It‘s now precisely three weeks ago that we‘ve left Shanghai and started our European summer vacation. Going home (or to Europe in general) for the first time in two years felt really weird at first with lots of „Oh yeahhh that‘s what it‘s like over here! I remember this now!“ moments. In case of getting attacked by electric scooters on the street I got nearly drive over by various bicycles, as I forgot where and how fast people ride their bikes in Germany! After being annoyed at the prices for bottled water at European airports and train delays, I got rewarded with browsing the internet without a slow vpn connection, being able to drink tap water (if I wanted to – Germans rarely drink tap water), clear blue skies and fresh air. It felt like paradise!

After settling in to my home-home near Hamburg, I set off on a 5-hour car journey aith my parents to Dresden. And got rewarded with so much history, beautiful buildings and scenic surroundings.

On our first evening, we started exploring the „Zwinger“ which is a palace-like historic building that hosts various exhibitions (ceramics, paintings from the 16th-17th century, physics models, etc). I liked that you can walk through the grounds without a ticket by day and night as it‘s very scenic in different ways at different times of the day!

At night, we did a „Nachtwächter“ (night guard) tour through Dresden‘s old town which was very interesting as we learned a lot about Dresden‘s history, people and buildings. I would highly recommend it and you can buy tickets at the tourist office.

The next day, we bought a museum pass and went through all the exhibitions at the city castle and Zwinger. My favourite exhibition is the „Grünes Gewölbe“ at the castle, which hosts the greatest treasures of Dresden. The collection is very impressive, like the model of an Indian palace below, that has been made after someone from the palace has returned from their travels India in the 16th century.

At the palace, you can climb up the tower (included in the ticket and empty when we went) for excellent views over the old town –

And what would a visit to Dresden be without a traditional „Eierschecke“ (cake with custard filling) overlooking the famous Semperoper?

Finally, this was my favourite building in Dresden, the „Frauenkirche“

How do you know you‘re in East Germany?! Ampelmännchen! And this was the first time we saw a female one, how lovely!

On our last day we met friends in a relaxing beer garden on the other side of the Elbe river, overlooking the old town… What a perfect way to end our short holiday!

– Her