Meißen, “cradle of Saxony,” is home to famous porcelain (first outside of the Far East), or so I found out from my friend’s German husband after our visit. To be fair, we were only in Meissan for dinner – no time for sightseeing, or shopping.
We did end up seeing a landmark site, when we went the wrong way.
Our caravan of three cars stopped at the train station to bid farewell to our Russian friends. From there, we headed to dinner at the top of the hill. We either went the wrong way or took a detour and on the way, we saw the Albrechtsburg castle. Twice. Beautiful against the soon-to-set sun. It was like deja vu or a double vision. Very dreamy.
The sun was out and it was a warm May day in Germany. So my friend took the top off her husband’s convertible. The warm breeze was brilliant. Cruising in a Porsche was not a bad deal.
Dinner was at Domkeller, the oldest restaurant in Meissan. Atop the castle hill in Cathedral Square, the view of the town and its red rooftops was stunning.
We sat outside on the terrace (pre-book it!). The restaurant had put together several tables for our group of twenty. The sun was setting on the town behind us as we browsed the menu. A cacophony of languages blended beautifully in unending conversation.
The menu was thick, slightly confusing even for our German friends because of the Saxon German dialect. And for the rest of us? A mix of Russian, Ukrainian, Israeli, Finnish, Australian, and Canadian. The menu did have English, though it was not so noticeable. A fair number of us actually missed it. Thankfully the waitress was pretty good with English, and experienced in handling big crowds.
My friend Gin and I chose to share two fish – boiled trout (way more delicious than the name suggests) and salmon with a white asparagus vegetable mix.
As a pescatarian myself, most of my friends are vegetarian or pescatarian. Traditional German fare is seriously meat-focused. All around me were ribs and meat towers. After a weekend of vegetarian-only meals, they were enjoying a hearty meal of meat.
It was white asparagus season, with a special menu dedicated to it. A couple of people had an asparagus salad – it looked good and they seemed happy about it. We also learned why the asparagus, which is harvested while still underground, was white. I was too distracted by de-boning my trout to take a photograph of the special asparagus.
This dinner was a celebration of our friend’s birthday and the conclusion of the workshop we had all attended. It’s been a meeting of old and new friends. So, lots of reasons to celebrate.
The dinner was fantastic. We were at a great location, just four hours from Munich. From the terrace, we had a beautiful view. The dinner was delicious food, flow of drinks, and lots of chatter with a now-comfortable confusion of languages. The common language was English and there was a lot of translation and gesturing going on. To any outsider, it may have felt and seen as chaotic. It worked, quite nicely.