One of the reasons we got a crummy room this time is
we'd asked for late checkout, so we could mosey around
(taking a last look at the Cathedral, that sort of
thing) and back to the airport for a late flight.

EW0028 CGN DRS 1600 1705 2DF

Another Warsteiner and glass of B&G Merlot. Pringles
as always. I forget if Lilli got anything. As always, the
cabin crew were unused to people in business class not
ordering the whole menu and gobbling it all down in an
hour (it's AYCE for free in biz).

We got in early, which was good for our concert tickets,
but the S-bahn to Dresden Neustadt was late. We considered
taking a 5-minute taxi ride from there, but instead walked
down Hainstrasse to the Palaisgarten, about 10 minutes
through a pleasant enough neighborhood.

The Westin Bellevue Dresden gave us a nice room on the top
floor with a view across the Elbe (about as impressive as
the beautiful gray Danube or the beautiful gray Rhine). We
had time for a washup and a change of clothes before our
concert across the river. An oddity about the otherwise
fine bathroom - the tub was on legs, which I suppose is
okay, but this was a deep tub to begin with, so getting
in and out was a hazardous exercise.

The guidebooks show a tram across the bridge near us, but
it turns out that bridge is being heavily reconstructed,
so the concierge told us to just walk, it would take less
time then hoofing to the rerouted tram, and so it was.

The Semperoper is one of the most historic sites in
classical music history, being the venue for dozens of
premieres of works that are now in the regular repertoire
by such names as Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Hindemith.
Today we heard the Saxon State Orchestra conducted by Paavo
Jarvi in the Swansong by Arvo Part, the Moshe Weinberg violin
concerto with Gidon Kremer, and Four Legends from the Kalevala
- a palatable and actually rather exciting program, and we
somehow lucked into front row center seats, close enough for
me to see Kremer's fingerings and feel the occasional spray
of sweat (ugh) from the conductor. It was like being in the
first stand of violins only without the work. And the
performance was very good, Kremer still Kremer, though getting
nervous in his old age, Jarvi still vigorous (actually, when
I'd booked the tickets, I thought it was his exceedingly
eminent and exceedingly elderly father conducting), and the
orchestra, I noted with satisfaction, probably better than
any orchestra I've ever played in. Well worth the hundred
bucks a seat.

Afterward, we toddled back across the bridge; it was kind of
late and Lilli complained of hunger, so we decided to go to
the bar, where ordered a burger rare and was told that all
burgers were well done, so she had a hissy and decided to eat
nothing at all (some nuts and Japanesey crunchy crackers came
by way of consolation), and I got the intriguingly named
Broken Chocolate, which came as advertised, detritus from
the house confectionery, 2 oz each of break-up of

dark chocolate with coffee beans, excellent but a true
murderer of sleep;

white chocolate with dried coconut, candied pineapple, and
spice cookie crumbles, interesting but mostly a calorie bomb;

and milk chocolate with hazelnuts, excellent in the way that
European milk chocolate can be and almost never is, and
American milk chocolate can never be.

I had an undistinguished local draft, and Lilli her usual
red rotgut. After one beer I switched to hers, even though
it cost bottle price for one glass.
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