Dresden: Beauty of its Own

Dresden Old City at night

Our last stop on the celebrate Lady Hiva birthday trip was Dresden, Germany! Dresden is a beautiful city in the south part of Germany and was once of the last kingdoms to be annexed into the country. Much like Prague it is built on a river and have large gothic buildings towering over picturesque bridges and cobblestone squares. Many of them had to be rebuilt after the bombings of WWII, but today you would not know that. They are beautiful.

We ended up with a beautiful hotel right in the heart of the city (thank you, hotwire.com). We ate dinner and then went to shopping. Lady Hiva found a Christmas shop and we bought our German nativity (I collect them from all the places we go). While the girl was packaging it up—she was SO SLOW—Lady Hiva and I let Tau’aho run up and down the corridor between shops. Before it was over Lucky Dragon had been given chocolate from two different people (seriously! This kid could live on the free food he gets!). It was a bit cold so Lady and Lucky boy went back to the hotel and I went to get some night photos.

The view from our window

It was an amazing city to walk around and see. I strolled along with the couples enjoying the night. Hurried past the youth blasting their music and lining up their empty beer bottles on the wall (and watched for shadows moving in the shadows…luckily there weren’t any). I enjoyed taking photos.

Night profile of Dresden

The next day we had a large, delicious Swiss breakfast. We are still surprised with the open way that pork is sold and eaten! We did a quick tour of the city before driving back to Prague—Laura (our GPS woman) got us lost a few times which was fun to see more of the villages in the area but we had a plane to catch.

We flew back and it was fun to see how happy Lucky Dragon was to be home. He walked into the door and walked around alternating cheers between an ecstatic clapping “yeah!” and throwing his hands in the air and shouting “woohoo!” triumphantly. He must have missed home!

Actually, this week he has picked up some new hobbies. He loves to draw and will sit as long as he will to read to just color. He still thinks the heart and the star are the best shapes and gets so excited to see them. I was drawing animals for him and he would guess what they were. When I drew a cat he looked at it, paused and then quizzically said, “What’s that?” HAHAHA..I guess I failed on the cat drawing department (maybe it is because I am a dog person at heart). He has also taken to puzzles. He will sit and match shapes and colors for hours. I like to watch him figure it out. He is always so proud of himself when he completes one. Again we see him throw up his hands and give a “woohoo!”