Ed and Annette's Excellent European Adventure: Dresden

A morning train from Berlin to Dresden was a quick two hour ride. In first class we had shared a 6 seat cabin where we were able to spread out and really enjoy the trip. Passing beautiful open fields, quaint towns and light industrial areas as we traveled along our journey.

Arriving in Dresden at the main train station, our hotel/hostel was only a four block walk. The hotel building is a very plain looking, flat front nine story building; the type you would expect to see in the ex-communist portion of Germany. Although there are multi-person dorm type hostel rooms we actually have an efficient hotel room, perfect for two. Much like a room on a cruise ship where every inch of space is used to the max we had two twin beds, a desk, TV, open closet and a well laid out small bathroom. We jokingly gave Ed a hard time for booking us in a hostel. It is clean and will be perfect for just one night.

We headed to the old town area by catching the light rail train with a stop one block from our hotel. Dresden is a town of a half a million people but does not appear to be that large. The old town area was bombed heavily during WWII but the people here have meticulously repaired and restored the historical buildings to their original grandeur. The architectural style is baroque excessive. Everything is adorned with fountains, statues and carvings to really show off the elegance. Located right along the Elbe river gives the town a very peaceful feel.

We lucked out arriving on Saturday to experience their weekly open air market. Although they call it a flea market, it has semi-permanent booths filled with homemade goods just like the craft fairs we have in America. We all enjoyed a sausage on a bun before trying some much-needed dried fruit to help with our digestive systems!!!

Later in the afternoon we headed to the new town area which is located across the river. This area too has large buildings and elaborate fountains in the central area and is served by the same very efficient light rail system. (we Americans could learn a lot about transportation from Europe). They have a huge shopping mall area that was packed with people.

It didn't take us too much walking from the main area to see that new town is a more youthful, hip, edgy area. It is definitely a working class portion of town that caters to the youthful party, drinking scene. Graffiti is prevalent on buildings, trees, sidewalks and just about anything that doesn't move. Trash and broken bottles are common through out this portion. It didn't take us too long to decide that this side of town was not a good fit for us and we headed back to the old side for dinner.

Saturday evening was very busy in the town. The historical center of town, much like the rest of Europe had a large piazza (plaza) with restaurants riming the sides. Our table gave us a great view to people watch as we enjoyed our beer, pizza and salad (real German food?).

I had to include a picture below of a cigarette machine. Who remembers those from oh so long ago? It appears that the majority of people smoke here. It saddens me to see young people puffing on cigarettes. It doesn't appear that the health care systems promote smoke cessation classes here.