So, it was off to Freiberg. We three set off in a rental car I’d picked up from the airport, and had arranged to return in Dresden just prior to heading off from there to Prague later in the week.

The autobahn was terribly fun to drive on. Contrary to popular notions, it is not a blanket rule that autobahn == no speed limit. There are sections of the autobahn without a speed limit, which are chosen judiciously based on road curvature and whatnot. I wasn’t a madman or anything, but I think I got up to a bit over 100mph. Roughly equivalent to what you might find me doing on an empty stretch of road to the Cabin.

We arrived at the Freiberg temple and checked in for the night. I nodded off at around 8pm. Luckily I got a room to myself, because I was up at 1am the next morning with a fever, a cough, and a very empty stomach. My early mornings galavanting around cliff-sides in Mallorca had finally caught up with me. I don’t recall falling asleep again that night, but I might’ve. At 5am I’d had enough and decided to stumble out to the car, through the snow that was now falling, to get an orange I had left in there the day prior.

Being mostly useless that Tuesday, I left temple-going to Amber and Lesley. Headed in to town to grab some powderized aspirin, which was quite effective.

I’d never gotten the chance to put Amber on the insurance for the rental, so I’d be forced to drive wherever we went. Thankfully by the time the other two were done with the temple, I was back in working order. So off we went to Freiberg town center.

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We headed back to the temple for dinner, then started watching “3 Idiots”. Didn’t get far into it before we had to turn in due to the curfew.

The next morning we did a couple of temple sessions. I opted out of a translation unit, which was a fun experience, trying to match what I recalled to what I could make out.

Afterwards, Lesley stayed behind to do more temple work while Amber and I drove off to Dresden. Lovely city with amazing architecture. We had lunch at a great Italian place, checked out a transportation museum, and ducked into a modern art gallery.

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Back to the temple for dinner, then watched a bit more of 3 Idiots before calling it a night.

The next morning we were off to Dresden to return the rental car and catch our bus off to Prague. Ran into a few issues on the way out.

• We got a bit of a late-ish departure from the temple, which ate into most of our time budget. There was a train that ran between the car drop-off facility and the bus station, and we could no longer afford to miss it.
• I forgot to fill the car up with gas. Normally I don’t allocate time for such things when traveling for work, since I use hardly any gas. We’d traveled quite a ways though, so I didn’t want to get stiffed with a hefty fee. Even more time eaten up.
• After heading off from the gas station to what Google Maps claimed was the drop-off point, we realized we’d been led astray, as it was just an office building, not a parking garage. We were right next to the airport, so clearly we were in the right vicinity, but we didn’t exactly have time to wander around looking. So I drove us back to the gas station and rushed in to ask the attendants where the parking garage was. Unfortunately they only knew enough English to tell us they didn’t know any English. There was a group of what looked to be high-school-aged kids in at the time, so I cried out, “Does anyone know any English?!?” Some kid answered and pointed me in the right direction. Thanked him profusely.
• We rolled on in to the parking garage and found an attendant, but for Hertz rather than Alamo. Asked him where the Alamo facility was and he had no idea what company we were talking about. Rolled around the garage fruitlessly for a few minutes, before deciding to head to the exit and see if it was on a different floor. Time was ticking. Just before exiting we spotted an information desk that had the Alamo logo on it, along with plenty of others. Parked the car and anxiously awaited an attendant, since we weren’t totally sure we’d made it to the right place. But the attendant went ahead and checked us out, so off we went to the train entrance.

Made it on the train, to the bus station, onto the bus, and into our seats, after asking Goatee Guy to move along.

Arriving in Prague, we wheeled our luggage off to our Airbnb, then set off to grab some lunch. Headed to Sansho’s, an amazing Asian place, which we went back to later on the visit. After that we walked around and stumbled across the National Museum.

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From there we caught a subway back to our lodging, and turned in for the night. We finished 3 Idiots, then I watched the latest Star Trek Picard episode while Amber pretended to be interested.

Next morning we headed to Cafe Mistral for an amazing breakfast.

From there we went off to the Klementinum, a compound sort of place with solar clocks and other neat mechanical thingies. Plus an incredibly awesome library full of only-editions.

Weren’t allowed inside, had to take turns peeking in from an observation area.

From there it was off to “Tourist Alley”.

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Decided to head back to our lodgings and drop off the shopping we’d picked up. It was a couple hours until the next thing on our itinerary, and we took the very uncharacteristic option of actually taking a nap. It was glorious.

Nap complete, it was off to the theatre! Specifically the State Opera House, to see La Boheme. They helpfully had English subtitles shown above the stage. My very first Italian opera.

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The next morning we hit up Prague’s cathedral, at just the right time to see some amazing sunlight through the stained glass windows.

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Then began a quest to get some Prague fabric for Mom. My very first day I spotted what looked like a perfect place right next to where we picked up our keys. Headed back and it turns out most fabric shops in Prague are closed for either all or most of Saturdays. Spotted one that looked to be open for another half hour or so, 25 minutes away by public transport. Made it just in time, with a minute to spare, only to be turned away, as their clock was 3 minutes fast and they thought it was already closing time, notwithstanding my protestations to the contrary.

Googled another place and it looked to be open till evening, so we headed back to the center of Prague. On the way, since we now had time, we stopped by an art gallery that looked neat.

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Made it to the fabric shop, which turned out to be Italian fabric rather than Prague-ian, but no matter. It was fun calling Mom and having her and Amber collaborate on picking out samples. I’m actually glad the first few places were closed because I never would’ve thought to call and consult, and would’ve gotten not enough of entirely the wrong thing.

We then headed back to the apartment, watched Bernie, then headed out for a late bus back to Berlin, on which we watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E., a bit apropos given its setting.

Sunday was church followed by family dinner and game night.

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Monday morning was the sad goodbye.

Our flight from Berlin to Paris ran half an hour late, cutting our already short connection perilously close. Made it on the plane with minutes to spare.

Then home again home again, jiggety-jig.