2012: Leipzig
2013: Hamburg
(click on the above cities to see the posts)
And now, 2014: Dresden :-) This year's destination for our traditional long weekend trip with "my girls" (Sarah, Audrey and Jana) to some place in Germany to spoil ourselves with loooooooooots of good and yummy German Christmas food, muuuuuuuch Glühwein (mulled wine) and a bit of sightseeing and culture.
Friday, 5th of December:
Super early flight for me and Jana from Oslo to Berlin where me met Audrey landing just a little bit later with her flight from Amsterdam. We picked up our rental car and hit the road southwards to Dresden, a 200km/2 hours drive from Berlin.
In Dresden, at the hotel, we met Sarah who had a flight from Dusseldorf straight to Dresden.
Now complete, our Christmas market adventure could start :-)
We spent most of the time of the coming 4 days walking, eating, drinking Glühwein, eating, walking, shopping, walking, drinking, eating, walking, walking, eating, walking, drinking and walking and eating and drinking Glühwein...
Here some impressions of the 4 days that followed:
Kunsthofpassage
(an artistically decorated passage way)
And there we go: the first Christmas market of this trip, the Augustusmarkt.
Colourful - the "Räuchermännchen" which are so typical for this area of Germany.
A "Räuchermännchen" is an "incense
smoker", the invention of toy makers in the Ore Mountains, and used to burn
down cone incense. For this, a cone incense is set on
first, then put on the lower part, the base of a wood figure. The upper
part is hollowed out and put on top of the first part. The cone incense burns
down inside of the hollow figure and the smoke leaves the mouth hole of the
Räuchermännchen.
And the first well-deserved Glühwein :-) "Prost!"
Dresden Cathedral
At the big "Striezelmarkt".
Dresden Frauenkirche - which got totally destroyed in the Second World War, its ruins being kept as war memorial until its reconstruction works finished in 2005.
Saturday, 6th of December:
For breakfast we returned to a place we already went for lunch the day before and immediately fell in love with. What a pity that I can't remember its name. It was so cosy and the food so nice!
Shopping in a nearby outlet store that had attracted our attention.
We risked buying all the same jacket (but eventually just bought it 3 times).
The green and red figures on traffic light signals in Eastern Germany.
At the "Zwinger", a court in roccoco
style originally serving as the orangery, exhibition gallery and festival arena
of the Dresden Court, being today a museum complex.
Preparation of ham and cheese filled oven baked bread called "Handbrot", topped with sour cream and spring onion or fresh herbs...
...our favourite and an every year's MUST at the Christmas market!
An evening at the famous Semper Opera House - we got some last minute tickets sold on the streets to see Mozart's "Magic Flute" :-)
Of course not the best seats, but still impressive and great to experience a performance at the Semper Opera House.
Since we bought the tickets just shortly before the start of the performance, we were everything than properly dressed for such an event. In sturdy walking boots, sporty jeans and little elegant warm winter clothes we turned everyone's attention to ourselves. All the elderly men and women, perfectly dressed up in their "best" and very elegant outfit and with expensive (looking) jewellery, paid us a look saying "oh my god, today's young people just have no manners anymore". Hahaha!
Of course, no pictures were allowed during the performance, so just one at the end.
After the show, we joined a guided tour for which we had already subscribed in the afternoon. Very interesting!
Sunday, 7th of December:
An excursion to the Christmas market at Königstein Fortress (the "Saxon
Bastille"), a hilltop fortress about 1 hour from Dresden, in Saxon
Switzerland, above the town of Königstein on the left bank of the River Elbe.
It is one of the largest hilltop fortifications in Europe and sits atop the
table hill of the same name. Until 1922 it was for
centuries used as a state prison, but it is still intact and now one of Saxony's
foremost tourist attractions.
Finally a beautiful day with great weather to spend the last hours in Dresden (and take nice pictures of some places).
Once more the Cathedral and the Semper Opera House.
Again at the "Zwinger".
Another stroll over the Striezelmarkt.
Dresden Frauenkirche
No leaving of a Christmas market weekend without having had a "Baumstriezel" - a sweet
yeast dough stripe spun and wrapped around a long baking spit, lubricated in
melted butter, then baked above charcoal until its surface gets a golden-brown
coloured and then rolled in granulated sugar. Mmmmmm :-)
The Elbe river.
We left Dresden somewhat after noon - Jana, Audrey and me heading back to Berlin and Sarah taking her flight straight from Dresden back home.
It was Audrey that needed to catch her flight first. Jana left just a little bit later.
Me instead, I had made some other arrangements. I still stayed a night in Berlin to visit my cousin Bene and his family. Hadn't seen them in ages and actually had really had a chance to meet his two lovely kids.
Bene picked me up in Berlin downtown after his work and then had dinner together with the family. When the kids were in bed, we still enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine (and a yummy tiramisu) before we ended the day pretty late.
Tuesday, 9th of December:
My cousin of course had to work, so I spend the day together with Maren. Their daughter, Ebba, was at kindergarden, but Carl stayed at home with us. We went for a stroll, did some grocery shopping and I got all the stuff I needed/wanted to bring from Germany along to Oslo. A pretty relaxed day.
In the afternoon we went to pick up Ebba and had dinner together before Bene came back from work and drove me to the airport.
It was just a very short stayover, but it was so nice to see them again :-)
Thanks, Bene and Maren for your hospitality! I really enjoyed the few hours together and to see that you're all doing fine.
Hugs!
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