Blogs from Saxony, Germany, Europe - page 4

The next day, after visiting Antwerp Zoo and Aquatopia was the longest drive of the trip: a roughly 650 km (approximately 400 mile) drive from Antwerp to Leipzig. The following day was a visit to Leipzig Zoo. For an idea of the layout of the zoo, see the map from the zoo website: http://www.zoo-leipzig.de/fileadmin/dateien/PDF/Ihr_Zoobesuch/Zooplan/map_of_the_zoo_2015.pdf Leipzig Zoo I spent pretty much the whole day in the zoo and thoroughly enjoyed it (though saying that is pretty superfluous as I always enjoy a visit to any zoo) and I enjoyed Leipzig more than most zoos. There have been various views on the zoo posted on ZooChat but I personally thought it was fantastic. Gondwanaland was the highlight of the zoo for me. It is basically a vast indoor rainfores... read more

Sunday 28 June 2015 Four years ago we had Dresden listed as one of those "must see" cities. Time was against us and it was with some disappointment that we had to by-pass Dresden. Today we keep that appointment in Dresden. After last night's thunderstorm the morning is clear and no sign of moisture in the air. Perhaps we have the weather gods on our side for a change. The long term forecasts are good and by the end of the week we might be complaining about the heat. Our friend Polly says we'll be in Dresden by lunchtime, that's driving the equivalent of Dunedin to Christchurch in three hours. Oh boy, bring on the Regensburg-Dresden Grand Prix. We check out the map for an alternative and find there are no B roads going our way. ... read more

Of course, with so many unexpected predicaments in our European rail track record, leaving Berlin for Dresden, we made absolutely sure AGAIN, that we were at the station early enough to avoid any mishaps. Folks, I should look more closely at my train tickets but more on that in a while. There were so many people on the platform and lots of scurrying to find seats. Someone in the cabin nearest to us saw that we were looking for a seat and beckoned us to sit in two apparently vacant seats. And so we obliged hoping that neither was reserved. As luck would have it, nobody showed up to claim them and we were on our merry way to Dresden. There must have been a reason that we picked those particular seats since we just happened ... read more

Day 2 - Dover to Dresden This was always going to be a tough day, calling for about 9 hours on the road after a 2 hour ferry crossing..... and so it proved. Fun, though. We were up and out of the b&b by 5am, and on the ferry by 6. Whilst other passengers slept on any flat surface they could find, we spent the time drinking 143 espressos, taking sneaky photos of the maps in the shop, and totally failing to work out how to split the cost of the petrol we'd used so far (surprising, considering that one of our party is an accounts analyst). We also spent a mere 21 minutes working out how to stick on those weird little european headlight deflectors. "But you've still stuck them on upside down", you might ... read more

We hit the road pretty hard last night and most of today, so now that's the weekend, we're taking it a little easier. Our bus trip from Jena to Dresden yesterday went perfectly - there was wifi on the bus, and the seats were very nice. I think this was a new bus line, in competition with the German national bus system. I'll definitely not mind using them again if I need a bus. This was my first time on the Autobahn, and though the bus didn't do any mind-blowing speeds, some of the cars and motorcycles passing us sure did. My new bag made the trip smoothly, too. A Russian family at one point asked Erica to talk to a friend in German as we approached one of the stops, I'm guessing just to make ... read more