Just returned from Dresden

On 12 Oct 2006 20:25:21 -0700, "Gregory Morrow"
wrote:


I stayed at that same hotel in 1978! It was one of the "Interhotels"
on the Prager Strasse where foreigners were permitted to stay. I still
have a bunch of things from there, including a little sewing kit that
the hotel had as an "amenity" in every room...

I think that hotel complex is now managed by Mercure...

I've kept loads of stuff from DDR times: hotel room cards, a ticket
for checking in my coat at the "Garderobe" of a restaurant, rail
tickets i/c the East Berlin public transport day pass, transit visas
across the DDR to West Berlin, an old passport with the DDR visa and
the "Visum Gültig zur Ausreise" and temporary "Aufenthaltserlaubnis"
which I had to get from the office of the Volkspolizei in the
Reisebüro der DDR in Alexanderplatz, Interhotel brochures, a street
plan of "Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR" and so on.

I also had a glance through pictures I took of the Wall and a series I
took from the same places a year or two after the wall had come
down.... I feel a book or a website coming on! I'll have to have a
beer from the VEB Getränkekombinat to cool down!

I've also got a copy of the files that the Stasi opened on me during
my stay - there's not much in it so they must have regarded me as
pretty harmelss to the Workers and Peasants Sate.

Keith, Bristol, UK

Email: usenet[dot]20[dot]keefy[at]spamgourmet[dot]com

A spamtrap - but I'll get your mail

Erick T. Barkhuis wrote:
My wife and I visited Dresden, Germany, for two days, and just returned.
We'd never been there before, but after a TV program about the city
several months ago, we decided to have a look.

And we loved it!

The Dresden city center consists of two parts: the Old Town and the New
Town, on the southern and northern border of the Elbe river respectively.
The Old Town offers impressive numbers of equally impressive churches,
palaces and museums/theatres, all built between 1600 and 1850, most
rebuilt after WW2. Within walking distance, those who like to visit these
places will have fun for several days.
Also, the Old Town offers a nice pedestrian shopping area, as common as
in most modern cities.

The New Town is the government and student area. My impression of this
area was pretty much similar to downtown Barcelona. I loved the
Hauptstrasse (a bit like Ramblas without traffic) and the Albertplatz
area with art galeries, small trendy shops and bars.
Cheap chinese lunch restaurants can be found almost at every corner.

I'm sure we'll go there for a couple of days in the Spring again.
Next time anyone asks for a European destination for severaiLondon,
Barcelona, Amsterdam, Istanbul and (for Christmas) Bruges, Cologne and
Münster.

--
Erick

Yes, I've visited Dresden on quite a few occasions over the past 6-8
years, and grown more than very attached to the place, and would
wholeheartedly and unreservedly recommend it as a most interesting
place to visit for a host of reasons.

[The Hbf was just starting to be redeveloped last time I was there and
since then I think the Frauenkirche has been finished and reopened and
the stunning Green Vault collection too: if anyone has any current
experience of these, I'd be most interested to hear of it.]

David

My only one complaint about Dresden is that although they do cater to
tourists, it's mostly geared to German tourists.
One reason: in former East Germany the first foreign language at school was
Russian, not English. So you might find quite many people who speak Russian
but hardly any English.

Turan

Gregory Morrow schrieb:

IIRC another "New World" connection for Dresden is that nearby is the
hometown of the author Karl May, he wrote the westerns which were
popular with Germans earlier in the last century (this despite the fact
that he had never visited the US west).

IIRC Karl May did visit the US west, but only after he had written most of
his westerns. Again IIRC, he wrote a book on his experiences on that trip.

.... Martin

On 2006-10-12, Keith Anderson wrote:

The international ticket counters at Dresden Hbf were funny - one desk
for Sozialistisches Ausland, the other for Nichtsozialistisches
Ausland (!)

Which one did you use?

On 2006-10-13, Alan S wrote:
On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:40:00 GMT, "Cesar Neri"
wrote:

My only one complaint about Dresden is that although they do cater to
tourists, it's mostly geared to German tourists.

The place I stopped in to have a beer, as an excuse for
SWMBO to visit the loo, had boomerangs, "beware of koalas"
road signs and pictures of kangaroos hopping around the
walls (and didn't understand a word of English:-)

I had a meal there in May.

On 22 Oct 2006 18:08:20 GMT, Jesper Lauridsen
wrote:

On 2006-10-12, Keith Anderson wrote:

The international ticket counters at Dresden Hbf were funny - one desk
for Sozialistisches Ausland, the other for Nichtsozialistisches
Ausland (!)

Which one did you use?

Neither - had a pre-booked ticket back to the BRD from Magdeburg.



Keith, Bristol, UK

Email: usenet[dot]20[dot]keefy[at]spamgourmet[dot]com

A spamtrap - but I'll get your mail

On 22 Oct 2006 18:08:20 GMT, Jesper Lauridsen
wrote:

On 2006-10-13, Alan S wrote:
On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:40:00 GMT, "Cesar Neri"
wrote:

My only one complaint about Dresden is that although they do cater to
tourists, it's mostly geared to German tourists.

The place I stopped in to have a beer, as an excuse for
SWMBO to visit the loo, had boomerangs, "beware of koalas"
road signs and pictures of kangaroos hopping around the
walls (and didn't understand a word of English:-)

I had a meal there in May.

Was it edible? :-)

We were a little surprised to find this fascination with
"things Australian" in Eastern Europe. There was an
"Australiana" fashion/clothes shop in a town we've
forgotten, an Italian restaurant in Wroclaw festooned with
didgeridoos and boomerangs and selling reasonable Australian
wines, a girl in the covered market in Krakow selling Aussie
hats at outrageous prices.

Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
latest: Tarascon - Chateau du Roi Rene

Alan S wrote:

On 22 Oct 2006 18:08:20 GMT, Jesper Lauridsen
wrote:

On 2006-10-13, Alan S wrote:
On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:40:00 GMT, "Cesar Neri"
wrote:

My only one complaint about Dresden is that although they do cater to
tourists, it's mostly geared to German tourists.

The place I stopped in to have a beer, as an excuse for
SWMBO to visit the loo, had boomerangs, "beware of koalas"
road signs and pictures of kangaroos hopping around the
walls (and didn't understand a word of English:-)

I had a meal there in May.

Was it edible? :-)

We were a little surprised to find this fascination with
"things Australian" in Eastern Europe. There was an
"Australiana" fashion/clothes shop in a town we've
forgotten, an Italian restaurant in Wroclaw festooned with
didgeridoos and boomerangs and selling reasonable Australian
wines, a girl in the covered market in Krakow selling Aussie
hats at outrageous prices.


After WWII some people from those countries emigrated to Australia,
thus there is a bit of a Central/Eastern European "diaspora" in
Australia and some people are perhaps returning to visit/work/hang out
for a bit...also a fascination with things Australian, it's an exotic
place that was pretty much off the radar of people in that area when
those countries were communist. Also, Australia is seen as a very
attractive place (that is true of people here in the states, too);
Australians are generally well - liked as a group.

--
Best
Greg

On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:30:04 +0200, Martin
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 08:24:56 +1000, Alan S wrote:

We were a little surprised to find this fascination with
"things Australian" in Eastern Europe. There was an
"Australiana" fashion/clothes shop in a town we've
forgotten, an Italian restaurant in Wroclaw festooned with
didgeridoos and boomerangs and selling reasonable Australian
wines, a girl in the covered market in Krakow selling Aussie
hats at outrageous prices.

Was her name Sheila?

Actually, I've met lots of sheilas (everybody who wasn't a
bloke, in fact, apart from some indeterminate ones in Kings
Cross and St Kilda) but never one by that name.

This particular one was probably named the female Polish
version of "avaricious".

If I'd known I could charge AU$150 (350zlt) for a hat that
cost $40 back home and was probably made in China for $4 -
I'd have packed a hundred imitation Akubras to finance the
trip:-)

Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
latest: Tarascon - Chateau du Roi Rene