Another thought behind staying outside Dresden last night was that the drive in on a Sunday morning should be easy and indeed it was. We arrived at the stellplatz (Dresden-Centrum) before 09:30 and within 5 minutes were in the very centre of the historic centre. That was the good news, but it was absolutely freezing – about 6ºC and windy. The temperature drop over the last few days has been huge – only three days ago we were wearing T-shirts but now Jane was wearing five layers!
In February 1945 the British carpet bombed Dresden, totally destroying the historic centre and creating a fire storm that killed more than 35,000 people. It is a testament to the German people that they have rebuilt the city and so many of the beautiful buildings, the latest of which, the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady), for long a ruin representing the destruction of Dresden, was re-opened in 2005. When in these buildings it is very difficult to believe that they are not old, so faithful has been the reconstruction.
We followed a walking tour in the Michelin Guide, diverting into the new town on the other side of the river at one point. It was here that we popped into a café for a soup (me) and a coffee and cake (Jane) to warm up. I had fish soup, which in true German style had lumps of smoked bacon in it – it was delicious.
After getting very cold again we were glad to get back to the van for a hot drink. We then attempted to find an Internet connection, something that we have failed to achieve since leaving Switzerland. It turned out to be much more difficult that we expected. We started at the hotel connected with the stellplatz that we were staying at. They had previously confirmed that they had wireless Internet and that we were entitled to use it, they had even issued us with a username and password. I tried to get on but although the laptop recognized the network it couldn't connect. The Hotel receptionist lent us the hotel laptop and spent a good ten minutes trying to get it to work. Eventually she thought that she had succeeded but although it displayed the BBC home page, it wouldn't access anything else. The receptionist, in an apologetic way, recommended McDonalds. Now it is against my religion to visit McDonalds but the only time I make an exception is for the greater good i.e. Internet access. We walked into the city centre and found a seat in McDonalds with a power point nearby. Jane enquired about Internet access and was given a leaflet in German explaining how to use it. She got us two milkshakes (very tasty and very rich) and I attempted to get on to the Internet. After some time we discovered that only the first hour was free (not a problem) and you had to have a password sent to your mobile phone by text message. When we entered our phone number, it complained that it wasn't a German phone number. When Jane asked one of the staff, they immediately confirmed that we had to have a German mobile phone number in order to use the Internet. We finished our milkshakes and left. Finally we found a Starbucks and that allowed Internet access without the need for text messages sent to mobile phones. Most of the customers were using laptops, which was encouraging but I decided to ensure that we could get on before we bought a coffee. The laptop recognized the network (BT Openzone!!!) but would not connect. It might have been due to the number of people using the Internet but after a number of unsuccessful attempts, we gave up and went back to the van. Very frustrating.
Photos: Ehemalige Katholische Hofkirche (Dresden Cathedral); There are many ways of seeing the sights such as a variety of horse-drawn carriages, vintage buses, bicycle tours but our favourite was this stretched Trabant; The gilded statue of August the Strong in the New Town; The Frauenkirche.
No comments:
Post a Comment