Author Archives: Barbara

Dresden

We made it! We were an hour late, but that didn’t matter since we are spending the night in Dresden. We could only get reservations for 2nd class which meant we slept in seats. Don’t panic they are roomy and recline a lot – much better than an airplane. At 11:30 the lights went out and everyone settled down to sleep, only bad thing was every time the train stopped we all woke up. The train did not stop often fortunately. When we got to Dresden we had to figure out how to get to our hotel – the U-Bahn ( a kind of el). We found the hotel and it is charming!!!! See pic.

We are now sitting in the little garden having a beer (local Dresden beer
and a wine (local). The menu looks great! They are so accommodating. The restaurant is hosting a wedding so we are trying to make it easy on the kitchen. I am sure we will eat well. Back to Dresden
After we checked in we headed to the old city. We saw the historical Grünes Gewöble (Baroque treasure chamber). Lots of gold, silver, jewels etc.- of course no pictures- in fact we had to check our purses. While walking thru the town there were quite a few bachelor and bachelorette parties. One of these parties stopped us and the groom asked us to donate to his wedding- see pic.

We walked around most of Dresden seeing the sites. See pics. There are many,many churches here. At the Hofkirche there is a restored Silverman organ that is world renowned. We went to the church for a 4pm performance, but the schedule had been changed. It seemed as though many other people read the same date and time on the net since there were a lot of people waiting around the organ.
We walked around town some more – there are many beautiful buildings and it was a lovely day. I have a lot of pics on my camera. Then we decided to return to the hotel. Both of us were a little tired from all the traveling the day before.
Well- we did eat well. Marsha had a Camembert cheese w/cranberry as an appetizer and the salad pictured that has goat cheese. I had pork medallions, sausage, chicken and small schnitzel over potatoes with onions and a salad. Food was great!!!!!

Milan – continued

We got up early and went to see the “Last Supper”. Only 25 people are allowed in at a time and at 15 minute intervals. Of course no pics. Then we went to see the Sforza Castle. Very pretty outside but not much on the inside. Then we walked to the Duoma (church) and toured the inside. They were very strict about dress code here/ no shorts or bare shoulders. It is almost as large as Notre Dame but the ceiling has to be higher. We also toured La Scala. That was really neat. We were able to see the theater and not just the museum. It reminded me of the Academy of Music in Phila. The museum was really interesting! We were only allowed to take pictures in a certain section and that was of costumes in various opera productions. The pictures are from Aida. By this time we had seen most of Milan’s hot spots so we went to the hotel to pick up our luggage and headed for the train station. We are now on a train to Zurich (54 track train station) where we will change trains to go to Dresden. We get on the train at approx 8pm in Zurich and arrive at 8am in Dresden.
We are now on the overnight train to Dresden. We bought some wine in Milan, but since our train from Milan was an hour late getting to Zurich and we really thought we were gong to miss the train to Dresden we are going to have some on the train. Oh, I forgot to mention we made the Dresden train with a minute to spare! Now the language is back to German. Just when we can figure out what they are saying on the TV we change countries not channels. Not many pictures because we weren’t allowed to take them in a lot of places.

Milan

We left for the train station about 9:30 so we could catch our connecting train at 3 pm. The trains from Nice heading east have really been a problem lately. We wound up spending approx 5 hours in the train station waiting for our connecting train. There were no seats except in the cafeteria and we had to order something so we could sit there. See pic. It was the cheapest items on the menu. We finally got to our hotel about 7:30pm and went to check out how long it would take us to get to the place that houses “The Last Supper”. We have tickets to see the painting at 8:45 am. We ate at a tourist restaurant by the Dome(church)- the only pic I took was of the bruschetta. There are pics of the church and the La Scala opera house. It is now after 11 and we leave Milan tomorrow afternoon.

Côte d’Azure

Today we traveled in the opposite direction from Monaco. We went to Les Arc about an hour and a half on the train. It is not a happening place. There was an old town there and maybe some lavender fields but we didn’t have transportation or time to see them. We got back on the train and went to Cannes. It a much nicer beach than Nice – it has sand – we went in the Mediterranean – see pics. We could have gone in the nude, but where would we put our passports and money.

Ever since Marsha won in Monte Carlo she has been uncontrollable – now she is looking at high priced cars.

Cannes is really pretty boring-mostly expensive stores and a nice beach so we went to Antibes. This is a pretty nice town. Every other store is a yacht broker and Marsha was back to picking out her yacht. We walked through the town- again it was a hot day. I have many more pics on my camera. We walked almost to the next town on the ramparts and decided to have an early dinner since we still had to get back to Nice and the trains had been delayed all day. We found a place in the back of a tobacco shop/deli. I know it sounds crazy so I took a picture. We decided to have tapas instead of a meal and it was still too much food. All of the plates were delicious. We go to Milan tomorrow and plan to be at the train station early in case there is still trouble with the trains.

Nice / Monaco

The owner of our B &B is super nice. We were able to do laundry here which really helped since we could eat breakfast while our clothes were getting clean. We then went out to see Nice – we went to the flower/produce market. This is the European version of a farmers market. Then we walked to the ruins of an old chateau which provided us with a great view of Nice. Here are some pics of Nice during the day.

The last pic is from the top of the chateau. Remember every birdseye picture you see we got to the top by foot. No elevators. It is hot here just like Florida. We stopped for a cool drink in the shade and decided to go to Monaco. Again we hopped on a train. We decided to go to the Casino and they let us in!!!!!! We gambled in the Monte Carlo Casino. SEND MONEY we need some. Actually I lost and Marsha won. There are pics as we look at yachts to see which one she wants. There is nothing level in Monaco. It is either a steep uphill climb or a steep descent. We decided to walk across town to see the palace. Neither the casino nor the palace allowed pics inside but both are magnificent. See pics of Monaco

We are back at the B&B giving a rest before we go out to find a restaurant. We usually walk along reading menus and when we find a place that we both like, that’s where we eat.
We headed out in a different direction looking for food. We found a pedestrian are full of shops and restaurants. After reading approx 20 menus we found a restaurant that had squash blossoms. We ordered the appetizer for 2 and you can see that was more than enough food. But, there was a cheese plate on the dessert menu and of course we had to order it. All the food was fabulous!!! Of course we went for another walk for the food to settle.
We love your comments. Remember if you want them to appear on the blog please give me your permission to post them since I don’t know what info is put out there with the comment. I am also going to post a picture of our current room. It is big enough to have a serious party in it.

I had to take 2 pics of the room it is that big. Don’t know what tomorrow will bring but we shall see.