So, the whole "no plans for the weekend" wasn't entirely true. About 3 hours after my last post I decided to go to
6 of us took the train from Prague at 10:30 in the morning to Dresden, arriving at about 12:45. The train was incredibly packed and we were kicked out of the cabin we had sat in originally, forcing us to sit/stand in the hall way for a while. Eventually we all split up and got seats in cabins with empty seats. The ride was really short, about 2 hours or so, and beautiful along the Elbe river. Crossing into Germany we had a passports checked twice and then we weren't far from the small city of Dresden.
After arriving, we walked down Prague Street and crossed the bridge from Old Town to New Town to find our hostel, called Hostel Louisa. We dropped off our things and searched for a place to have lunch. Not too far from the hostel we found a Mexican restaurant, and, yes, we stopped there -- hard to believe our first meal in Germany was Mexican food.
At the restaurant we met up with Anna and Julie and then the 8 of us headed into Old Town. Along the way we stopped to see the Coop Himmeb(l)au UAF Cinema (image on the left) and then we walked to the Volkwagon Glaswerk building. We stopped for a beer at a small market/ festival in the traditional market area that holds the oldest Weihnachtmarkt in Germany during Christmas time.
It was about twilight around this time and everyone was pretty hungry, so we walked through the Old Town Square -- which has Frauenkirche, a 
church that was nearly completely destroyed in the 1945 bombings of Dresden. The city burned for five days and the city was practically leveled by American forces. Because of this, the majority of the city has been rebuilt and looks much more contemporary that it would have if the original buildings had withstood the destruction.
Anyway, the eight of us found a German restaurant near our hostel called Watzke Brauhaus. They had their own brew 
of beer and really amazing food. I had a bratwurst with a curry sauce. No lie, the bratwurst was as big as my plate and after not eating bratwurst for eight years, I think I've had more than my share now! After dinner, we all called it a night and headed to bed.
Saturday morning, Leah and Katarina met us at the hostel and the ten of us reached a consensus to split up into smaller groups so we could do what we all wanted. So, Anna, Julie, Katarina, Leah and I went on our way. We stopped for a great breakfast at a local bakery and then crossed the bridge into Old Town. We decided we wanted to get some history and see more of the city than just the main part, so we bought a tour bus ticket that took us around the city all day long with the ability to jump on or off at any time we wanted. We rode the bus all the way to the Elbe Meadows along the Elbe river and got off to take some photos of the the three castles on the opposite side of the river. From there we walked past the Jewish Synagogue and into the Botanical Gardens. We got to the Volkswagon Glaswerk and met up with everyone else, as we had made a reservation the day before for a tour of the factory.
The Volkswagon Glaswerk Manufaktur assembles and produces the Volkswagon Phaeton - this is the only location in the world where it is produced. The Phaeton is Volkswagon's luxury car with amenities putting it on the same level as Mercedes, BMW, and Volvo. Each Phaeton is custom ordered, so there is no mass production. If someone wants one, they come into the factory to pick out everything they want and then come back up to 6 months later and drive away with the Phaeton they designed -- in the end, the median cost of a Phaeton will be about $120,000.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the factory, but we were able to tour the facility's assembly area- it was impeccably clean- and then we were able to try a simulator in which we actually were sitting in and driving a Phaeton against a computer generated test track. The tour was a lot of fun and I think I could definitely move back to Germany, buy a Phaeton, and drive all day on the autobahn --- someday when I have a real job??
Anyway, after the tour the ten of us split up again and my group of girls headed back to the tour bus and we rode around until we got to one of the castles on the opposite side of the Elbe River.
We toured around the grounds and then sprinted back to our bus -- we realized almost too late that our this bus was going to be the last one for the day.
We made it on the bus and then back to the hostel to meet up with everyone else. We went out to a traditional German restaurant -I had schnitzel with pommes frites (breaded pork with french fries). Afterwards, we all went out to another bar and then called it a night around 4 am or so... we actually were at the restaurant until after midnight, so it was a long night!
Waking up by 11:30 to check out of the hostel was difficult for everyone, but we managed to do so just in time and then headed to the market place again for lunch. Then we walked to the train station and hopped on a 2 and a half hour train back to Prague.
It was a great spur of the moment trip and I really enjoyed attempting to speak German again -- I couldn't believe how much I remembered!
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