This morning, Susi lead our group on a walking tour of Torgau’s major sites, before leaving us to our own devices once we had reached the town’s market square.
Of these, the riverfront memorial commemorating the first meeting of U.S. and Soviet forces–the Denkmal der Begegnung–is the best known. Nearby, there is a Soviet memorial as well.
The town is dominated by the Schloss Hartenfels castle. We enter the grounds through an ornate gate and pass through the outer building to the inner courtyard. There is a bear pit with several live bears residing within. And, from the top of the highest tower, there are outstanding views of Torgau and the Elbe.
Once we are dumped into the hustle and bustle of the town’s open air market, Rob and I explored the various arts and crafts booths before heading back towards the riverfront…after a detour to Aldi’s for some supplies!
We stopped for lunch at a small riverfront biergarten Rob had espied the day before from the ship’s upper deck. I order a delicious “XL” bratwurst and Rob was served a barbecued meat shish-kabob. Both came with an incredibly-delicious potato salad and, as this is Germany, the requisite “liquid bread” (read: bier). Yum!
Then, back to the boat.
The ship begins what will turn out to be the only stretch of actual river cruising we do during this trip. We bid adieu to Torgau and head south on the Elbe towards Meißen. We hear later that the captain was very wary of every meter of progress, fearing that the draft of the ship was so low that we could run aground mid river. There were unconfirmed rumors that the boat scraped bottom at least once if not several times. This situation is in marked contrast to two years prior when the Elbe spilled over its banks and flooded the entire area. There were photos of this in the Schloss Hartenfels tower. Also, the Elbe river banks are serrated with fingers of land projecting into the water to help slow the flow.
A Taste of the Soviet Bloc 