First Impressions of Dresden, Germany in Fading Light

Having spent four full days in Berlin, It was time to travel on. Our next destination was Dresden. While there are many good options of places to visit in Germany, we became interested in Dresden because it claims to have the oldest Christmas market. We thought we would check that out.

Our train left Berlin at 10:55 so we were in no particular hurry in the morning. Berlin has a large train station so we wanted to make sure we had time to determine where to catch our train. We arrived at the station in plenty of time and were able to find our train stop without a problem.

We had assigned seats which I had paid extra for. The first challenge was finding the correct car. The information board indicated the car numbers were 255 to 263. We were in car 256 so I assumed it would be toward the beginning of the train. Wrong. It was in the back. The train was not in the depot for a long time so we raced to get to the back of the train. We got on board before we reached our car as we didn’t want the train to leave without us. However, we still had a number of cars to pass through to get to our particular car. It was a hassle, and the train did start moving before we got to our seats.

Then it turned out the seats were strangely numbered. I thought we would be in two rows facing each other. In reality we all had window seats. I’m not sure how that happened. We did manage to trade a seat so Silvette and I were able to sit together.

The trip was a little over two hours. We passed through mostly country type conditions with large brown fields and some small towns along the way. It wasn’t a bad trip, and we arrived in Dresden pretty much on time.

We had a short walk to our hotel which was nice. Our rooms were ready even though we were early. Yeah!! Our room had large floor to ceiling windows that looked out over a plaza which held a Christmas Market. It was a pretty nice open view to enjoy.

Feeling hungry we opted to eat at a nearby Italian restaurant. Andrea decided to get a pizza. It was huge! It looked like it would feed all of us. However, it had a thin crust so Andrea was able to eat about two thirds of it with a little help from the rest of us who had ordered pasta dishes.

On this first day in Dresden we had a goal of figuring out where the location of a boat tour was. We were taking the tour tomorrow, and we wanted to make sure we knew where to go. Our exploration took us through some very modern shopping and business areas. We also passed by a huge Christmas market, but we moved past it for now. Our goal was the Elbe River.

It turns out we were also headed to the old town area, and when I say old town I mean back to the 1500s at least. Along the waterfront was a series of old buildings. We went through a passage at the end of the street and came out on the river front in the midst of these old buildings. I’m not sure what all the buildings are. One seemed to be a university, and it was one with a 1500 date on the top. There is a terrace created above a wall that puts one up above the river bank looking down on the river. On the other side of the river we saw other buildings that looked quite old. I am hoping that our tour tomorrow will help identify some of these buildings.

We continued to walk on the terrace until it ended, and then we walked down to the river bank. The next 15 minutes we spent time trying to figure out the exact location of our boat trip. We finally asked for directions at a nearby kiosk and felt satisfied we knew where to go.

As one would expect, there are at least three bridges visible over the Elbe River from this area. There could well be more farther away. We walked back along the river front crossing under one bridge. We continued walking looking for a way to cross the busy road we paralleled.

Finally coming to a traffic light we were able to cross back into the old town. Here we encountered more unique old buildings. These buildings are such a contrast to the new and modern buildings near our hotel. By this time it was getting dark and the moon had come out. Capturing the moon in the photos was my new challenge.

One of the Christmas markets we had passed while walking on the terrace looked interesting so we proceeded to go back and take a look particularly at its decor. It was pretty small but was exuding a lot of Christmas cheer.

As we continued on we came to the Church of Our Lady, a Lutheran church. The door was open, and people were inside. We stopped to see what was going on. It seemed that some event had taken place, but by then it was over. However, this gave us the opportunity to see the church’s interior. The inside was quite elaborate, and the lighting really added to the drama of the architecture.

We walked back by the very large Christmas market. We are saving a more complete visit for later. Although we haven’t spent a lot of time in the local Christmas markets, one of the things we have observed already is the prevalence of a Christmas decor item call the Moravian star. The Moravians developed the star which is said to be the result of a geometry lesson. The Moravians are a religious community, and they had an influence on John Wesley as he struggled with his faith as a young man.

We ended our first day in Dresden with a treat from Starbucks before retreating to our hotel. So far Dresden has impressed us with its contrast of new and old. I look forward to learning more about the city tomorrow.