We were staying in the NH Dresden Alrtmarkt – a fairly swish hotel in Dresden’s old town, about a kilometre from the station so we headed up the main pedestrian thoroughfare with our packs on weaving in and out of the hundreds of people milling about in one of the many Christmas markets or finishing a spot of last minute Christmas shopping. It was late Saturday afternoon when we arrived so it was quite busy, especially around the Gluhwein stands, where locals congregate and imbibe the traditional Christmas drink with gusto. Eventually we made it through the Christmas market and to the old town and our hotel.

When we checked in, they offered us hand towels and a refreshing drink. I had asked if possible when I booked the hotel if we could have a room with a view of the Christmas Market. They said the only room they could offer was a disabled room which had a bathroom setup that could be used by a person confined to a wheelchair. We decided to take it – the bathroom was perfectly easy to use and the view over the Christmas Market was spectacular. The Dresden Christmas Market is prettiest I have seen so far. Rather than just simple cabins and so on, it looked more like a Christmas Village. There were three dimensional Christmas scenes, some of the animated, on the top of all of the huts – bakers mixing things in bowls on the roof of the crepe stand – Santa and his reindeer on the roof of a Christmas decoration stand. One of the Gluhwein stands had a working train driving around its roof. It was about 4:30pm by the time we arrived so it had started to get dark and the whole market was brightly lit. It was spectacular. (Live to Tell – Madonna – this is one of Madonna’s more timeless tracks – it wasn’t really one of my faves when it came out – probably because other tracks were much more danceable but I have gained a new appreciation for it in recent years – probably because the only dancing I do these days is in the living room.)

We’d had no wi-fi for a couple of days so we decided to chill in the hotel for a couple of hours or so before getting dressed up to go out for a nice dinner. I pulled on my new dress (bought especially for travelling on the basis that you could probably screw it up into a ball and it would still look pretty good and my new boots from Stockholm and slathered on the war paint and off we went. We wandered down to the waterfront looking for a swish restaurant, preferably with a modern take on German cuisine. All we could find were French and Italian restaurants. The girl at the hotel had mentioned a couple of German restaurants to Dan – we walked past the first one and it looked a bit more like a diner and it was pretty full. We got to the door of the other and were welcomed in without a reservation. The restaurant was down two flights of stairs in the basement of the building. We were looking for something intimate. What we found was probably best described as a beer barn, complete with waitresses in traditional German costume. You can never really predict things when you are travelling and as we were there just the two of us, as we had been for the past three weeks anyway, it was still intimate in a weird kind of way. There was a quite extensive menu too. Given it was a beer barn, we both started with a beer – a pilsner for Dan and a Lager for me. We also decided to order entrees – I had Saxon potato soup with frankfurters – it was a slightly sour herbed potato soup with slices of frankfurts and Dan had the pork ragout, which tasted like a pork version of tuna mornay, complete with a grilled cheese crust. I chose off the Christmas menu for mains – roast Goose with potato dumplings and one of my favourite things ever – red cabbage with apple. When it arrived, it was huge – I am pretty sure it was a whole goose thigh and leg, with two rather large potato dumplings – needless to say there was no way I could finish it. The waitress looked concerned that I didn’t like it there was so much left. Dan chose the bohemian goulash (which was really tasty) and came with bread dumplings. Dan had another beer and I decided on Gluhwein (without the added rum).  The trick to Gluhwein is to let it cool slightly so the pungent alcohol flavour steams off the surface. It is really quite enjoyable once you have done that.  We decided to wander around the Christmas Market for some more Gluhwein and dessert – Dan had spied a crepery and was keen to tuck in.

What we forgot was that the Christmas Markets usually close about 8pm. And that is really when they close. As soon as the clock hits 8pm, the shutters start coming down. We wandered for a bit longer in the vain hope that one of the stands would still have something Dan felt like but eventually we gave up and retired for the evening. The lights from the Christmas market stayed on for a while and made a restful backdrop out the hotel window.

Next morning we checked out of the hotel, stowed our bags and went out to explore Dresden. First stop was breakfast at the crepe stand in the Christmas market, Dan had one with Nutella – mine was the (for me) traditional Zitrone und Zucker (lemon and sugar). Then it was off to Neustadt. I had read a bit about the youth culture in the outer Neustadt that had grown out of the seeds of the peaceful 1989 revolution that brought down the wall so we set out across the bridge, leaving Dresden’s rebuilt Baroque era buildings behind.  Unfortunately I had lost the hand drawn map where I had scrawled out a walk for us to go on and at one point we turned the wrong way and missed the last part but it was nonetheless a really interesting window into the current (less hipster, more real) cultural life of the alternative part of Dresden, Firstly this area had that same unkempt look about it that Sydney’s inner west used to have 25 years ago before it became an address to have. The post re-unification squats may have disappeared here but that vibe and the aesthetic seemingly lives on.

As we wandered up the street we saw mural after mural – we walked past the youth centre – operating here since 1951, although I imagine it was a quite different looking place – much less Bohemian before 1989. There was an installation of incredibly long bicycles and Katy’s Garage, an infamous club that is set in what looks almost like a series of shipping containers – but which I understand used to be a garage. From here we kept wandering up to Kunsthoffspassage which leads into a courtyard of townhouses that are an artist’s canvas of murals, sculptures and outdoor artworks hanging on the walls. One wall famously has a pipe arrangement that works as a musical instrument when it rains, and another has brass metal strips protruding in semi circles from the wall so from the ground it looks like someone threw gold confetti in the air and some of it stuck to the side of the building. It was an amazing sight and you imagine one an energy charged, creative and exciting time it would have been in this part of Dresden in the months surrounding the fall of the Berlin wall. We wandered further down the street past the Lebowski bar – and yes it is inspired by the film as is evident from the bars logo. This corner is known as the Bermuda triangle because of its plethora of bars. There is a gay bar called Kings and Queens and if the name wasn’t enough for you to realise, the place is helpfully adorned with a rainbow flag. I haven’t seen one of those for a while. Instead of turning left here and seeing more of the street art, we took a right which led us back to Katy’s Garage. It’s a pity but that’s what happens I guess. We3 saw a lot of interesting work at any rate. The other thing you notice is that this area has not been spruced up and gentrified like the Aldstadt. Either by circumstance or design it has retained its gritty character without recreating it the way hipster districts across the world have otherwise. This feels like the real deal – a moment captured in time. (The Wild Rover – Dropkick Murphys – The Dropkicks are pretty good at reinterpreting classic Irish folk songs and this is no exception)

We wandered back through the local Neustadt Christmas market that looked quite a bit more authentically local than the flashy (but really pretty) Christmas market in the Aldstadt. It was while tents like you see at all Australian markets including the Multi-cultural festival. This market was a bit multicultural too with Finnish Glogg, African curries and even Vietnamese noodles on sale. Dan had stopped and bought a Bratwurst on the way through to the Neustadt. From there it was back across the River Elbe and the many, many photo opportunities that presented. Including, by the way, a Cinderella princess style coach being pulled by horses. Funnily enough it was Japanese people riding inside.

Then we came upon the transport museum, complete with a collection of aircraft, that I had pointed out to Dan. Amazingly he decided not to spend the 10 Euros or so that it cost to go inside and preferred to walk around Dresden and look at things. So I can’t really be blamed for the low count on war museums and model shops. The blame for the amount of Christmas themed activities does lie squarely at my feet though.

We decided it was time for a break from walking so we sat inside a little, traditional style café and had coffee and hot chocolate – at about 4 Euros each it was possibly the most expensive coffee I had so far. But it was expected given the location of the café right next to the Frauenkirche, the church in Dresden that was destroyed by allied bombing in the Second World War, left by the DDR as a memorial of war and then painstakingly rebuilt from the rubble. It is a curious building, mostly because they obviously needed to intersperse some new materials to rebuild it so it looks a bit patchwork. Burt it is amazing how much of Dresden has been rebuilt. Dan, who reads a lot of war history, said that more people died in Dresden in a series of allied bombing raids than were killed by the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. That and then they endured four decades of soviet rule. It’s a wonder anyone in Dresden over the age of 25 even knows how to smile.

After we had our fill of the rebuilt baroque skyline of Dresden, we headed back to the Christmas market for some lunch and a Christmas decoration purchase. Dan tried the first kransky looking sausage he had seen – it turned out to be more or less a pretty boring frankfurt. I opted for the traditional bratwurst, which is a herbed pork sausage with German mustard. I have always thought Germans made the best mustard and since eating so many sausages in markets, I am even more convinced. I had spied earlier in the day, a dessert treat that had been one of my favourite as a child – I had no idea it was a German delicacy although it probably fairly obvious – baked apples with custard. The apples are cored and then filled with butter and brown sugar and baked until soft (except my Dad made them in the microwave – he also made cakes like that too – I didn’t grow up in a gourmet household, let’s just leave it at that. Now baked apples probably aren’t that good for you but they taste incredible. Bellies full and tastebuds satisfied, it was time to procure a Christmas ornament – a silver advent candle like we had seen in the windows of all the houses throughout Scandinavia and often in Germany too – and then bid farewell to Dresden as we boarded the train for our final German destination and the place where we were to spend Christmas – Berlin.

Christmas themed activities – 16  War museums and model shops – 1.5  Design experiences – 2