More Adventures in Dresden

It’s time for another post about Dresden. I gave myself the liberty to take some more time and deviate from my self-imposed schedule for this one, since the last one ended up being rather short and I saw no reason to rush another post about the same city. Let’s get into it!

The Dresden Castle.

Since my last update, I’ve been able to visit a few places. The Great Garden, as seen above; one or two more visits to the old town, which has yielded a few good pictures; a few walks down the Elbe river, as well as some hikes in the areas surrounding Dresden.

However, the majority of our last week has been shaped by dealing with the heatwave currently hitting all of Germany. After all, our dog is bred for herding sheep in the rough mountains of Wales, and her fur is accordingly warm. And even though she has been shedding a lot throughout the last weeks – much to our displeasure, since it results in an extraordinary amount of maintenance – she still does not handle temperatures above 20°C very gracefully, and we have to plan around that.

On weekdays, that means taking walks very early and very late; on our evening walks, we often stroll down to the vast banks of the Elbe river, which passes through Dresden not far from where we live. On weekends, we usually like to hike – with the heatwave, that has meant searching for hikes with deep shade and chilly streams where Panda can hop in to refresh.

There are a few pictures from before the heatwave though which I would like to share.

More of Dresden

The Great Garden is a baroque-era parkland with the so-called “Summer Palais” at its center. Unfortunately, Panda was not particularly motivated when we got there, so we only got to see the northern half of it.

That day, it was also very rainy, and we just barely managed to not get wet. The first and last pictures are maybe half an hour apart, just for reference. Overall, I really liked it and would love to come back with better weather, more time and a more motivated dog.

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The Summer Palais with a statue titled "Die Zeit entführt die Schönheit" (Time steals beauty); walking through the greenery; Panda in front of the Summer Palais; a vase in the entrance area of the park – 1/4

We also took a few more walks to and around the old town. It shouldn’t be a great surprise that this is the part of Dresden I like the most – walking through the baroque buildings rising to each side feels a bit like traveling back through time.

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Some impressions from in and around the old town – 1/4

The corgi and the heatwave

We’re in a heatwave right now – like the rest of Germany – and at over 30°C, there’s only so much you can do with a corgi. On weekdays, we have taken to walks along the lush, green riverbanks of the Elbe, where Panda can run freely and go bathing whenever she likes.

The Dresden old town, as seen from the banks of the Elbe where we take our walks.

As we like to go hiking on the weekends, I searched for trails involving shades, rivers, ravines, anything that helps cool us down. And as it turns out, I went two for two in picking the correct hikes. Hooray! 🎉

On the first day, we went out into the Dresden heath. It was quiet, shady and Panda could go for a refreshing bath anytime she liked or needed one, which was roughly every 100 meters.

Following a stream peacefully running through the forest.

"Can we just leave her and get a new one?"

On the second day, we went into the sandstone mountains east of Dresden. The area is famous for its picturesque hikes – unfortunately, we won’t have time for most of them. This hike was chosen mainly by virtue of it being in a shady ravine where the heat wouldn’t get to us as much.

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Our hike led us from the small town of Uttewalde through the "Devil's Gorge". Adventurous! – 1/4

Overall, the hike was fairly uneventful, but at those temperatures I’d say that’s a good thing. While it was around 30°C outside (at maybe 10:30 in the morning!), it was only maybe 20°C inside the ravine, so we got to cover some six kilometers without really feeling the heat. However, as soon as we got out Panda started visibly struggling, and Liza carried her to the car for the last few hundred meters.

The next few weeks are going to be extremely busy, with a lot of travel involved. As I am switching jobs, I’ll travel to Hamburg to return my laptop, head from there to Copenhagen to meet a friend for their wedding, back to Hamburg, to Frankfurt to support a friend doing an Ironman, back to Dresden. Two days in Dresden, then off to Berlin for onboarding at my new job. I hope to be able to document the journey.

Thanks for reading, and until next time! And if you’d like to receive updates, you can subscribe via e-mail or Telegram.