Last week I had Sadie all to myself while Hunter was at a conference in Dresden. I was pretty scared about it, because normally when Hunter gets home he can help take care of her and sometimes I can even take a shower or something by myself. However, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Sadie got a little more independent, so she could entertain herself while I cleaned up and I even made some progress on cross-stitch while we watched TV together. I'm glad Hunter is back this week, but I survived everything--even the solo plane trip!
On Friday afternoon I flew from Cologne to Dresden with Sadie. This wasn't so bad either; people were constantly asking if I needed help, and since Cologne is not a huge airport, going through security didn't take very long. The flight to Dresden is a bit less than an hour, and Sadie did get a little fussy once they gave me food--she really doesn't like when other people eat and she doesn't get to! Hunter met me at the airport and we headed to the hotel. Since Hunter made the reservation this time, the hotel wasn't out in the middle of nowhere. He got us a hotel right in the middle of everything, and for some reason they upgraded us to a deluxe room, which was huge!
After we rested for a little bit, we went out to get dinner. Dresden is pretty near the Czech border, so in addition to signage being in English and German, some of it was in Czech and I think maybe Russian? The restaurant we went to was Saxonish/Bohemian (Dresden is in Saxony). The food was pretty close to German but I think maybe a bit more flavorful. The thing I got was beef with a gravy and cranberry sauce and some pretty well-cooked brussels sprouts. We had brought Sadie's portable high chair with us and she got plenty of admiration. We were giving her little tastes of our food, but then the waitress offered to bring her some mashed potatoes. Here she is having a taste:
They had some tasty looking desserts on the menu, but Sadie was getting pretty impatient by the end of things. We found a bar that had outdoor seating because we thought she would like it better, but it didn't go super well. For one thing, they took FOREVER to bring my my drink, and Sadie wasn't too much happier outside than inside. It had been a long day so we went back the the hotel.
Saturday, I wanted to go to the transparent Volkswagen factory. It's a giant glass factory where they make the Volkswagen Phaeton, which costs like 100,000 Euros. I had kind of expected there to be lots of machinery and stuff, but actually the cars are mostly handmade, except for the parts where they really need a machine to do it. They seem pretty fancy; the tour was really half sales pitch and the guide was a bit of a goofball, but it was still interesting to see. Here is a picture of the factory from the outside:
After that we grabbed some lunch. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant and got a fried banana for Sadie so she wouldn't feel left out.
We walked around a little bit. The interesting thing about Dresden is that like half of the architecture is just gray Soviet bricks, the other half looks old, but is in most cases recently restored. I took this picture of a sign on a church:
The basic gist of what it says is: "In 1933 there were 4675 Jews in Dresden. In 1945 there were 70. We remained silent as you were disenfranchised and killed. [we didn't see you as our brothers and sisters?] We ask for your forgiveness and peace."
Hunter told me a more exact translation but I don't remember all the words so I did the best I could.
Saturday afternoon, we went to the Zwinger, which is a set of galleries. They had a math/science one that was, sadly, not open, and a porcelain one that we didn't have time to go to. The only one we looked at was the paintings one. It was primarily old masters, and they had some really cool stuff. I think the star/most famous painting in their collection was this Raphael. They also had some cool Mannerist paintings, which I didn't even know what that was before but I really liked the style. They also have some of the grotesque type of Dutch still lifes, which I like, and it's always kind of fun to see paintings of like, a Nativity but everyone is wearing like 18th century clothing and is white or whatever. There is a big courtyard outside where Hunter took some pictures.
On Friday afternoon I flew from Cologne to Dresden with Sadie. This wasn't so bad either; people were constantly asking if I needed help, and since Cologne is not a huge airport, going through security didn't take very long. The flight to Dresden is a bit less than an hour, and Sadie did get a little fussy once they gave me food--she really doesn't like when other people eat and she doesn't get to! Hunter met me at the airport and we headed to the hotel. Since Hunter made the reservation this time, the hotel wasn't out in the middle of nowhere. He got us a hotel right in the middle of everything, and for some reason they upgraded us to a deluxe room, which was huge!
After we rested for a little bit, we went out to get dinner. Dresden is pretty near the Czech border, so in addition to signage being in English and German, some of it was in Czech and I think maybe Russian? The restaurant we went to was Saxonish/Bohemian (Dresden is in Saxony). The food was pretty close to German but I think maybe a bit more flavorful. The thing I got was beef with a gravy and cranberry sauce and some pretty well-cooked brussels sprouts. We had brought Sadie's portable high chair with us and she got plenty of admiration. We were giving her little tastes of our food, but then the waitress offered to bring her some mashed potatoes. Here she is having a taste:
They had some tasty looking desserts on the menu, but Sadie was getting pretty impatient by the end of things. We found a bar that had outdoor seating because we thought she would like it better, but it didn't go super well. For one thing, they took FOREVER to bring my my drink, and Sadie wasn't too much happier outside than inside. It had been a long day so we went back the the hotel.
Saturday, I wanted to go to the transparent Volkswagen factory. It's a giant glass factory where they make the Volkswagen Phaeton, which costs like 100,000 Euros. I had kind of expected there to be lots of machinery and stuff, but actually the cars are mostly handmade, except for the parts where they really need a machine to do it. They seem pretty fancy; the tour was really half sales pitch and the guide was a bit of a goofball, but it was still interesting to see. Here is a picture of the factory from the outside:
After that we grabbed some lunch. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant and got a fried banana for Sadie so she wouldn't feel left out.
We walked around a little bit. The interesting thing about Dresden is that like half of the architecture is just gray Soviet bricks, the other half looks old, but is in most cases recently restored. I took this picture of a sign on a church:
Hunter told me a more exact translation but I don't remember all the words so I did the best I could.
This is just a hardcore looking dude on a building that I wanted to take a picture of:
Saturday afternoon, we went to the Zwinger, which is a set of galleries. They had a math/science one that was, sadly, not open, and a porcelain one that we didn't have time to go to. The only one we looked at was the paintings one. It was primarily old masters, and they had some really cool stuff. I think the star/most famous painting in their collection was this Raphael. They also had some cool Mannerist paintings, which I didn't even know what that was before but I really liked the style. They also have some of the grotesque type of Dutch still lifes, which I like, and it's always kind of fun to see paintings of like, a Nativity but everyone is wearing like 18th century clothing and is white or whatever. There is a big courtyard outside where Hunter took some pictures.
A clock
And then of course he took some of Sadie:
Look how cute she is when she cries!
That night we went in comparatively early and watched a DVD. We ate dinner at a random restaurant and asked for some bread for Sadie. The waitress asked if we wanted [cream cheese with herbs] on it, and after she left, the person sitting near us commented on how ridiculous that was. She is a baby!
Here is a picture Hunter took of Sadie in the hotel room:
On Sunday, our flight didn't leave until 6:30, so we had some time to look around. We had gotten tickets for the English tour of the opera house at 3:00, but we had a lot of time until then. The first thing we did was to check out this big golden statue.
We had heard about a Dostoyevsky monument, so after walking around a bit more we went to see that.
A view of the city as we walked over the bridge
Dostoyevsky
We had lunch at a Swiss type restaurant for lunch. Of course, Sadie got admired by nearly every person who walked by.
And then in the afternoon, we saw the opera house. It was basically destroyed, but was rebuilt to look exactly as it did before. The tour definitely gives some interesting information about how they did it and it is really beautiful on the inside. It would be great to see an opera or ballet there sometime! I didn't realize they would allow pictures, so I left my camera at the coat check :(
Well, that's basically what we did! Next trip we have planned is Paris at the end of May when my mom and sister come to visit!
What an awesome adventure!! Glad your confidence was boosted in your alone time with Sadie - you ROCK, mom!!!!
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