Saturday, 5 October. The ship sailed from Meissen at 7:15, just as we were getting up. After breakfast Jane stopped at the table in the lobby where there was a sale of Swarovski crystal. I'm very skeptical of these shipboard sales. (One thing or another was on sale every day.) To no one's surprise, Jane found a lovely pendant and chain she really wanted, and like Lola . . . .

Approaching Torgau M.S. Harmony at Torgau

Torgau is best known as the place where American and Soviet forces met up on April 25, 1945, toward the end of World War II. Of course, it has a long history before that, going back to the 10th century. As the town's website proclaims, Luther, Napoleon, Friedrich II of Prussia and Czar Peter the Great all came to Torgau. Since reunification, this old walled town (fortified by Napoleon) has undergone extensive restoration in trying to attract tourists.
 

Red group at the Elbe Monument

Next we walked to the gate leading into the courtyard of Hartenfels Castle (built 1485-1623), really more of a palace. As we crossed the bridge leading to the gate, we saw there were brown bears in the moat. The Castle has a distinctive outdoor spiral staircase that seems to defy gravity. There were tables set up throughout the courtyard, most occupied by people eating. We found out that this was a charitable fund raising event to raise money to feed the hungry - by feeding the donors.


The Castle church here was the first Protestant church building in Germany built in accordance with Luther's own ideas. Luther consecrated it in a festive service in 1544.

We walked back out the gate and a block down Wintergreen Street to St Mary's Church where Martin Luther's wife (Katharina von Bora) is buried. Then Jutta led us inland to the large Markt Platz. The dominant building here was the Town Hall (1563-1578). The oldest building on the square was St. Nicholas Church (13th century). There were also historic Burgher's homes, as well as a large fountain with bronze figures of "Fools and Musicians", built in 2000 to replace a medieval one.


At this point we were given free time to explore on our own. Jane and I walked down some of the side streets, then headed back toward the Castle entrance. Just before we reached it, we saw a sign to the rose garden and we turned in there. The gardens were beautiful but there weren't any roses in October. The turning leaves, many of them crimson, were the most colorful vegetation. As we were admiring the colors, a dog raced across the garden and jumped into an urn filled with rain water. He was still there when we left.


We walked through the garden along the castle until we came to a small gate leading to the street along the Elbe. We came out very close to the Elbe Monument and our ship. We were back on board at 4:00.

At 5:00 we attended a lecture "East Meets West" about the meeting of the Soviet and American armies in 1945. Apparently the first linkup occurred elsewhere, about 20 mile south of Torgau, but due to a mistake in the coordinates reported, was not verified until after linkup ceremonies had been arranged at Torgau.
 

Ora Band & snazzy waiter