Elegant Elbe: Torgau (5/28/2018)

Monday, May 28, 2018 (continued)
We sailed from Meissen to Torgau.

Former windmill in Grödel

The wake of the Viking Astrild

Sort of a lighthouse on Elbstrasse in Riesa (KSS)

MediaMarkt, a computer store we frequented in Shanghai (KSS)

Viking Astrild cooking demonstration by Chef Oliver and a couple
passenger volunteers, for making Quarkkeulchen, a sort of cakey
pancake made with mashed potatoes

Other desserts provided included "apple pie"

and a yummy poppyseed cake

Great herds of sheep

More cows, plus a couple donkeys? (KSS)

Castle/Schloss Hartenfels (1532-1544, the only remaining
early Renaissance castle in Germany) in Torgau (KSS)

Torgau was an overnight stop, but Program Director Michael offered to lead a short walking tour through town, known for having about 500 Renaissance and late-Gothic buildings.

We walked past the lineup of campers on the riverbank

Across the Elbe River is a memorial at the site where on April 25, 1945
patrol members of the 69th Infantry Division of the First Army
(United States, advancing from the west) and the 58th Guards Rifle Division
of the 5th Guards Army (Soviet Union, advancing from the east) met

A monument for the event of the
meeting of the Allied forces

Wreaths are left on the Soviet side
of the monument (KSS)

Another monument "Glory to the Soviet people,
Thank you for the liberating us"
(is under the scrutiny of a spotlight? Ha, ha!) (KSS)

Entering Castle Hartenfels through the back gate

Then through the tower gate

The Grosse Wendelstein spiral staircase (1533-1537, by Konrad Krebs)
and Hausmannsturm tower seen in the castle courtyard

The spiral staircase is remarkable not only in
decoration, but because it was constructed
without a central supporting column (KSS)

The beautiful oriel window/Schöner Erker
(1543-44) is part of the castle chapel

The moat of the castle is a bear pit,
housing the Torgau bears, Jette, Bea and Benno
who were nowhere to be seen

Follow the bear paw prints (KSS)

Looking back at the Renaissance main portal

The gardens of the castle

The grain warehouse cum armory/Zeughaus
(1538, is now a vocational school)

An unusual sight in Europe, artificial flowers in the flower boxes (KSS)

The lane to the house of Katharina von Bora,
wife of Martin Luther; as a widow she
fled the plague in Wittenberg to live in Torgau,
but within months died from injuries after
her horse cart fell into a ditch 

An unclaimed house

Priesterhaus (1493-1494) is the only remaining
priest house of the original 15 in Torgau, and is
a pre-Reformation late Gothic building

Church of Our Lady/Marienkirche (circa 1390)
where Martin Luther often preached
and his wife is buried

What to do with an unclaimed building? (KSS)

Torgau City Hall/Rathaus (1563-1578, in Renaissance style) (KSS)

Mohren-Apotheke/Pharmacy (1579, in early
Renaissance style), one of the oldest
pharmacies in Saxony

Mohren Pharmacy's Mohr/Moor above the door (KSS)

Fools and Musicians/Narren und Musikanten fountain (by Erika Harborth)

Carl Loebner, oldest toy shop (est 1665,
building acquired 1780) in Germany,
now run by the 12th generation

Sort of an oriel turret, on the corner of city hall (KSS)

While the group continued down Bäckerstraß, I detoured to the parallel Breite Strasse.

Mayor Ringenhain House/Bürgermeister-
Ringenhain-Haus (1596) is a unique example of
a bourgeois residential building in Saxony
(better seen through the painted walls
and ceilings in the interior)

We were told that we did not see anyone in the streets of Torgau, becaue the inhabitants have retained their feelings of suspicion that their neighbors may report them to the Communist authorities, and spend their time in back rooms with all window curtains closed. Although Germany's reunification was almost 30 years ago, not enough time has passed for new generations to develop new attitudes. Then again, similar to the United States, there are the factions that want to go back to a time in which they were more comfortable, or at least more familiar.

Younger folks were out on Breite Strasse

The little fruit and vegetable/Obst & Gemüse shop is open

Historic craftsman house/Historisches Handwerkhaus,
(circa 1582) the oldest Renaissance house in Torgau

Getting ready for the FIFA World Cup at the bike shop (KSS)

Torgau's Unter den Linden street (KSS)

The start of a planet walk? They are building a "galactic" playground

The playground equipment is custom-built to depict constellations
(see stars atop the blue posts); this one is the Little Dipper (KSS)

Torgau sewer cover

Back to the Viking Astrild in time for dinner

I have not said much about the meals on the Viking Astrild, which have not disappointed! However, yesterday we did ask Chef Oliver if we were going to have white asparagus, since it is in season. He seemed to falter, saying he had to follow a Viking-wide menu that is prepared months in advance.
Oh, that joker, Chef Oliver!

Tonight's menu included white asparagus
(with Roast Black Angus Beef Sirloin and a Cheese Popover)!

The night before a full moon

Today's high temperature was 88 degrees F. Now it is really getting hot!
Next: Wittenberg a.