Dresden

Breakfast in new hotel was nice but, disappointingly there was no butter shooting machine! We were allowed to get up at a civilised hour today as we had to set off at 10am for a walking tour of the centre of Dresden. It looks very old but every single building was only built in the last nearly 30 years since the wall came down and the communist regime was replaced. That’s because we bombed it out of existence in 1945 in an attempt to bring the War to an early conclusion. So what they’ve done is to rebuild everything to look like it did before 1945. So our hotel, for existence looks like it’s about 300 years old but it’s only 10 years old and everything inside is modern and swish!
But our guide had to be careful when he was telling us about the war, as sometimes one of the local residents stops to listen to see if he says anything they find controversial. A lady stopped today but gave him the thumbs up to say she accepted his version of events!
This afternoon we finally managed a river boat trip which was very nice.
For tea I had spotted a place that sounded Italian and wanted to try it to spare Mum from eating any more sausages or burgers. It turned out to be a good shout ( 😉G). When you go in they give you a credit type card. You then peruse the menu and order directly over the counter, to the chef who cooks it in front of you. Mum wanted ravioli and I wanted pizza so we had to join separate queues. I ordered my pizza and the chef gave me a pager, so I then went to the bar and got a beer and a big bottle of water for Mum. But it turned out that, for non alcoholic drinks you can get them at the food counter. So, once you collect your food etc you then choose a table and eat it, and then on the way out you give the cashier your card which has been loaded with what you’ve had, pay and go. The food was delicious and totally fresh; he cooked the ravioli from scratch, in front of her. And Mum was the hero (😗G) drinking 2 pints of fizzy water. I guess when I get up for my middle of the night wee tonight I may have to join the queue.