Pete & Lori's Retirement adventures

Arrival

Dresden

We left home at 2 pm on Tuesday, ready for LOTS of travel. A 2.5 hour drive turned into almost 4 hours, but given Pete’s early bird tendencies, we were in plenty of time. We flew to Iceland, hung out, and then on to Berlin. Transportation in Germany is so impressive—we easily found our train to Dresden, rode comfortably for a couple more hours, and ended with a wild taxi to our hotel in the historic district, 24 hours after we left Sheffield. We had each managed about three hours of sleep, but we spent the afternoon exploring a very interesting city in the former East Germany. August the Strong was a famous emperor in the 1700s, and after visiting Versailles, he came home to Dresden and built his own castle, Residenzschloss. We walked the courtyards and upstairs to the terraces, and stayed for the porcelain bell music. We left and walked miles to see beautiful churches and arts centers. We even bought tickets to Romeo and Juliet for our return visit after the hike.

The historic center of Dresden was almost completely destroyed during WWII and rebuilt in the decades that followed. Much like assembling something from LEGO pieces, the reconstruction blended old stones with new ones to recreate the city’s medieval look. It was both beautiful and strange to walk through a “historic” district largely rebuilt in the 1970s. After another good night’s sleep, we set off the next day for Pirna, the starting point of the Malerweg trail.

We arrived in Pirna in the afternoon an as is the tradition in Germany, we stopped for a bit of “Kaffee und Kuchen” (coffee and cake) at about 4. We then walked up a steep hill to a charming residential area. I loved the homes with “eye” windows!

Hopping on a train in Berlin