14 August 2013.
Have wheels, will travel.
Niel planned our route today. We will start in Meißen, and then drive through the Mulde valley, where there seems to be some castles and old churches.
The confidence is growing with the driving, although the only real comfortable space is on the Autobahn. Driving in the city has the challenges of trams that often share your lane. Fortunately, traffic lights prevent frequent close encounters with trams, and it often helps just following other cars that look like they know what they are doing. Except for one thing – these Germans drive a little faster than we normally do. 😐 As for country roads – these are often so narrow, that two cars can only just pass each other. If you get faced head-on with a truck – well – Niel normally stops dead in his tracks, and pulls off the road. Mostly to the frustration of the cars behind him. And as always, we are fortunate that there are never really many cars in front of us. The same can not be said for the number of cars behind us ;o)
Meißen is, as all German towns go, beautiful. It’s impressive Albrechtsburg castle is perched on a little hilltop overlooking the town, and with the spires of the cathedral visible behind it, it makes for an impressive sight. We strolled through the old part of the city, and Niel climbed up the tower of the Frauenkirche, to get some better photo’s of the castle.
The Mulde valley is just beautiful. Even the large wind turbines that are dotted all over the countryside do not spoil the beautiful hilly landscape. We planned to see about four castles, and in places, their nearby churches. The first was Schloss Colditz. This one was easy to spot, and so we quickly moved on to Rochlitz, where the castle is next to a beautiful part of the Mulde river, with an old railway bridge running over it. 
Wechselburg has an old baroque church – St Petersburg Otto Kirche, which has a beautiful old organ. Next to it, yet very tricky to get to, is a monastery and basilica.
And then there is the Göhrener Viaduct.
The last castle in Rochburg was almost impossible to find. And of course, Emily, with all her maps, could not foresee all the “Umleitungs” that made it even more difficult. We eventually did find it, but not without some choice vocabulary.
And that was us for the day. And with no afternoon nap, we were now completely exhausted. 🙂 So we made our way back to Dresden, and ended the day with a good German meal. 🙂
