Sunday evening and Monday Morning in Dresden

Dresden is south of Berlin, and still retains scars from WW II bombing which killed 50,000 people. On an overcast afternoon it felt like driving into "Transylvania." The mansions, streets, parks, and such appear to have been neglected for years.

Jay had reservations for us at the Ibis hotel, which is comparable to a U.S. hotel. We dined with some of Jay's friends at the convention in the hotel's restaurant. He then went out with them while I walked around the city, including a visit to the train station to check the schedule to Prague.

I returned to the empty hotel room about 11pm. Since I had the only key I tried not to sleep for concern that I would not hear him knock. Laying in the dark I remembered that I had dreamed several years ago that Jay and I were in Russia together, and I had written it in my "dream notebook." From the notebook:

"October 11, 1987: At a University in Russia with Jay visiting the lecture hall which has windows facing out to a field where people were playing soccer (some good-looking girls). Nice sunny day. I liked the place!"

Now ten years later we are together in Eastern Europe.

Monday morning we ate at the hotel's buffet breakfast. I decided to travel to Prague that afternoon, so we said goodbye in front of the FISM convention center. He went off to be a magician, and I to explore and photograph. But back at the hotel packing for the train, I realized, "Oh s***, my camera bag is still in the trunk of his car!" I decided to try to find him at the convention to get the car keys.

Fortunately they let me in without a ticket, and I eventually caught up to him. I met a few of his associates, and saw an interesting "trick" on a chessboard where the presenter predicts where the knight will be in a given number of moves. I also met "Guido," a German who visited us the following month when he vacationed in California with his girlfriend "Konstanze."

After the brief visit, I returned to the hotel parking lot, retrieved my camera bag from Jay's trunk, and caught the next train to Prague.