On Sunday we got up bright and early to meet Jana & Filip at the train station at 07:45 so we could catch the 08:28 train north to Dresden, Germany. Our goals for the day were three: To see the Czech countryside northwest of Prague by train, to see the famous Green Vault collection of treasures of August the Strong in Dresden, then to drive through Saxony and back into western Czechia to the famous spa city of Karlovy Vary, known as Carlsbad when it was in the Bohemia part of Germany.
Everything went according to the plan, and the ride with our friends was both scenic and pleasant.
The countryside north and west of Prague gets pretty rugged, and for much of the way the train tracks followed along the Elbe River, which flows through Dresden. You can see in the photo that parts of the Elbe River valley are narrow, with steep rocky sides.
We had met Jana and Filip at a coffee shop in Prague, where the food on offer was pretty uninspiring. We had planned to find something better on the train, but that was even less inspiring than the train station. Melissa and Lorna both asked me pointedly "Remind me again why we're not in Italy?"
Our plan upon arriving in Dresden, even before getting to the Green Vault, was to get to the Avis car rental office and get a car big enough to keep our luggage secure while we were in the museum.
We couldn't just rent the first car we found. Lorna and Melissa don't travel light, and we already had some treasures purchased in France and in Prague. Large cars are harder to find in Europe than in America, but I had reserved a big car and we were lucky enough to get it. That's no sure thing in Europe, and a smaller car would have been no use to us, as you can see!
I parked at Parkplatzmanagement altmarket (the first part is the name of the chain of parking lot, and the second is the location of the specific lot where I parked). Then we set out for a much-needed lunch before hitting the museum.
We opted for lunch at Anna im Schloss, in the Residenzschloss. I was happy to see eiskaffee on the menu. I'm no scholar of the German language, but I know that's ice-coffee, and I was eager for a tall black. cold, bitter iced coffee. I was disappointed to see that it was not iced black coffee, but coffee with ice cream stirred into it and a mountain of spray-can whipped cream floating on top.
I didn't finish it, and I'd lost my appetite for anything else, so I busied myself with updating our plan while the rest of our troupe ate. Lorna had an unsatisfactory spinach “dumpling” (really a sort of Napoleon of pastry with spinach and cheese layers - they seem to call anything bready a dumpling) followed by fluffy-puffy cinnamon “pancakes” (more like cinnamon-sugar doughnuts) with applesauce and ice cream, Melissa had a salad with falafel and potato soup. Jana had gnocchi with spring onions and a Red Bull, and I didn’t see what Filip got.
The Green Vault was totally amazing! But they do not allow photos so I cannot prove that assertion. You can see photos on their website.
After that we headed to the car but we were distracted by the Museum of Chocolate, actually a large chocolatier with a shop and an attached tasting room. Of course we had to taste something! Actually, a lot of things. Some of it was excellent, some of it merely good, and some was strange (a hot drink of chocolate with melted nougat swirled into it comes to mind). Everything was very sweet so I needed some black coffee, but I did not make the mistake of ordering an eis-kaffee again!
Around 5:00 PM we left Jana and Filip and started the drive to Karlovy Vary via the flatter German route. It was a pretty drive once we got away from Dresden, mostly the farm country of lower Saxony, gently rolling hills and large fields bordered by woodland.
Karlovy Vary (formerly Carlsbad) is a scenic and very famous spa town, known for its hot mineral springs and therapeutic baths. It's also the home of the headquarters of the company that makes the ubiquitous Becherovka liqueur. Many businesses are owned by Russian expats, and there are many wealthy Russian tourists. There's a lot of money in Karlovy Vary, and the town looks pretty and prosperous.
We stayed at the Hotel Romance. This hotel was a little quirky, but excellent. We had plenty of room and the room was in a classical style and very nice. There was no climate control except for the radiator and the windows. It’s a very vertical place, with parking on the street behind at the level of the fifth floor! They have a 24 hour front desk and no porters, but two rolling carts for luggage. It's on the edge of a car-restricted pedestrian shopping zone, but we had had enough of shopping for the nonce and planned to move on to Nuremberg in the morning.
We had dinner at the hotel: I had an opener soup of beef stock with liver dumplings (Polevka z Jatrove Knedlicky in Czech, Leberknödel in German) and a main of sturgeon, Lorna had Faroe Island salmon. Melissa wasn’t feeling well, so she didn't eat and after dinner we went to a convenience store for her extensive wish list of water, juice, yogurt, chips, and magnesium.
It was a good stay, and if we ever revisit Karlovy Vary, we'll stay again at the Hotel Romance.