Breakfast (Fruhstuck) prepared by our hostess Ute Schirner, was very good and generous. It consisted of fresh bread rolls, cold meat, cheese, boiled egg (from their own hens), jam and plenty of good coffee. Kris and Elsbeth got talking (in German) with Ute about the area and concluded there is a lot to see along the Elbe river.

After breakfast we headed into Meissen. After taking a wrong turn into the industrial area of Meissen, we found ourselves back on the right road and suddenly came across the river with the wondrous castle and church towers on the other side, and lots of old red roofed houses clustered round. It reminded us of some of the French towns we had visited together three years ago, also overlooking rivers, but Meissen is of course also totally unique.

We rode into town looking for parking – and had our first lucky experience of the day. As we pulled into park, Kris saw the man in the car next to him gesturing and was handed a parking ticket with an hour parking still on it!

Having been away from Europe for three years, we were again taken up with the beauty of the buildings, cobblestones, the statues and interesting little shops, the atmosphere of the old town. We meandered around a little. Eventually we found the tourist office and Kris booked our next accommodation in the same area (unfortunately Ute couldn’t accommodate us at Gasthaus Shirner).

We decided to extend our parking time and see if Elsbeth could make it up to the castle. We took it nice and slow, first just a bit uphill along a cobbled street, but then eventually having to do quite a climb up a series of steps. She did amazingly well and made it to the top at a steady pace.

The castle is the oldest surviving German castle. There is also a bishops castle, and a Cathedral with high twin towers, which is 1000 years old. We had a good look through the inside of the Cathedral, which was just beautiful and still felt sacred, even though it is serving as a museum. The high alter and choir stalls are totally separated from the nave. Some beautiful religious art, both modern and ancient, old style stained glass windows (no big pictures in the glass).

We had a luxurious lunch at a café right next to the Cathedral, sitting on the surrounding fortified walls. We sat at an outside table in the warm sun, looking out over the town and the river. We all had the potato soup, served with pieces of sausage and crusty bread. Elsbeth and I had a Meissen beer, choosing the dark variety, which was also a treat.

By this time our parking was running out again so we needed to get back to the car. We decided to take a lift down that we had seen earlier, but this put us on the wrong side of the town. So Elsbeth and I had a seat at a bus stop and sent Kris off to find the car and bring it round to us.

Next planned stop was the porcelain factory, which Meissen is famous for. Kris took us on a planned detour to the town on the other side of the river, and some unplanned detours through a nearby tunnel and along the Elbe river. Eventually we got to the porcelain factory vicinity and had the second lucky parking experience of the day. This time a lady handed us a ticket paid up until 5pm! Is this common practice in Germany?

The porcelain factory has been there for 300 years and still manufactures very expensive beautiful handmade porcelain. It was the first porcelain factory in Europe. There were demonstrations of how they shape the porcelain by hand and also how they paint by hand. There was also a museum with a huge number of historic and modern pieces – some that had been made for various European royalty, A lot of it was quite hideous to my taste, but then every now and then there was something quite lovely. It definitely gave me an appreciation for the effort that goes into handmade porcelain. We all felt quite visually saturated at the end of a couple of hours at the museum.