Day 53 (July 31st): Dresden & Wurzburg

Woke up at 8:45 AM, showered and packed up. We walked around the block from the hotel to get breakfast. Al and I commented that there was some nice buildings but overall there was a dreary feeling (same feeling as Berlin). Many buildings looked like they were built in the 1950's and not updated since. You could definitely see a difference between the old East and West Germany. We found a bakery to get food at and I had a turkey sandwich with cabbage and lettuce on a long roll, Zach had a pretzel roll and donut, Hannah had a salami sandwich and Al had a cheese sandwich and coffee. After breakfast we packed up the car and drove to the Dresden Alstadt. It was an overcast day with occasional drizzles so we put on our rain gear in order to walk around. The city was very nice with numerous churches and museums (see picture on left). Dresden was leveled during WWII and all the buildings were reconstructed to their former glory (the souvenir shops sold post cards that showed what the city looked like in 1945). We walked down to the Elbe River and looked at the old buildings along the river (see bottom picture). A little past the river is the Zwinger which is a beautiful palace modeled after Versailles (see top picture above). We walked around for a few hours checking out the sites before stopping at a restaurant for lunch. I had a fish soup, Zach had fries, Hannah had a salad with chicken and Al had a cream soup. It was a nice meal but too bad I couldn't sample the local beers since I needed to drive shortly. We walked back to the car and started driving south to Munich when we decided to change our plans mid-trip. Instead of going to Munich now we headed to Wurzburg which is the most northern city on the Romantic Road. It took about two hours and we arrived in Wurzburg around 5:30 PM. From the Frommer book we found a wonderful little bed and breakfast. They had two non-connecting rooms available so Zach and I roomed together and Al and Hannah slept in the other. The innkeeper was very nice and he spoke very good English. We decided to eat dinner at the inn and had a great meal. I had sliced beef with fried onions, fried potatoes with a salad, Zach had a plain chicken and fries (of course he didn't like the chicken), Hannah had salmon, rice and a salad, and Al had saurbraten, red cabbage and a salad. All of our portions were very large. The highlight of the meal was my beer. I had a Rauch bier from Bamberg. The innkeeper described the taste of the beer as bacon flavored and he wasn't far off. When I took my first sip it was like I just drank liquid bacon. As I kept drinking I enjoyed it more and more.
After dinner, we walked around and checked out the city. Since Zach was hungry we stopped to get him pizza and Hannah got ice cream. There were a few churches, statues and a nice bridge that provided a good view of a fortress on the other side (see picture on right). We walked along the river and went across the bridge and then headed back to the inn. When we got back, Zach took his nightly shower and then he and I laid in bed labelling pictures on the computer. He was getting tired and fell asleep around 11:30 PM and I stayed up until 12:00 AM working on the pictures.