Tuesday 9th October 2018
Today we drove, light engine, an hour or so over to Meissen, Lower Saxony.
The town sits on the River Elbe a few kilometres north west of Dresden. The purpose of our trip was to visit the House Of Meissen, the home of the famous porcelain maker. Porcelain has been produced in the town since 1710.
On entering the building we were immediately amazed by the display cabinets highlighting the excellent fine porcelain products available to purchase. I was equally amazed at the prices!!
After purchasing two tickets for the workshop tour we made our way up to the foyer to await the start at 1pm.
A display of some of the thousands of moulds the craftsmen and women have used over the years stood to the side.
Centre stage stands a fabulous statute of a dancer.
The detail and finish of the porcelain is outstanding.
Soon enough it was time for the workshop tour. As our German is basically non existent, we were issued with an English language headset and took our seats among a group of maybe forty visitors for a short film detailing the history of the company and manufacturing process.
Following this we passed through a set of doors to watch and listen to a demonstration about the modelling of the porcelain prior to decoration/firing. As the lady spoke she modelled a tiny bouquet of porcelain flowers with barely a glance at her hands.
The next set of doors took us to a young man working on a pottery wheel and demonstrating the working of the porcelain into moulds to make containers and handles. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of this.
Next stage of the tour showed the pre-firing decoration of a plate. The various stages of the process are shown on the shelves behind and the commentary refers to these as the lady paints with deft strokes of the brush.
The results are faultless. The green colour paint will turn blue in the firing.
Some products are decorated after firing and this was the demonstration in the next room.
On completion of the workshop tour we took a look around the extensive museum with exhibits of Meissen work over the centuries, a few of which are shown below.
We continued up to the 2nd floor.
During the workshop tour film we learned that porcelain production first started in the town in 1710 at Albrechtsburg Castle.
As we were nearby we decided to go take a look. Dated from the 15th century, it is the oldest royal palace building in Germany.
After making our way over to the castle we attempted to find a parking space in the narrow streets. At one point we were seriously Garminned and the satnav guided us up a street barely wider than the car. Once parked we followed the signs for the historical walking route around the castle walls and had fine views over the River Elbe.
We did not enter the castle nor cathedral but instead enjoyed a stroll in the afternoon sunshine.
Feeling suitably exercised we descended down into the lovely town square and rewarded ourselves with a glass of local white each before making our way back to camp.
Despite being able to cruise the autobahn at 130kph, without the caravan, we still got rocked about by the odd Porsche or BMW 🙂