Goodbye to Italy....for a week, Hello Germany

Saturday 30th June and we're all packed up.  After 2 months we can fit everything into our suitcases and backpack because we haven't really bought much.  Laurie has delivered us to Spoleto station so we can catch the 16:02 express train to Roma Termini.

Once we've arrived in Rome it's a 20+ minute walk to our hotel - not very pleasant in the heat and pulling our suitcases along the cobbled paths.  Eventually we arrive at the Hotel Porta Maggiore in Piazza Porta Maggiore where we'll stay for just one night before we leave Italy for a week.  The hotel overlooks a park and several large gateways.  Once settled in and cooled down, we go for a walk along a nearby street.  It's pleasant under the trees.  Then it's back towards the hotel to a nearby restaurant for dinner before turning in for the night.

In the morning we pull our bags back to Roma Termini to catch the train to the airport.  This is a great service - a 30 minute express train right to the terminal.  The first class ticket is 14 euros each, so it's a bit expensive, but well worth it.

We check our bags through to Dresden in Germany.  Unfortunately the security at Rome airport won't let us take a couple of bottles of Romanelli wine with us, so it goes into the bin.  We hope the staff have the sense to retrieve it and drink it for us.  There weren't any signs until the very last check point about taking liquids otherwise we would have packed them in our suitcases.  We are a bit concerned when our plane leaves Rome nearly an hour late as we only have a one hour stopover in Frankfurt where we have to change planes.  As it happens, we made up some time and arrived at the gate for the Dresden plane with time to spare.

Unfortunately, although we arrived safely in Dresden our luggage didn't make it.  There were about 20-30 people in the same boat as us.  We had all flown either from Rome or Heathrow on late arriving flights.  The Lufthansa staff were kept busy with luggage claims and providing emergency kits of toiletries and a t-shirt for sleeping in.  We considered ourselves pretty lucky given the number of flights we've been on, that this is the first time our luggage has been lost.  After several phone calls we received our belongings 24 hours later by courier to our accommodation.

Our friends from Sweden, Inga and Phillip met us at Dresden airport.  We'll be spending the next week with them in Barenfels, a small village about 35km from Dresden in the mountains.  About an hour after we get into their car we arrive at the Gasthof Barenfels which will be our home for the next week (www.gasthof-baerenfels.de).  Inga has found a great deal with dinner, bed and breakfast and afternoon tea for a very reasonable price since it's their off-season.  This area has it's high season in the winter ski season.  Barenfels is a small village nestled in the foothills and is surrounded by conifer and oak woodlands.  It's much cooler here than we've been used to in Italy, in the low 20s, and it's also quite overcast.  We have thunderstorms and some rain forecast for the next week.