Meissen, Germany on the Elbe

Last German Trip

*tear*

This week I went for my last trip in Germany this time around. I went up to Berlin for a night to visit Megs, Allen, and Rachel. It was a rather quiet night, but we had a great dinner in Allen's neighborhood and then sat out on the terrace of an apartment that Rachel was housesitting. Nice and cool after a long, sticky day. On Monday I hopped on a train to Dresden, which if you aren't up-to-date on your German geography is in the former East. Since I was in the area, I decided to go and visit Meissen--a small town about 25 km northwest of Dresden. Meissen and Dresden are both along the Elbe River, which had a major flood in 2002. Anyways, I went to Meissen, because there are a few ancestral ties to my family, but I also wanted to check out the porcelain factory there. Meissen porcelain is the oldest porcelain producer in all of Europe! It was founded way back in the early 1700s and still goes on old recipes and practices. It was a particularly interesting tour, because you got to see current workers doing their things. I saw everything from someone working with the raw porcelain to the painters to the etchers and the glazers. By the time I got back to Dresden, it was dinner time, but I went for a walk through the Neustadt to the Altstadt and was able to see a tiny slice of what the city has to offer. It was a nice little trip, even though it was a bit short.