Meeting My Mum Again
Dresden - Sightseeing
9th September - 11th September | 2022
After the relaxing days in Karlovy Vary, I had to say Good-by to Ludvik! Thank you so much for looking after me!
For some reason OsmAnd played up and send me in 8s and double 8s out of town, meaning, I got lost and stuck, that I finally cancelled the route and just pinpointed somewhere 40kms away to get out of town!
Once en route I followed lovely mountain tracks and suddenly found myself at 1200m altitude surrounded by ski lifts! Wow, that is the first time after - good question, after when? Altitude since High Tatra in Slovakia, also a long time ago! The rest of the day was sometimes lovely mountain roads or boring main streets. However, the view over the mountain ranges was fantastic!
Late afternoon I arrived at the Hell’s Mine, Bikers’ Cave, or in Czech Pekelné Doly. Interesting place, as the bar, stage and sitting area are in a massive cave. It is so big that you can even drive through! Amazing! After a snack and a beer, I drove to my accommodation for the night.
It was an easy, mostly boring ride to Dresden. Nice was though driving along the river Elbe and passing the mountain range of Säschsische Schweiz and the famous castle of Königstein. Close to Dresden, I passed the production of Heidenau (tyres); I didn’t know they are here! When I passed a BMW dealer (also for bikes) I stopped as I thought I needed again a reset of the computer (a long story). I was lucky, there was on a Saturday somebody from the garage (Uli) and in the end, it was just the light bulb ;-) How embarrassing!! Well, at least the light problem was resolved; and I even could have done that myself!
Once in Dresden, I was struggling to get to the hotel, as I had to pass the square in front of the Frauenkirche, and it was a pedestrian area. So I was a bit hesitating and trying to find another way in. Finally, I parked my bike at the edge of the square and walked to the reception. Whilst I walked over, I saw cars passing the square at walking pace - so it is possible. The receptionist also confirmed it, so I went back to get my bike.
At the bike, there was a nice german couple approaching me and we ended up in a really interesting conversation about travelling as this is also a dream of theirs (both bikers).
Some time after I had checked in, arrived my mum - finally, we meet again after Budapest in mid-June :-D
Shortly we had a stroll around the square of Frauenkirche including a visit to the interior of the church. As the weather looked pretty dark, we decided to have already dinner, so we went to the brewery restaurant of Paulaner, where I had a very delicious traditional Schnitzel - yummy!!
We continued then our, now digesting, walk over the Elbe to the trendy area of Neustadt, where we had a drink in a very nice patio.
The next day we strolled around the Neustadt visiting the landmarks such as various Erich Kästner monuments, Kunsthofpassage and Molkerei Gebrüder Pfund (unfortunately closed). Back on the other side of the river Elbe, we had a stroll around walked around the Zwinger and later on, we had tickets to visit the famous "Historisches Grüne Gewölbe" (www.gruenes-gewoelbe.skd.museum) which was very impressive with all its "Prunk", especially that a lot even survived the massive bombing in February 1945 during WWII.
In the evening we had a guided walk. We were hoping to find out more about the history of Dresden, but unfortunately, it was a different subject. It was in a way interesting, but surely we could have done better with the time and money! We noticed that most of the illumination of the famous landmarks is switched off due to the energy crisis (and inflation).
Tomorrow we will travel on to Leipzig (my mum by train and me on Schimmelchen), where we will do another city break. So watch this space, soon you will find out about our visit to Leipzig, a very important town in Germans' latest history (reunion of East & West Germany).
Places | Cities:
CZECH REPUBLIC:
Choutov, Litvinov, Chlumec, Decin, Ceska Lipa
GERMANY:
Königstein, Dresden
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 26435 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
Fault reading (light) came up - need a garage with BMW software for a reset - it was simply the light bulb (permanent light).
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
BMW Niederlassung Dresden (Uli) for the prompt service on a Saturday.
Dresden for being such a cute, historically interesting city.