Great Train Journey - Dresden: Part 1 (8 pics)

After my visit to Leipzig, I took the train to Dresden as my next stop.  I have to say that I absolutely loved Dresden, and it is my favorite city far in Germany of those I have visited (which is admittedly only 6).  It's close to the Polish and Czech borders, which means it's close enough that I am thinking of going back.  From the handy city guide I picked up, here are few interesting points about Dresden:

• It is the capital of the Free State of Saxony
• It is the 4th largest city in Germany
• 62% of the city area is green spaces or wooded areas
• There are more than 13,000 cultural monuments within the city borders (including 44 different museums)
• 30km of the River Elbe lay within the city borders
• Nearly 10 million people visit the city every year
• Vladimir Putin was stationed by the KGB in Dresden from 1985-1990

In my two days there, I barely scratched the surface of what the city has to offer.  And from the guide books and references I've seen, the surrounding area is fully of lots of interesting places and things to do as well.  So if you coming to Germany, try and fit a visit to Dresden in.

I happened to capture this image on my first evening in Dresden.  I had walked up to river Elbe and took this picture looking north toward the Cathedral and Semperoper (Opera House).

This is the hotel I stayed at, the Pullman Dresden, looking at from the Pragerstrasse.  Of all the hotels I stayed at on my trip, the Pullman is the only one I really recommend. 

And this is the view out my hotel windows, looking out onto Pragerstrasse.  Yes, I looked out over a McDonalds.  :)

And as I mentioned in my last Leipzig post, it seems it's a pretty common site to see people (usually younger children) playing in the fountains in Germany.

One of the things I didn't get around to doing on my visit was to take a siteseeing cruise on the Elbe.  But it looked like fun so I may have to try and take one if I go back.

And of course, after reading the statistic above about the massive amount of green space in Dresden, you know I had to visit at least one park when I was there.  On the day before I left (a Sunday), it was hot so during the early afternoon I went for a walk in the Grosser Garten.  This is quite close to the Old Town and my hotel, and is actually quite a large park.  The Dresden Zoo in one part of the park as well.

The park is nice in that it has a wide range of landscape types.  There are manicured garden areas with bright flowers and statues.  There are more heavily forested areas.  And there are small meadows like this one.  The park was busy overall, but depending on what paths you took you could be almost alone.  It was really nice.

And for the kids, the park contains a small-gauge mini-railroad that through the middle of the park as well.