyla and once we arrived we simply walked into our same stateroom, #224 where we found our luggage waiting.  Tomorrow will be our first "easy" day since we left for Europe a week ago.  We will having a city tour of Wittenberg and learning about Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation before getting back to the ship in time for lunch; and that's it for the day.  This is one traveler that will welcome some down time :)