Snow Road Trip to Czech & Saxony, Germany - Day 7: Görlitz & Dresden

Before leaving Görlitz, we made the last walk in the Old Town to Görlitzer Brotschmiedea, a local bakery with two large wood burning ovens under a curved cross vault. There were two tables for eat-in. It was about 7am and still pretty dark outside. While we were there, nobody came to the bakery. We had a very quiet breakfast time.

There were several loaf and roll breads but I didn't see any freshly baked sweet pastries. There was only one raisin roll, which seemed like the closest thing to sweet pasties. I was going to order it but J, who ordered first, took it. There were some cheese cake squares. They looked like leftovers from the day before, but they were the only cake option there. I tried one. It tasted ok but the cheese filling was rich and the slice was generous. I thought I won't need any cake or dessert the rest of the day. At least at that moment. 

It was time to say good-bye to the adorable Old Town of Görlitz. Tschüss!

Our next stop was Dresden. Instead of driving directly to Dresden, we took a detour and stopped at the Saxon Switzerland National Park. On the way we were driving through countryside and we saw a fox!

Situated on the right bank of the River Elbe, Saxon Switzerland National Park is the only non-alpine rock National Park in Germany. The Elbe sandstone mountains there, which were created by water errosion over the course of millions of years, provide a very curious and spectacular landscape. It was pretty foggy when we got there. We were worried we might not be able to see anything from the lookouts, but we were able to capture mysterious views of the numerous rock pinnacles in snow and fog. 

 

There was a stone bridge, called the Bastei Bridge, that spans between the rock formations over the Mardertelle Gorge. The original bridge was made of wood but it was replaced by one made of sandstone in 1851, which we can see today. 

On the left side of the bridge was Neurathen Castle, a former medieval hilltop castle and now an open-air museum. The museum was closed on the day, perhaps during winter, by the way.

On the other hand the Bastei Bridge was open and we freely walked on it. 

The observation deck that extends out in the middle of the bridge was a filming location of the Grand Budapest Hotel. The film definitely inspired us to make our trip to be more interesting. 

The Elbe river runs behind the bridge. The view told me we were actually standing on a very high spot.  

We arrived in Dresden before noon. We walked to the Old Town from our hotel on the New Town by crossing a bridge over the Elbe river. Somehow the closest bridge to the hotel was closed by police. We had to use another bridge that was far away. 

First we visited a Christmas market at Neumarkt, a market square in front of Frauenkirche, a Baroque style church made of light sandstone, which was rebuilt after being destroyed in WWII. The Christmas market was fully open and we joined a good amount of visitors there.

The Christmas market was large and gave us various food options. Freshly baked bread rolls with savory fillings looked nice and popular. We bought one with gouda cheese, spinach and fried onions to share. 

The bread, which was probably whole wheat, was chewy and very filling. Overall it was ok.

We also tried Swabian Maultaschen, meat-filled dumplings originated from Swabia, the south west of Germany. The dish came with Swabian style potato salad, which is traditionally made of potatoes, onions, hot broth, oil and vinegar. 

The giant "raviolis" were pretty good. I also liked the nice vinegar kick in the potato salad.  

Then we both had hot alcohol-free apple cider.

The cup made us nicely warm.

I was so full by then, but when I happened to find a Baumkuchen baker, I couldn't pass by them.

He was baking a baumkuchen over wood fire. How neat!

We got a half ring with dark chocolate to share. It tasted nice. 

There were also sausages, of course. 

There was something green, which is rarely seen at a Christmas market.

Roasted chestnuts! Sadly I was too full to eat any.

The Christmas market extended to the street toward the river. 

We walked a little and found the Fürstenzug, or the "Procession of Princes, on the outside of the Stallhof (the stable yard) of the Dresden Castle. The long mural is made of about 23,000 tiles from the world-famous Meissen porcelain and shows the princes, margraves and kings from the House of Wettin, the rulers of Saxony. While there was already a mural at the site in the 16th century, the current version was created in 1907. 

Again the street of the mural was closed by police. We couldn't walk through to see the entire mural. Something was going on in the center of Dresden. 

Meanwhile, we found another Christmas market in the Stallhof, the palace stable yard, in where knightly games and tournaments took place in the Middle Ages. In fact, the Christmas market there was medieval-themed and many sellers were wearing Medieval costumes.

There was a vendor who made turkey goulash and a kind of green bean stew. J had a bread filled with both. 

Here was J's belated Thanksgiving dinner sandwich! I believe he enjoyed it.

After passing through the Christmas market in the palace stable courtyard, we were on Schlossstraße and found Camondas, a chocolate shop with the wide collection of the high-end chocolate products all over the world. J picked up various chocolate as our mutual Christmas gift. How sweet!

Also, a couple of doors down from the chocolate shop was a store of Emil Reimann, a bread and confectionary manufacture that is famous with stollen. Stollen is a rich, sweet German Christmas cake filled with fruits and nuts. Stollen from Dresden are particularly well-known. We were in the right place to get an authentic Dresden Stollen. Emil Reimann makes several kinds of Dresden stollen. We chose their premium classic Dresden Stollen “Edition Frauenkirche.” 

There was a small Christmas market on Schlossstraße.

Also, there was another Christmas market at Altmarkt, a medieval market square. I think this was the city's largest Christmas market and the most decorative Christmas market I have ever seen.

It was getting dark. We walked back to the New Town, crossing the Elbe river again.  

Still it was a little bit early to go back to the hotel to rest. We took a long walk to the east of the New Town to find Dresdner Molkerei Gebrüder Pfund, the “World’s Most Beautiful Dairy Shop,” which was titled by Guinness Records.

The interior of the 19th century dairy shop was elaborately decorated with hand-painted tiles from Villeroy & Boch. It looked like a room in an Italian villa or a museum, but it was really a dairy shop. They sell fresh milk, buttermilk and cheese, along with other things such as milk soap and regional products. The shop was another Grand Budapest Hotel filming location. We bought a milk soap bar there as a souvenir.

We found a Christmas market at the pedestrian zone, between Albertplatz Square and the Goldener Reiter. The giant purple teddy bear at Albertplatz Square said Hello to us. This Christmas market was supposed to be an international Christmas market. I saw an Asian noodle shop and an empanada shop, but it looked like just a usual Christmas market. Anyway, it looked nice. At the end of the day I was amazed to realize how serious and passionate the city of Dresden is about Christmas markets.

To be continued...