April 2025
Day 1 Edinburgh to Paris
At Waverley Station in time to get the 8 am LNER to Kings Cross – half an hour earlier than we have booked but this flexibility is the benefit of the Interrail pass. Enjoyable trip planning our stay in Dresden – the Military Museum and its modern extension looks very striking.
Enjoyable journey with a man whose wife chooses not to join him at our table. We arrive at Kings Cross about 12.40 and make our way to the desk at Eurostar where they are happy to change our tickets for the 3.30 to the 1.30 though we have to sacrifice the gluten free meal J went to trouble to order for me. And we are straight in to departures to buy me lunch from Pret. As usual, there are no seats to be had in the slum that is the departure lounge but we are soon on board and I wolf down the salad while we wait for the train driver to turn up, the bilingual guard sounding increasingly fed up in both languages.
After departure, lunch arrives including a gluten free option for me which J consumes while I continue to digest the Pret salmon salad as we progress at a leisurely pace. We are in Paris soon after 5.30 local time and walk to the Hotel Alane which is just off the Rue St Denis. We take a stroll down the road enjoying the sunny weather – substantial change from the rain this morning in Edinburgh. Macarons and fresh orange juice for tomorrow’s trip.
Dinner at La Quincaillerie watching the constant flow of pedestrians and cyclists. All the food so tasty we are inveigled into puddings that are a step too far. Mr Trump finally making some right noises about Ukraine after some good work by the organisers of Francis’ funeral.
Day 2 Paris to Dresden
Another salad lunch bought at Monoprix when it opens at 9 along with strawberries and dates. The 9.55 to Frankfurt is a busy train with reservations compulsory. Our seats are at a table with a good view until we realise we are in the wrong carriage and we have neither table nor view. Worse than that, the cafe doesn’t open until Karlsruhe – after 12.30 so the planned morning coffee doesn’t materialise. When coffee is eventually available, it is €4.10 a cup.
Scenery flat but increasingly sunny on our first trip. Frankfurt’s business district towers loom up after lunch and we have time to step out of the station though the main business in the immediate area seem to be sex.
Our second train for the day is more comfortable but less speedy – we never reach the nearly 200 mph we achieved in the morning but the opportunity to view the scenery is greater and coffee served at our table in china mugs costs (a little) less than the paper cup I queued for at Karlsruhe.
Nowhere to eat at the Neustadt station so we head for the hotel in a taxi; not only is the restaurant closed on Sunday as we knew but there is nowhere nearby to eat. Fortunately, there is a welcome fruit dish which is in fact entirely adequate. Schloss Eckberg is now a luxury hotel and very welcome at the end of the day of travel.
Day 3 Dresden Military Museum
Lovely breakfast overlooking the Elbe and quite an extensive flood plain; the tea comes with little row of egg-timers for 2, 3 and 5 minutes. An hour’s walk takes us past the two castles next door before woodland walking gives way to dual carriageway. Arrive at the Military Museum at 10 am – a very dramatic modern extension cutting a wedge-shaped gash in a wide-fronted mansion. Coffee is only from a machine but not bad.
Having come for the architecture, we stay for the museum which we find much more interesting and well-presented than expected.
Walk down the driveway from the museum which leads into the centre of the city where we come across some of the sights on our list including the Kunsthofpassage Singing Drain Pipes and the Pfunds Molkerei which is probably fair in claiming to be the loveliest milk shop in the world. The drain pipes only sing when it is raining so it is a tourist attraction we are happy not to see in full. bThe streets are relatively free of dog mess but the grafitti seems even to extend to private property.
Walk along the river back to the Schloss where exhaustion sets in. Dinner at 7pm in the hotel restaurant v stylishly presented Spargelkarte – asparagus menu with the seasonal produce a substantial part of the main course.
Day 4 Dresden Museums and Opera
Another fine breakfast sets us up for a walk along the river. After a while we come across a pedestrian ferry which carries us for €2 each to the other side of the river. Walk through the museum part of the city which is certainly v grand.
Arrive at Yenidze, the former cigarette factory disguised as a mosque. No access as the restaurant in the cupola doesn’t open until 12. Route back into town takes us to a coffee place from where we arrive at the fabulous Zwinger Palace.
We buy a combo ticket for three museums, starting with the Mathematical Instruments where, disappointingly, there are only videos of the automatons working on display.
We we return to Yenidze for a roof top lunch of Saxony dishes.
After lunch, we return to the porcelain collection of the Elector August which is v splendid and much to our taste.
Coffee and a v tasty cheesecake reboot us for the Old Masters, the third of our €16 of museums. The collection of Canalettos of Dresden and Venice is particularly wonderful though some of the portraits also catch the eye.
Between 5 and 7 we sort out the tram we are getting back to the hotel after the opera and a Vietnamese restaurant. Opera house very busy and comme il faut. Lucia di Lammermuir unfamiliar to me – entirely in black and white which captures a period of 19/20th century Scotland though J doesn’t much like the direction. Hand cranked digital clock above the stage is quite eye-catching.
Tram journey includes a transfer to a bus but goes quite smoothly – a little unnerving to leave our first public transport here so late.
undivided-back postcards 