Dresden is a most beautiful city and one which I had wanted to visit for many years.
We caught the bus into the city and then got on a “hop on hop off” bus to get a feel for the whole area without hopping off. The trip around took about 1 1/2 hours and it was interesting to follow the Elbe river and cross over it and drive through some lovely leafy suburbs with beautiful houses.
We also saw a very intersting but sad exhibition of photos of Dresden after the Americans had bombed it at the end of the second world war. They have done an amazing job of restoring some of the old historic churches and buildings like the “Frauenkirche” and the “Semper” Opera house.
There were a lot of tourists around but because there was such a large area of lovely old historic buildings it didn’t feel at all crowded.
We got off the bus in the centre of town and walked and admired the old buildings as well as some of the more modern ones. After lunch we walked back to the main station via a very long pedestrian area. The shops were plentiful and big and bright but all closed as it was a Sunday.
We caught the bus back to the camping ground after walking around for most of the day. The weather was warm when the sun was out and cool when the clouds came over but no rain thank goodness.
On the 12th August we again caught the bus into town and walked around again, had some lunch and then went on prebooked (internet) guided tour of the opera house which was very interesting and they have done an amazing job inside as well as outside to restore the opera house in a similar original style.
We wandered around the shopping galleries and Maurice even bought a new shirt. We had a good look around the Meissen china shop and in the outlet shop we bought nearly the cheapest thing there as a memento as prices were rather high even in the outlet shop. A fairly simply painted plate was over 300euros and some of the smaller more intricate pieces and figurines were over 3000euros.
We had a coffee on the way back to the main station to catch the bus. In Italy the cappucinos were small and luke warm and in Germany you get a cup you can hardly manage to drink for it’s size and it is so hot you can hardly drink it. So many differences in between the various European ountries. In Italy you have to buy
a ticket for the bus before you get on whereas in Germany you can still buy a ticket on the bus. You would think that Germany would have gone the same way although it is handy for foreign passengers especially.
On the 13th August we drove about 1/2 hour to the town of
Meissen to see their Fine China factory and showroom before driving north to Dollern.