Here’s a toast – To Me, My Wife’s Husband, not forgetting Meissen!

Tuesday 10th September 2024. Idea Swapping Day.

Dresden to Riesa – 57km.

I was on the hunt for breakfast this morning….

And still time for a Dresden photo or two…

The day unfolded a bit like yesterday. No sooner had I set off than it started to rain. About ten kilometres out I took shelter at this windmill.

It occurred to me at this stage that I should have swapped my morning cycle idea for an idea to stay in lovely dry museum in Dresden till the rain had gone. Like many people I am good at ‘swapping ideas’ in hindsight. I always thought I was a person with very creative groundbreaking ideas….only to find out that someone else had those ideas before me and I wasn’t creative at all.

It was still raining when I set off from the windmill and I cycled along with a young German student called Maximilian who had caught the train to Prague and was cycling to Hanover. He was good company and took my mind off the rain till we arrived at Meissen.

I couldn’t resist the title because it was a little Lancashire saying of my youth….to say as a toast to yourself when having a cup of tea….and Meissen sounds a bit like ‘missen’ in Lancashire dialect. It amused me!

In German when an I and an E come together in a word it is the second vowel that gets emphasised. I usually get it wrong. I can never say Riesling wine because I say Reisling! The problem is made worse because I get the spelling wrong, so I have no chance of saying it right.

I went straight to the Meissen Porcelain Museum and Factory. Porcelain is not necessarily my thing but it was very interesting.

The production has been here since the late 1600’s.

I had chosen to do the whole tour but before my tour started I had time for….

The tour and demonstration was very good. I had an audio guide in English, which helped.

The weather had again dried up and it was a pleasant afternoon. Not any of the heat of previous days though.

I continued to look around Meissen by ‘missen’.

The town has a Schloss called Albrechtsburg and also a cathedral called the Dom.

Meissen was a nice town with plenty of Old buildings in narrow streets leading to the schloss.

My destination was Riesa. For pronunciation, forget the I. I didn’t know what kind of place to expect.

There seemed to be one long shopping street and when I saw a sign that showed that Riesa is twinned with Rotherham my heart sank. That’s not fair because I have never been to Rotherham….and I would be surprised if anyone from Riesa had been either, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have got twinned in the first place! Maybe they both got bombed in the war too but forgot to rebuild!

My accommodation is clean and comfortable….but not what you would call classy!

I took an evening walk hoping to unearth hidden gems in the town. The best I could do was finding a mini zoo behind the Kloister Church.

So, if I could I would have swapped my idea of an early ride for extra time in Dresden, an afternoon visit to Meissen and half an hour for Riesa….sorry Riesa. If you think about it, this was still a communist country 33 years ago and you can still tell in places.