Home -> Europe -> Germany -> Travelogue 2003 -> Sunday 20 July

Prague - Zermützel, visit to Dresden

Our holiday is almost over; a last breakfast in Prague and then we get into the car. At 9, it is already 30 degrees. We want to take a short break in Dresden, but we don't seem to get there: as soon as the highway comes to an end the road is getting worse and there are a lot of road works. The second hour we drive only 30 kilometers. From the border with Germany towards Dresden it is the same. On the radio they say it is 34 degrees and we have noticed that already. We are totally soaked with sweat when we get out of the car at Dresden.

Dresden is a monumental city where one can walk around for a few days and have an interesting time. We just walk around for an hour through the old city centre. Maybe another time we stay a bit longer.

Dresden has been heavy bombed at the end of the second world war and one can still see the consequences. Much has been restored but we also see a lot of memorials for buildings that had to be broken down completely.

It is not really pleasant to walk through a city with such a high temperature, but we are here for the first time, so we want at least see a bit of the town centre, just to get a first impression. Well, the first impression impresses us.

Most tourists are probably off to cooler places, but we notice that tourism has become a booming bussiness here. There are many ways to be guided through the city: by busses, taxi's and small open cars. We end our walk with a cup of coffee and decide this town is surely worth a longer visit.

After 3 weeks without seeing too serious accidents, we are back on the beltway around Berlin where we saw the first one in this holiday. Today we see another, we hope the last one. Two cars are on the highway facing the wrong direction and totally wrecked. A bit further we enter twice into a long traffic jam. Caused by accidents, although we fortunately don't see anything of it after the jam ends after 15 long kilometers. Despite the open windows it is terribly hot in the car and the brakedown lanes are blocked by dozens of cars with the hood open and steam coming from the engines.

Near Neuruppin we can escape the second traffic jam, since we are going to spend the last two nights with our friends Wolfgang and Annemarie Falkenberg in Zermützel. It is still early, so we first drive to the coffeebar of Roman, their oldest. After an hour talking we drive the last kilometers and feel as if we are coming home already when we are received very heartily. Better to have a good friend far away than a bad neighbour...
We sit outside until after midnight and it still feels very warm, 23 or 24 degrees. It has been another nice day.

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