Square 1 - Alles auf Anfang

Last week I went back to Dresden to celebrate my birthday with Sophie and my family. As it is the place, where everything begun for me, I take it as a good starting point for my blog...

Leaving Göteborg in the early morning to arrive at 12 in Dresden is always a good choice, because you get time, for example to go shopping. We went to Globetrotter to buy lead climbing gear, which will be our activity to learn for the autumn and winter.
After a nice trip home to the village of Hinterhermsdorf, I was happy to show Sophie the beauty of this part of the nationalpark. The weather was perfect in the next days, so every walking, hiking or view was amazing. Very nice was the boat / gondola trip on the Obere Schleuse (a reservoir of a small creek), which we enjoyed after the celebrations on Sunday.

Monday we meat Éoui and I could show both Québécoises the old town of Dresden - Altmarkt, Frauenkirche, Brühlsche Terrasse, Schloss und Schlosskirche, Fürstenzug, Theaterplatz with Semperoper and Zwinger. Éoui mentioned something interesting: the origin of Frauenkirche, Church of our lady and Notre dame is the same - I never made this connection!
Afterwards we headed for the University buildings and took a car tour along Gläserne Manufaktur (Transparent factory) of VW, Großer Garten (city park) and along the Elbe river to get a good view on the palaces and terrace gardens on the other shoreline.

After Sophie left for work in Sweden again :(, I still had some nice days with my family. A beautiful highlight was an evening spend with my sister, cousin and his girlfriend on the Elbe shore with a brilliant view on the illuminated silhouette of Dresden old town.

After all a really nice week in a very lovely place ;)