After 12 hours of train travel we made it to Dresden. We rented Brian a bicycle from post and they gave him a sweet helmet. He wasn't able to wear it correctly because of his large backpack so he had to wear it backwards which drove the ladies wild.
One of the first things we saw in Dresden was this skate park that nobody was on. Hell, we had mountain bikes and thought we should shred some. It was a lot of fun but unfortunately, like most things, we suck at it.
We kept riding through the city trying to find the best place to crash when we found the shiniest golden statue I'd ever seen.
Traveling on bikes sure is convenient but it does have some danger. I ran into Brian, maybe on purpose, maybe not, as we crossed the bridge over the Elbe River into the AlteStadt (Old City).
Luckily we had our safety gear on and we were up and running in no time.
We ended up staying in a hostel right next to the Hbf (train station) where we started. We decided to splurge and get the penthouse suite.
We got back out on the road to do some more sightseeing. The weather was overcast with a few drizzles here and there but oh well. Dresden still shows wounds from the bombing raids of 1945. This is the Frauenkirche which is a sacred church there that took over 60 years to rebuild. They rebuilt it almost entirely from the same materials of the original that were scattered about the streets.
Despite the destruction of WWII, there were a lot of old buildings still around. Some were pretty unique like this mosque-looking building which used to be a cigarette factory. Now there's a restaurant on top and the rest is offices.
Riding along the Elbe River.
Wheelies in the courtyard of some mansion.
Old graveyard we just had to take a picture of.
View from the little bar on top of our hostel looking over the Dresden Hbf.
Early the next morning we hopped on the train and headed for Sachsenring for the Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland (Moto GP). We got to see some pretty neat stuff like Michael Schumacher's World Superbike Honda.
Trike, which normally I would think is pretty lame, but this had a Porsche engine in the back.
Valentino Rossi's Moto GP Yamaha.
We thought it would be a good idea to take a ride on the ferris wheel at the race for a couple of reasons. One, I had never been on one that I can remember. And two, it would give a great view of the surroundings.
You could spin this ferris wheel around which was nice and this video also gives the viewer the opportunity to notice my new bald spot on the back of my head. Just lovely.
Apparently Europeans tailgait also. I would love to see how they do it, maybe some other time...
Ducati's tent.
Brian and I were debating about whether or not the clutch is supposed to be exposed like this...
Race version of my bike. Okay, more like it has Suzuki written on it with a Yohsimura exhaust and that's where the similarities end.
Brian and I getting ready for the race.
You can see the blur of the bikes whizzing by us.
It was a good race with Rossi winning on the last lap.
Mass exodus...
We stayed to watch the sidecar race which was kind of funny.
German cuisine. I still didn't see any fish on sticks like I did at the Schweinfurt Volksfest. They literally take a raw fish, throw it on a stick over a fire, and that's it. It smells horrible and I was trying to show Brian but I couldn't find any.
Even the banhof near Sachsenring had racing influence. Kinda reminds me of the NASCAR influences of home.
The race was eerily similar to NASCAR races perhaps because we paid only 50 euro for the cheap seats (sitting on the side of a hill) with the common folk. It sure was a lot of fun and I hope I get to go to more of them. The train ride back to Schweinfurt only took four hours and I waved goodbye to Brian as he headed for Prague, Czech Republic.
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