We want to start this post by remembering Oreo – a wonderful dog and good friend to all the Bezzinas. We’ll miss her.

Tuesday morning our lovely AirBnB host treated us to an ARG/iPad location based game around Dresden. The game was still in development and was a bit like one of those Escape Room games except across multiple locations in the old town. Pretty fun concept.

We took some quiet time in the middle of the day then went for a walk back to funky Neustadt. We checked out some of the street art in the daylight, Marthese shopped for tea & coffee things while I leafed through an awesome selection of old records. We both exercised great self control and bought nothing, which was just as well because we sat around drinking cocktails in a funky bar with old furnishings for the next hour or so. Dinner was a traditional Saxon bar with great beer and delicious, well priced food. Despite being a sad day, we ended up having a lovely afternoon, spending time together in a town we’ve come to love. Marthese was not in the mood to be photographed so here’s lots of photos of me instead.

Wednesday was our three year marriage annniversary, so we casually decided to go to Prague. A 2 hour bus ride on a Flixbus (an affordable and impressive private bus company that operates across Europe) and we were in the Czech Republic! We did a group day tour that gave us a bit of a crash course of the city – mostly on foot, and partly on a short cruise. The city is amazingly preserved, with multiple eras ranging from medieval to modern all in good nick and still in use. While lovely to visit, the place was chock full of tourists. The city gets over 10 million visitors a year, which is impressive for a city of only 1.2 million inhabitants. We learnt a little more about Bohemia and got more excited to be approaching the Austrian centre of power later in the trip.

Our excellent guide was a passionate historian who was more than happy to wear his political convictions on his sleeve. These convictions included extreme disdain for the current president and concerns about young Russians who feel the WW2 liberation entitles them to a stake in the country.

A fascinating city with lots to explore, but we were also happy to return to Germany where we felt a little more comfortable and weren’t always checking behind us for pickpockets or American tourists.

(Note to readers: if it wasn’t obvious, you can always click on photos for a larger version.)

After a lovely beer and meal at a riverside bar featuring the local brew, we took a short walk over to the stunning Dresden Opera House. It was a bit of an ordeal finding our seats, then having to retrace our steps to check our bags in, but when we finally settled into our cheap seats we were suitably impressed. The rebuilt opera house is gorgeous and ornate, and while our tickets were over 100 euros cheaper than the best, we still had a great view if we did a little leaning. No surprise, I was quite underdressed, a little embarrassing.

The show for the night was Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The lights dimmed and the orchestra played the overture, and it was beautiful. Perfect sound, perfectly played. Then the curtains opened, revealing a modern day office space, men in modern suits and girls in short skirts. Marthese and I turned to each other and laughed – on the way in we had been joking about the modernisations of classics and how funny it would be if that’s what we were seeing! The text and music remained unchanged, but the staging was totally modern complete with smart phones and tablets replacing scrolls and spy glasses.  While the subject matter of a womaniser, rapist and murderer sat uncomfortably in the modern setting, there were a lot of nice touches and striking tableaux that were carefully choreographed and directed. Great performances and fantastic music, just some cringe-worthy lines being displayed on the subtitle screen (both English and German, opera was in Italian).

Another shock was when the stage setting changed for the next scene – instead of things being moved around onstage, the entire stage was raised to reveal another set below it!

We were both kinda sleepy by the end, and the show did go on, but it was a great experience and boy does the final act have some kick-ass tunes (despite having a nonsensical narrative).

Another short entry today. It’s raining and cold outside so we stayed local and visited the Residenzschloss, the Royal Palace, which has been converted into a huge museum. The place was basically full of treasure, weapons and clothing. Ornate clocks, gorgeous jewellery, intricate cabinets, Ottoman tents and weapons, a history of Saxon armour and tools of war – all on display across three floors of a single wing of the old palace. Thankfully all of these treasures were hidden in caves before the bombing of 1945 that decimated most of the old buildings in the area. Since the Russians took control of the area after the war, they took most of these treasures home for themselves, but returned them some time later to try to build a stronger relationship with the citizens of East Germany.

Tonight we are off for a NIGHT AT THE OPERA. La di da.

The Saxon Switzerland National park is a lovely 30 minutes southeast of Dresden, and you walk through an extremely quaint traditional German town and cross the Elbe in a ferry to get there. Plenty of German tourists around, but we were the only English speakers there (including restaurant staff!)

Pictures don’t do it justice, the day was overcast and a little misty, but the walk up the mountain was gorgeous. Incredible views. Lovely day spent strolling the German countryside.

We didn’t get home till 1am last night, so we were off to a slower start this morning. Ready to explore our immediate area a little closer, we grabbed our Rick Steves Germany guide (we’ve also used the Lonely Planet this trip and it’s been a good accompaniment) and did a little guided walking tour of the area.

The tour mostly focussed on the reconstructed buildings of the old Saxon Kings, including baroque palaces, giant old churches, opera houses and old battlements that now serve as tourist lookouts. A couple of soviet era buildings, including the Palace of Culture with its Marxist depictions of German history carved in iron on the doors, rounded out a lovely walking tour that we completed at a lazy, satisfying pace. Everything in this part of town is so close together, it really is quite special.

While the tour itself was fun, it was the small things we stumbled on along the way that made it special. A sausage sizzle with a big band playing celebrating the anniversary of something or other. A medieval themed restaurant that also served up delicious, traditional Saxon food. But the discovery in the Catholic Church was the most impressive of all. Built by Augustus II to further ingratiate himself with the Pope and make himself popular enough among the Polish people to become their King, the towering church is not as frequently visited as the Protestant Frauenkirche. However we were curious enough to check out this Catholic monument in Martin Luther country, and we were rewarded with a stunning rehearsal by a choir and orchestra from the local opera! They were setup at the front of the church, and the sound reverberating around the Church hall was breathtaking. We were so inspired we decided to pop down to the local Opera House and buy ourselves a ticket to a Mozart concert on Monday night!

In stark contrast to yesterday’s diversity rally, gathered outside the statue of Martin Luther today was a well organised rally of white nationalists waving flags and chanting slogans that I’m glad I couldn’t understand. Their numbers were modest, but their prescence was strong. Guess wee shouldn’t get too comfortable.

Stay vigilant, comrades!

Post-script: Took a little stroll later and was blocked by the fascist rally. Glad it happened, my detour led me to the anti-fascist rally – young people with middle fingers raised and punk music blaring out of the back of a truck. My people.

Fuck fascists forever.

Marthese did that thing she does where she says “Look, it might be too early to say this, but Dresden might just be my one of my favourite cities in the world!” It’s hard to debate that. We’ll certainly miss Prenzlauer Berg, but leaving rainy Berlin and our adequate accomodation to arrive in the fascinating city of Dresden has been fantastic.

From arriving at the station, Dresden feels totally modern, but hints of the old town can be seen from everywhere, with multiple ashen towers visible always in the near distance. There’s an almost Verona quality to the fancy streets and community spaces near the main station, and we stumbled into a parade celebrating diversity of all types that was a surprisingly moving welcome to the city. Dresden doesn’t hide from politics, and the vibe here is one of inclusivity and fierce opposition to right-wing nationalism.

We walked towards our accomodation into the gorgeous Altstadt (old town) with the impressive Frauenkirche (big church) at its centre. We can’t wait to explore this incredible area, almost totally rebuilt following the devastating bombings in 1945. Our AirBnB looks RIGHT OVER the Frauenkirche and is incredibly comfortable, one of the best places we’ve ever stayed. Our hosts, Marcus and Marcus, spent almost an hour talking to us about the town and joking with us about eating mushrooms in the Blue Mountains.

A late delicious lunch at the local Augustiner bar was followed by an even later stroll over to the Neustadt (new town) on the other side of the bridge. While at first this area is pristine and lined with fancy stores and upmarket hotels, it soon gives way to a grungy loud hotbed of noise, bustling with young people bar hopping and smoking in the streets. The real Dresden starts here!

Our night walking tour with Danilo started at 9pm, an exuberant and passionate man who was kind enough to translate much of the tour into English for me, the only non-German speaker in the group of 12 East-Germans (meaning we’re a couple of Aussies in a group of Ossis, a joke which Marthese made out loud to great reception from the group.) When Danilo didn’t translate, my extremely talented and hilarious wife did. She has been invaluable on this trip and I recommend her for any visits to German speaking countries.

Danilo led us through his town, sharing his passion for its history and politics with us. The street art, the bars, the DDR history and the bumpy road after reunification were all fascinating to learn about. Danilo describes a “micro republic” which he was a citizen off, which (as far as I can discern) was some sort of well organised community movement in the Dresden area that aimed to address some of the potential inequalities that might arise from the reunification of east & west. They printed their own money (featuring the German flag and Mickey Mouse) and their own passports, and while it sounded like an extended work of performance art, actually seems to have had a serious cultural impact on the area, giving it the spirit and flavour that it currently has. As with all hip areas, the character does seem to be slowly eroding away due to gradual gentrification.

The tour included a drink at a cafe and a bar, and shots of a weird Saxony liquor in a poorly lit alleyway. Seriously one of the most unique and genuine tours we’ve ever been on.

Previous night food update: Oh my. The Prater Garten is a traditional German Beer garden only minutes from our apartment on foot. We had our first German beers of the trip (exquisite) and then had a meal which Marthese described as one of the best meals of her life. I felt sorry for her, because there was no way her “dumplings” (I think they were just ravioli) compared to my succulent Wiener Schnitzel. Outstanding meal.

Today looked to be potentially the only clear day of the week in Berlin, so we planned a day trip out to Potsdam, a city on the Berlin border that was a residence to old Prussian Kings and the German Kaiser until 1918. The weather did indeed hold out and ranged from chilly, to quite nice, to quite warm, then back to quite nice again. No rain in sight.

From the main station in Potsdam we walked through town on the way to the palace gardens. Potsdam seemed a bit well to do, fancy and potentially a tourist trap, but was not at all crowded and quite pleasant. An epic old cathedral stands beside an east-bloc era apartment in this weird melting pot of German history.

We snuck into Sanssouci Park a weird way and stumbled into a quiet and impressive church courtyard. Sanssouci Park is an enourmous park containing multiple palaces, most notably Sanssouci Palace itself which was built and inhabited by 18th century Prussian King Frederick the Great. Exploring the grand park grounds themselves reminded us of a less opulent Versailles, and there is no doubt the French icon was a huge influence on this park and its palaces (Frederick apparently spoke better French than he did German!).

Sanssouci Palace itself was beautiful, and despite a rather uninspiring audio guide, wandering the guest rooms and concert rooms while learning about Frederick the Great was a treat. This is an era of German/Prussian history that is mostly unknown to us and inspired Marthese to buy a book to learn more. Hidden around the corner from the palace is the “Picture Galley”, a custom built gallery for all the art that couldn’t fit in the palace. Easy to miss but wonderful to visit!

A 2km walk down a tree lined street (and via the weird but cool Chinese House that Frederick had built) is the New Palace, an enormous accompaniment to the Sanssouci Palace designed for more formalities and the capacity to house even more guests than the original palace. Despite there being conflicting information on how one can enter the New Palace (we frustratingly had to return to a ticket office to book a time to visit, something the gentleman who sold us our tickets neglected to tell us, and something that is not mentioned in any guidebooks) the interior is well worth the frustration. The “Marble Hall” with its balcony for musicians, elaborate marble floorings and gorgeous chandeliers was a jaw-dropping sight. Again, the audio guide was less than inspiring and left out fascinating details that were clearly on display. Marthese noticed a hammer and sickle and Russian graffiti behind the paintings in one of the rooms and had to find a tiny display text that told us the Russians had occupied the palace following WW2 and the graffiti read “Death to the German occupants”.  We wanted to know more, but alas, uninspiring audio guides.

An exhausting day, but a fun one. Now to rest our weary limbs. We’re aiming for a quieter one tomorrow. Let’s see how that goes.

We’re getting into the swing of it now! Despite the weather being quite gloomy and drizzling, we had a day of productive planning, wanderings and all-round nerdism.

Our first stop was the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the main station in Berlin, to buy tickets to Dresden in a few days. Rather than catch the subway there, we took a lovely walk from Prenzlauer Berg to the Mitte, and stumbled on lots of nifty stores and curious sights on the way. This is definitely the way Marthese and I prefer to travel – discovering sights on foot while on our way somewhere.

We sighted the Reichstag from the HBF so trotted over there to book tickets to actually go inside on Thursday. Past the Brandenburg Tor and the unshakeable sense of Deja Vu, we stopped at a curious museum dedicated to Willy Brandt, a former West Berlin Mayor and quite a significant figure in the city’s reunification.

A familiar stroll down Unter Den Linden took us back to Friedrickstrasse, the place where we buy shoes. So we bought shoes. Or as the Germans call them: schuhe. We then got confused by the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn all over again, but figured it out enough to get us to Friedrichshain, where Marthese had found the most hipster bookstore in Berlin – Fine Bagels. We had a pretty great lunch there (Tez opted for a “fancy” cream cheese bagel while mine had piles of pastrami) while checking out a bunch of books.  Seemed a place designed for tourists or expats, but was super cool.

And just around the corner from there, Marthese proved to be a wife with much patience and great value, as she accompanied me to the Computerspielmuseum Berlin – a computer game museum! The place was a blast, tracing a history of digital games with physical consoles on display, installations with significant game boxes or videos playing, a mini arcade, and recreations of “gaming in the home” throughout the decades. While I played with an oversized joystick, I caught Marthese having a go at a dance dance revolution machine. I have photographic evidence!! She also played a really old Pong machine with me! I got to play a Commodore 64, a NES and an original Playstation…. IN A MUSEUM. Kind of my dream. The whole place was extremely interactive and their attempt to codify this emerging medium was quite insightful and has me re-thinking some of what I ought to consider in game design.

A few U-Bahns home and we’re prepping for dinner and tomorrow. I can’t believe we get to do this for 6 weeks!

We woke up this morning in Berlin. Not at 11pm or 2am as our bodies tried to convince us to, but at 6am. We did it. But it’s been a struggle!

Things started out rough. Our check-in lady at Sydney seemed totally unsure whether or not our luggage would actually be transferred through to Berlin. Apparently “it might” but also “we don’t have an agreement with that airline so you’ll probably need to collect your luggage at Munich” and when informed that we would miss our transfer if that happened we were told that the travel agent had sold us what they call an “illegal transfer”. Well this was going well.

Thankfully Marthese was forceful and our attendant checked with her manager, and everything would be fine. But our anxiety had already started to kick in.

Next hurdle was the announcement from the pilot once we were on the plane that “due to an unknown technical problem, we’ll be returning to the terminal for our engineers to investigate.” Marthese and I looked at each other – what is going on today?

The takeoff was delayed by an hour as the engineers reset the systems in question and the plane was was given extra fuel, and that fuel was used to make up the lost time in the air. Everything was going smoothly again. This Qantas to Hong Kong flight was one of the best we’ve ever been on – excellent entertainment system with huge selection, best airline food we’ve ever had – it was stellar.

Welcome to Hong Kong

Look who we found!

We indulged in a little Luxury Lounge action at Hong Kong (just a food buffet and a shower really) but the travelling was taking its toll. I was just coming off a huge day of work despite still getting over a cold, and was feeling pretty wrecked.

Our Lufthansa flights to Berlin then Munich were less eventful and less impressive, and soon we were sleep deprived zombies waiting for our accomodation on the streets of Berlin. Once checked in to our peculiar AirBnB, we decided to explore the neighbourhood a bit to try to stay awake and get onto German time.

Prenzlauer Berg is a funky suburb in the east, pretty much right on the brink of hip culture morphing into full gentrification. Dilapidated buildings covered in graffiti are directly across the road from gorgeous new apartment complexes. It’s a funky area, and we soon found ourselves strolling through a garbage strewn Mauer Park, which was a far cry from the bustling version we visited on our Honeymoon 3 years ago.

Mauer Park

Our AirBnB host is some sort of Lost fan

Prenzlauer Berg graffiti

Well Marthese is back from her grocery store run and brought a lovely croissant and coffee for me, so I’ll terminate this rather uninteresting entry for now.

Auf Wiedersehen.