Of Meissen Men | Prague to Hamburg River Trip | Episode 9: Dresden to Meissen

A late departure turns more eventful than expected when we discover some lost valuables and a crazy American theme park of a pub. And lots of corn.

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Welcome back You’ll remember, in the last episode I faced the facts and said this: So we’ve realised obviously there’s no way we’re making it to Hamburg So that’s why, in a couple of weeks we’re setting off to make series 2 heading back to where we ended the trip to finish what we started But where did we end the trip? Let’s see if you can guess Probably not, it’s quite a small place Anyway let’s get into day 11 Today we have been um Pretty useless to be honest Yeah today we’ve been faffing a lot Ten past two and we still haven’t left just everything going a bit wrong so we’re a bit hungover I needed a new memory card So yeah we left ourselves a bit of a mission to get to Meissen, and all our crazy plans from yesterday just didn’t work out in the end but um We got these Dresden Nextbikes we can get pretty much all the way out of the city with these and then walk the rest of the way Better get going eh Not a good start but we’d realised that, like most cities nowadays Dresden had a bike rental app so we were gonna use that to get as far out of the city as the app would let us so we still had a chance of making it to Meissen We’re not even half way there yet this definitely woulda been like 2 hours walking I reckon There’s definitely a gap in the market for nationwide bike apps Wanna ride a pony, Daf? the rest of the way See that dog? He’s just like hopping up and down Really reluctant That’s the most stubborn dog I’ve ever seen What’s he doing? Now where’s he going?
– He’s going away! Finally Then just as we were approaching Gohlis and the bike drop-off point we made a discovery that changed the course of the day There’s a phone and wallet? That’s ominous There’s a lot of money in there as well Shall we call the police? We’re gonna have to because it’s illegal not to in Germany Shall we knock these doors? Excuse me, pardon Doesn’t wanna know does he Shall we knock some doors? What to see if it belongs to someone here? They might know him I think we better just hand it in to the police Are you from here? Oh ok We just found someone’s phone and wallet, no worries, thanks Here we go there’s a polizei, look there’s one in Cossebaude so I guess we should just go there Go there? Don’t we call them Isn’t it better to call them here? Call the police?
– Like, what if he comes back for it? They will just get it to him I guess He’s probably just sat here and it’s fallen out of his pocket or bag I dunno if it’s a good idea to just give it to some random passer-by because we can’t really trust them to – No I don’t wanna give it to them I just wanna ask “do you know..” y’know “Blank Blank”
– There might be a chance that um his phone number’s – Shall I ask someone else? He looks local
– We’re gonna need to take it to the police Excuse me, are you from here? We found someone’s phone and wallet here I dunno if you know the guy So we eventually found a Gohlis local who didn’t know the guy in the ID but did wanna give us a hand Trawling through the wallet looking for a phone number it took all 3 of us way too long to realise that we had his phone so giving him a call might be a bit pointless Oh yeah of course Uh we found someone’s phone and wallet here So we’re trying to figure out like call some phone numbers in the wallet and see if we can find some… Cheers, thanks But just as we were calling the police The guy from the ID came bounding around the corner and despite our protests gave us ten euros each for being stand up blokes Then the villager who’d stopped to give us a hand flabbergasted that we hadn’t just nicked the money and ran invited us back to his for a coffee We can spare half an hour can’t we? Um yeah How have we ended up in this situation? It’s really like just a series of like random events happen to us I thought today was gonna be the most boring Now I’ve been given money and going round some geezer’s house for a coffee We made 20 euros today just for being not arseholes Yeah he said you don’t get many nice young guys around these days Although if we’d just ridden past he’d have come back and got it and wouldn’t have had to pay out 20 euros I guess And all of a sudden we were in André’s lovely back garden meeting his family and having some homemade cake Just so happens that André lives right round the corner from where we were supposed to leave the bikes another little random coincidence Yeah he was basically blown away by the fact that we didn’t just take the money from that wallet and walk off with it that uh he really wanted to invite us back to his home to enjoy some plum cake and coffee in the garden We’ve made uh 10 euros each and just been fuelled up by a generous German family So now we walk to Meissen We’re gonna send him a postcard probably Yeah I feel like we kind of connected on a certain level and um it’d be nice to I mean give some thanks for the cake and the coffee which is gonna really serve us well the next few hours Every day is turning way more eventful than we expect We didn’t manage to leave Dresden til 2 or half past 2 and we end up in some little village having cake and coffee in some guy’s back garden I just wonder what his wife was thinking, y’know when he turns up with uh a couple of backpackers She seemed perfectly happy Didn’t really bat an eyelid to be honest I guess they don’t really get much of a chance to meet people from outside the village, especially people from outside the country Yeah which you would’ve thought would make them more suspicious but I guess we’d proven ourselves
– Yeah found a wallet with loads of cash in it That’s the thing about finding a wallet in Germany If you find a wallet in Germany it’s bound to have a lot of cash in it because nowhere accepts card Yeah you’ve gotta carry a load of cash around Suddenly surrounded by geese They’ve actually taken care to do it like well into the water as well I know I was thinking we could just wade around Yeah he actually offered to drive us to Meissen cause he knew that’s where we were heading for but uh we explained to him that we’re not allowed because it’s against the rules Alfalfa We felt increasingly grateful to André of Gohlis who built his own house in the 60s and had seen it flooded twice by this very river since then for feeding us and filling up our water bottles because this stretch turned out to be totally devoid of food and watering holes unless you count this lone zucchini What do you say, Daf? Where are we? We just walked through Wildberg, right? Right we’re somewhere round here and we’re getting up to Meissen Still a ways to go Child’s play area? Really? I hope they have good imaginations Fields of corn Ya want some corn, Jadams? That’s our dinner sorted So yeah there’s not a lot to say about this stretch there was just corn lots and lots of corn Yeah we’ve not seen a single pit stop opportunity which is good in a way cause we’re just grinding out the miles But in another way, kinda need the toilet and a beer I agree with that. Nothing to add Yeah thank god we uh ended up going to his house and having that cake and coffee and he gave us these extra bottles of water, cause it’s like a desolate stretch We’ve seen nothing
– Yeah it’s really there’s a few cyclists but there’s really nothing to do, nowhere to stop and we, we’re sort of approaching the time of day where we need to start thinking about like sitting down and having a look at accommodation We’ve got plenty of time anyway It’s only half past 5 Famous last words, eh Got about 6 more miles to do So when the Western Inn popped up on our radar we couldn’t say no and we also could never have predicted what a random place it would turn out to be Maybe this is what’s being served at the American restaurant up ahead I do hope so This is crazy
– It’s massive Look at that massive cock What a random place to be the only place on the whole route Funny to think I’ve got so many ancestors from here They’ve really gone all-out here with the bloody school bus and the I dunno what that car is in there but some kind of American car They must really love America You can get your own souvenir menu for 7 euros, what do you say, Daf? The size of this bloke strutting about I think we might be able to cycle a bit after Meissen as well Oh ok
– Might have found something Sounds promising On this map there’s like there’s a bike well outside Meissen for this like bike rental thing This place was a hell of an unexpected find in rural Saxony turned out the current owner’s parents opened it in 1970 after living in Las Vegas or something and we entered into the spirit of things by ordering way too much food when I tried to order steak cut chips and ended up getting steak and chips so we had 1 mac and cheese each with a side of steak that classic combination Steak cut chips? You’ve heard of that, it’s this kind of chip this is steak cut chips Oh that’s really good
– Daf thought he’d ordered “steak chips” and actually ordered steak and chips so this is gonna be a lot more expensive than we expected But these are really good chips at least and you got a steak out of it
– Cheers Treating you to a steak Steak I didn’t know I wanted Question: Did he ask you how you wanted your steak done No I said “steak pommes” it’s on the sides list I think this is his mistake but can’t be arsed like arguing over it Anyway we’ve got mac and cheese we’ve got beers
– It looks bloody good to be fair and we’ve got cheap and nice-looking accommodation sorted in Meissen and not that far to go I feel good
– Cheers And we’re in a flipping crazy American theme park ♪ Come on down ♪ ♪ to The Western Inn ♪ ♪ We got a giant rooster and some creepy mannequins ♪ ♪ Come on in ♪ ♪ Yeah it ain’t no mistake ♪ ♪ Get yourself a mac and cheese and a cheeky side of steak ♪ ♪ Knock back a couple beers and if we give you the hump ♪ ♪ Take it up at the reception with Donald Trump You just couldn’t predict any of this really could you
– No You just dunno what’s gonna happen next on this trip Let’s have our American beers “Genuine draft”, I don’t think so Genuinely not draft So with carbs in our bellies country and western in our hearts and Miller “genuinely not draft” in our hands we were pretty happy for the final 7 km walk the rest of the way to Meissen That’s open til 9 if we can hurry up What time is it? 20:20 At first we felt like Meissen had kind of an eerie, slightly dodgy atmosphere but we were gonna be proved totally wrong and it ended up being maybe my favourite town from the whole trip Just a weird atmosphere hanging over everything
– Yeah Doesn’t look very open does it Ah here we go. Jadams! The whole of the lobby area is shut with the lights off I don’t feel like this button is doing much either Oh there’s a, there’s a note on the door Finally have a bed each
– Got our own beds yeah So I finally came up with the idea of asking ChatGPT about one-way bike rentals One-way rentals That’s a key word that we learned from ChatGPT “Can you pick up a bike in one city and drop it off in another city?” is pretty much how we’ve been searching all along There’s something weird about spending every night in a different place It sort of dilates the time it makes everything seem like ages ago If 2 days ago you woke up 2 towns ago it just feels like a really long time has passed There is that effect on time but it’s also just the jarring effect of your surroundings being completely different Everywhere we’ve been has been a brand new place I’ve never been to before It’s nice That is one massive moon The central part is quite like Sort of neat and fairytale-ish at night Yeah It’s a lovely centre here The problem with a lot of places is that y’know when you approach them from the outskirts… Yes I have a slight limp which hopefully will be sorted by tomorrow So that was day 11 Just 3 days left Where will we get to? Come back next time Even at Hotel Bum Kok? To Noel Edmonds