I joined Stefan in Dresden on May 29 and spent most of my copious free time walking up a storm. With just two days left before we head out on this summer's long-distance hike, it's time to put some of those memories into pixels.
Friday May 29, Dresden moonrise:
Saturday May 30, hike from Rathen to Wehlen with a subset of the research-exchange student cohort:
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| View of Elbe from Bastei |
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| The trail was 16 times longer than 1 infinity |
Sunday May 31, a hike up the hill S of Dresden to Bannewitz...
...and a stellar concert at the Dresdner Philharmonie featuring Stefan's favorite clarinetist:
Monday June 1, it's a new month and I'm now on the Deutschland Ticket, next to free, free, free as a bird! One of the grad students told me about a nearby castle built atop basalt columns, so I hiked from Stadt Wehlen to Stolpen. This also gave me a chance to hike the Teufels Grund in the Saechsicsche Schweiz National Park, which our weary group of hikers had felt too weary to explore on Saturday.
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| I squeezed through this nook on my hands and knees. |
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| Teufelskammer |
Tuesday-Thursday, June 2-4, hiked from Hřensko to Herrnhut. This will get its own post.
Friday June 5, with a 100-mile week within my grasp, I looped to the Blaue Wunder and back:
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| Bubble action in Dresden Altstadt |
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| Snazzy estates line the right bank of the Elbe |
Saturday June 6, we hiked the Caspar-David-Friedrich-Weg with S's colleague Joe, revisiting the Wolfsberg and Kaiserkrone and adding in Zirkelstein.
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| Look, up ahead--the rock in C.D.Friedrich's "Two Men Contemplating the Moon" |
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| Two Men Contemplating the Trees |
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| We made up for failing to notice these rocks last year |
Sunday June 7, a walk in the morning to the Bienertpark to knock out a few more miles, then a superlative performance of Die Zauberfloete at the Semperoper with the student cohort. (This was a much more dynamic performance than the bland rendition we saw with Elias in 2012).
Monday June 8, I spent almost the entire day inside fretting over a 2-sentence bio that I had to submit for a Big Deal Thing coming up this fall. Reddit indicates others have similar bio anxiety.
Tuesday June 9, I walked to Moritzburg, yet another castle. The route was pretty much a straight shot north from Dresden, and it says something that passing a yard infested with garden gnomes was one of the day's highlights.
Wednesday June 10: It had occurred to me on the way back from Herrnhut that I had missed an opportunity to walk to Poland, so I took a train to Görlitz, Germany's easternmost town. This will get its own blog post later.
Thursday June 11, I spent most of the afternoon revisiting the Albertinum, then went to hear a delicate violoncello + cembalo concert with S at the Palais im Rosengarten.
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| Not Friedrich's best rock... |
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| Edouard Leonhardi, Waldeinsamkeit, captures the Elbsandsteingebirge far better than my cellphone camera can |
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| Waldhexe ca. 1898 by Julie Wolfthorn, "a committed campaigner for equal rights" |
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| Palais |
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| Weathered chic interior |
Friday-Sunday June 10-12, Berlin. Cohort was at Max Planck Institut in Potsdam on Friday, so I went for a long walk, then attended the first half of Carmen at the Deutsche Oper.
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Friedrichswerdersche Kirche is now a sculpture gallery. Apologies to Eve for cutting off her head, but I wanted to capture vexed toddler Abel
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| The Queen of the Night's starry set was designed by K.F. Schinkel, who also designed the church housing the exhibit |
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| Missed 'em last year, found 'em this year |
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| Erected 2016, when folks acknowledged men don't exist in a vacuum |
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The pre-overture backdrop: a flayed bull's head. I left at intermission, after
Don Jose butchered Zuniga's kidneys for Carmen's organ-smuggling ring (wait, what?). |
Monday June 13, I spent our last full day in Dresden outside of Dresden. In the morning, S joined me for a loop hike from Rathen to the Wolfsschlucht. In the afternoon, I took a train to Meißen, which we had visited in 2012 but I had few memories of other than that I have no affinity for factory-made porcelain. Meißen will get its own post, because ooh ah, apparently I saved the best for last.
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| In höchster Not, Kurort Rathen edition |
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