Dresden Love

Sunday, August 27, 2017

So last weekend me and my bestie went on a little weekend getaway to Dresden. We wanted to see more of Germany and visit places neither of us have seen before, as it's always so easy to book that plane ticket to far off cities and beautiful beaches but it's so easy to forget about all the beauty that your home country has to offer. And boy, there's lots of gorgeous German cities worth exploring. For me I knew that Dresden was top of my list of places to see and my friend readily agreed so off we went.

We arrived in the early afternoon on Friday. The weather forecast had us worried about colder temperatures and lots of rain but when we got there we couldn't believe how HOT it was. Hot and humid! Every time we left a building it hit us like a wall and for a moment there it felt like I couldn't even breathe. Not the perfect weather for exploring a city! We walked around a bit getting our first impressions of the beautiful town centre, having refreshing shandies and seeking shade by the river Elbe. Some tapas in a lovely Spanish restaurant later and we made our way back to the hotel quite early, like the party animals we clearly are.

On Saturday, we started our day right with a big old breakfast then headed on into town for some more sightseeing. The whole town was crazy busy as they had their annual city fest on that weekend so we quickly made our way to the museum Alte Meister which is located in one of the wings of the Zwinger palace. We looked at all the old paintings, wishing we had any talent of painting or drawing like that. After some more walking around and a little trip over to the other side of the Elbe, we headed back to the hotel to rent some bikes. We wanted to do the 17k bike tour along the Elbe to see all of the little Elbe castles and get some exercise in. It was beautiful and we had some stunning views across the valley from the top of a vineyard but it was also rather hot and we didn't quite make it to the end of the route but turned around early to cycle back stress free, taking in more of the beauty that surrounded us. That evening we decided on Russian food for dinner and went to Aljonuschka's which serves hearty food for affordable prices. I really liked what I got even though I was a bit worried before as I never had Russian before. Afterwards, there was more walking and the desperate search for a drink, which we once we found it, almost fell asleep over. So like the grannies we are we went back to the hotel all shattered from our adventures and got in a good night's sleep.

Sunday was our last day there and as our bus home left midday, we only had enough time to do a little tour of the Semper opera. This is one thing I really wanted to do and I wasn't disappointed, the interior is stunning. However I thought it was quite ridiculous that they want to charge you extra for taking photos inside after you've already paid quite a bit of money for the tour itself. So.. no photos here I'm afraid..

I really fell in love with Dresden on this trip. It's such a gorgeous city and I urge you all to visit if you ever get the chance! I was completely stunned by the old town and how convincingly 'old' it all looks considering that it isn't really. Dresden was completely destroyed in WW2 and none of these gorgeous old buildings survived that bombing but you would never guess that now! I think if you're a bit of a history geek like me and enjoy looking at old buildings and architecture in general you would really love it there.

Have you ever been to Dresden? What did you think? What German city do you think I should visit next?

Lot of Love,
Jess xx