Dresden

17/7

Jeff & I suck it up & jog off into the grey drizzle having squeezed through a gap in the barbed-wire topped standplatz enclosure imagining Gestapo at our backs.

Back for school before we groan out of Berlin (West Slavic for swamp) toward “Florence of the Elbe” at Dresden. It’s the 4^th largest town in Germany (½ million people) but has ~60% green space and an energetic story of rebuilding post WW2 decimation and communist neglect.  It now houses 36 theatres, 44 museums (including the German Museum of Hygiene!), and 13000 cultural monuments.

After a huge grocery shop where I’m so easily entertained by new cultural favourites (ALL types of sauerkraut…..and wurst again) we find a welcoming open greened standplatz this time and plonk ourselves down for lunch at 1700hrs!  We have to buy a parking ticket at the nearby hotel where Wil finds a skate/bike park, Jeff a small bit of internet, a laundry service & fancy toilets.

Kids in bed, we brave a doco-movie about Eichmann, the Nazi who oversaw the extermination of Jews and other ‘undesirables’ shuffling them between concentration camps and finally, Auschwitz.  What a dark stain & profound embarrassment in German history.  The Jewish lawyer who finally extracted Eichmann’s confession thus leading to his execution, demonstrated such a contrasting humanity.  Despite the fact that Eichmann signed for his  father’s transfer to Auschwitz and that his wife’s parents were also ‘exterminated’, he  posted a letter on Eichmann’s behalf to his 4 sons. 

18/7

Given we’re next to a huge patch of soft juicy grass, our morning starts with a 10BX (don’t like to run together leaving van & kids unless in a monitored campground).  Fellow motor-homers often look on with a smile - I hope they’re inspired….some very large tummies need attention!  We often discuss the privilege of being able to do this sort of trip with fit & well, relative youth.  Many we see around us have gathered arthritic joints, weight, heart disease disallowing all sorts of vigorous experiences of beautiful landscapes - tall buildings, walks in the forest, bike rides and view points.

Today, we hit the bikes into town first, wanting some information, a post office to send home a package, a shop for undies & jeans, some detergent and of course, fresh bread for dinner.  We wander into an extremely upmarket shopping complex about 3 x or more the size and grandeur of Indooroopilly shops (not the place to buy undies - we find this down the backstreet!)  Usually we leave with the full kit of hats, sunscreen and raincoats because it changes several times to the extremes quickly & often ferociously.  The best time however is after 1800 - we’ll go out later as well. 

Home for BBQ salmon crusted with pesto & nuts with a side of steamed garlicky greens and school.  Kib’s a bit sniffly & tired (only our second URTI all year!!) but her gorgeous temperament wins out as usual.  All feeling a bit full and lazy, we hang and read for a bit and the kids zip out for a skate or two.

About 1800hrs, the weather has had its four seasons, the wind has settled and we head out in the calmer traffic and soft sunlight to tour along the River Elbe. 

Frauline

Frauline!!!

The place just oozes charisma with broad riverside running and cycling boulevards & lawns thoroughly enjoyed by family groups with balls & bikes, young folk with guitars & picnics, oldies strolling with dogs and tourists with cameras.  

Frauenkirche (Protestant)

Glittering statues atop massive palaces, cathedrals and town halls & rows of coloured lights from open air concert & cinema stadiums show the way as the light fades.  

Augustus Bridge

Catholic Dom from Augustus Bridge

We cycle over 2 of 9 wide broad bridges (including the magnificent Augustus Bruke which leads to the Gothic Catholic Dom), weave through the old city stopping with open mouths & disbelief to listen to professional level opera singers, violinists, trumpet players, pianists busking on almost every corner.  The best was a trio singing Phantom of the Opera beneath the acoustically magnificent stone gate to the city.Kel kept asking if it was a recording and the trio, actors!

Adjacent to them is a 100m long mural painted on tiles of Meissen porcelain.  It leads through to a most spectacular square in which the Protestant Frauenkirche stands.  In my opinion, it tops the list as having the most beautiful exterior of all churches we’ve seen so far.  It’s too late to go inside. Oh well, we’ll have to plan another day here tomorrow! 

100m mural

Frauenkirche detail

Frauenkirche

Dresden deserves every bit of its reputation as a rich artistic city, a place of obvious & abundant music culture and one of the most splendid & beautiful cities in Europe.  Its quite amazing really when one takes into account its almost complete destruction in WW2, the OBVIOUS decline and deformation in the GDR period (lots of work to do here yet - many buildings are quite blackened & monuments badly eroded & defaced) and a devastating flood in 2002.

Always in the background of our appreciation of these peaceful and cosmopolitan German towns are the weird & ever-present  ‘pop-ups’ of Nazi times and the bewilderment we feel. 

Home for a cheese & fruit platter via the skate park where Wil continues to show Kel new tricks, but spends a lot of time observing the local tricksters in action.  She’s elated reporting the ability to do ‘wheelies’!

19/7 

Must be good for the oils of our skins not showering for days in a row!  I’m sure it stinks in here!

Even slower than usual get up.  Kids bolt to the skate park & we enjoy a “2in1” (2 teaspoons instant coffee & 1 hot chocolate) in Ed.

Brekkie and school whilst the wind settles and the sky clears. The weather suits our schedule quite nicely.

Jeff’s bike tours starts in the old centre revisiting the Lutheran Frauenkirche which inside is a real surprise.  Wil describes it as a doll’s house - all pastels (especially pink), bright, light, gold frills and very pretty.  The altar is crowned with an extraordinary gold and pastel diorama.  We sit in a pew to crane our necks upward as one dome opens to another and another….and another all with spirals of ascending smaller and smaller stalls.  Jeff reckons it looks and feels a bit like a theatre.  It’s most unlike the quiet simplicity of other Lutheran churches we’ve seen. 

Talented buskers put all sorts of gorgeous music into the vast open squares as we ride slowly past.  Who needs to pay to enjoy the opera here?  Jeff reckons we should take $20 & deck chairs, pull up alongside 10 appealing acts, toss $2 into their hats each and be thoroughly entertained without having to dress up and stay up late.

Our sights are set on the Blue Wonder Bridge, an ugly steel monstrosity built in the 1800s, about 8 kms along the Elbe. 

So we’ve cycled the Seine in France, the Rhine in Germany, the Arve & the Aarle in Switzerland, the canals of Amsterdam & Belgium, the Sure in Luxembourg, the Spree in Berlin and now the Elbe in Dresden.  We rubberneck past glorious castles & chateaus as old as the forests they stand in, high on banks framed only by the blue sky, their cloaks of vineyards spilling down to the river before them.  A cycle tour second only to those in Switzerland.

BUT….the cobbled esplanade pummels one’s rump such that as we round the corner, the aroma of coffee invites us to the sumptuous lounges of a ritzy cafe. Easily the best kaffee in Germany.

Over the Blue Bridge to a small market smelling of warm baked goods and underneath onto a magnificent return cycle path.

ugly blue bridge

Against the wind on the way back, Kel slows to a snail pace muttering & grumbling but never, never giving up!

All roads lead to the skate-park where we drop off the kids.  Jeff & I find a whiskey….and a beer back at Ed.

Card games, reading and a light dinner end the day.

20/7

Morning exercise through park in which there’s a stinky big zoo. 3 days later, I finally discover the beautiful golden girl statue that Kel told me about when we first arrived.  She and Wil had been exploring when we first touched down. She didn’t tell me it’s a tribute to Mozart in this city of music and opera, and it's only 50m from Eddie!

Tribute to Mozart, and Frauline

Delicious breakfast and school whilst Jeff & I prepare to leave.  Vacuum, wash up, pack the boot, empty bins - such a simple, short routine and the whole house is freshened & ready.

Drove out of Dresden into the countryside towards the Czech border, pan is to hole up short and chill for a few days, blog up, wash up, read and relax - need a break from this incessant movement.

castle on a hillock

Wurst (ex-fuel) Station, Strassen Shaden!

hillocks everywhere