Greetings from "Elbflorenz"

I need to make this fast since I don't have much time. I arrived in Dresden in the late afternoon on Saturday. The hotel I stayed in -- the Bülow-Residenz, housed in a plush baroque mansion originally built in 1730 -- was excellent.

I had dinner in the hotel's  "Caroussel" restaurant. Stefan Hermann, the 34 year old chef, deserves his accolades, including Saxony's sole Michelin star and a "17" Gault Millau rating. I started with marinated foie gras with green apple-ginger compote and tiny diced peppers. This was followed by roasted skate wings on chanterelles risotto with asparagus tips, and dessert was tartelette of Poire Williams with caramel cream and peanut ice cream. The meal was accompanied by flights of Saxon wines, which were surprisingly good, including an excellent Sauternes-ringer with dessert.

The city has undergone a huge transformation since I was last here in 1995. The firestorm-destroyed Frauenkirche has been almost completely rebuilt (in '95 it was a still a grim ruin atop a pile of rubble), and the increasingly restored baroque jewels in the Altstadt ("old city" or historic center) are alluringly illuminated at night, glowing green, gold and bronze against the dark sky and rippling in the glassy Elbe River before them.

On Sunday I headed out to Weesenstein, an impressive, undervisited 13th-century castle about 15km outside of Dresden. The baroque gardens, which were pretty much wrecked in the August 2002 flooding, have largely been restored to their former glory.

I checked in at the Institut today and, despite my beginner status, took a mostly multiple-choice placement test that, to me at least, might as well have been assessing proficiency in Albanian. My lodgings -- two quick tram stops from school -- are fine, with a little kitchenette and a TV with CNN.

I need to dash now but will write more soon. This weekend I am meeting a friend from New York in Berlin -- I'm really looking forward to it.