Nice leisurely start to the day, as our included tour of the Meissen China museum wasn’t until 1.30 p.m.

The coach took us on a quick tour around this pretty, small town before our guide, Gerold, took us into the porcelain museum.

Meissen is known worldwide for the quality of its porcelain. The main ingredient is kaolin (china clay) from a small local mine and it forms a particularly hard paste which fires well and, because of the felspar in it, turns glossy when fired at around 1400 ⁰C.

We were taken into several rooms where various techniques were demonstrated. All of the china is hand painted and is truly painstaking work.

Because of the manual nature of these processes, Meissen china is extremely expensive.

After this, we wandered around. To be quite frank, even though I could appreciate the craftwork, once you’ve seen one piece, you’ve seen them all. I just took the opportunity to take the weight off my feet.

The ensuing tour of the town was more interesting.

Meissen was founded in 929 A.D., so it is a genuinely old place.

Back to the ship for dinner.

The entertainment was a duo, one playing the piano accordion, the other the clarinet. Technically very good, even if German folk music isn’t exactly my bag.

Enjoyable enough.

So ended Day 7. Day 8 looks busy – three excursions, so time for some shut-eye.