I love Dresdin!
This affection was started even before we arrived, as we started off with a two-hour canoe ride through the charming canals of Lübbenau in the Spreewald region. It is very genteel - calm water covered in ducks, bordered by the garden lawns of residents who frequently set up stalls to sell beer, wine, sandwiches, and strawberries to those paddling on the waters. It was gorgeous (all credit for this side trip goes to my brother and his wife, who suggested it to us).
That afternoon in the Spreewald meant that we were happily relaxed when we arrived in Dresdin. Dresdin is lovely; we found a wonderful, spotlessly clean hostel in a super-funky district that is just a 20 minute walk from the historic centre. The historic centre itself is a marvel of reconstruction considering how thoroughly it was bombed in 1945. The place is once again beginning to drip with Baroque. As you may have figured out, neither Glen nor I are fans of Baroque style architecture and decoration. We do acknowledge it to be very impressive, however. The Grünes Gewölbe (Historic Green Vault) is worth every penny of the 10 euro entry. We also had a look at the Volkswagon Transparent Factory, which was quite cool. It did not, however, make me want to purchase one of their Phaetons, which carries a price tag of over 101,000 euro.
The area immediately around our hostel is really nifty. There are hidden couryards all over the place, each with wonderful independent shops on the street level and apartments above them. There are a large number of Turkish immagrants here, so there are also a representative number of Shisha bars. At night the scent of the shisha wafts out of the store fronts to smack you in the face as you walk by.
Incidentally, we are likely walking by with a beer in hand. You can drink on the streets in this marvellous country. A nice bottle of wine is about 3 to 4 euro. It is going to be difficult to accept the cost of booze back at home.
Today is our last full day here, so I'm hammering out posts while waiting for our washing to be done at the laundromat. If you plan on heading to Dresdin at any point, stay at Hostel Louise20. It is very reasonably priced, quiet, and spotlessly clean.
Enough blogging for now. Time to shove the laundry into the dryer.
2 comments:
.: Well, that's interesting reading. I had no clue that you two were overseas, but I tend to be out of the loop anyway.
When are you back?
I hear you got a picture of Dad's old house. Very cool!
Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the E. coli bug bite!
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