Noora's travel guide: Dresden

Last weekend we met my parents in Dresden what happened to the sunday dinners in Espoo? :P They were spending their holiday in Prague, and asked if we could meet somewhere near. Everything is "so close" here, that it's easy and not too expensive to drive somewhere for a weekend. :) I've been in Prague already twice, and I have to say that so far it did not impress me much. Too much tourists and negative things related to tourism. So we decided to check some other destinations where it would be easy for us and my parents to come.

So we picked Dresden.

First time I was in Dresden was last year when we visited "the-world-famous" Christmas markets. Obviously it was a bit different now in summer.

The first things I noticed was that it was HOT and rather quiet. We were so lucky to have the super-heat-wave for two days of our sightseeing. Maybe that was the reason why the city seemed so quiet. Who would willingly do sightseeing in 37 degrees? :P

Dresden suprised me already on the first time. I've never really heard about Dresden before, I guess it's not very popular destination for Finnish tourists. I wonder why? They have everything that Prague has, except less tourists and less drunken British people. And less cheating. They have gorgeus old buildings, a river (ok maybe not the most beautiful one), traditional restaurants, cheap beer for Finnish people at least...

But most amazing are the buildings; the entire city center was destroyed in the II World War, and they managed to rebuilt it so nicely. Me and my parents were wondering why Finland was not rebuilt like it was before. Now we have country full of apartment buildings from 60's. Not pretty.

We did not really check the night life, but we ate well. On Saturday we went to Mongolian Bar; a restaurant I found in advance from internet. It is a combination of buffet and a la carte. Different menues included soup, sushi, buffet and dessert. In the buffet they had fresh vegetables, seafood, fish, meat and noodles, and the chefs prepared this with the sauce you chose. Nice idea. But definetely not fast-food.

Breakfast we had in our hotel, Motel One, which we've been sleeping in other cities too. I like their concept; affordable prices, small but shiny-new rooms, good location and nice breakfast buffet.

On Sunday after some walking and refreshing in a fountain :D we needed to get some lunch. With our heads melted by the sun, we managed to find a Mexican-Brazilian restaurant near our hotel. I was a bit sceptic about the restaurant, but I was proofed wrong. We all order salads as it was too hot to eat a steak. And the salads were excellent! :) But apparently the prices were scary to some people as we saw several groups leaving right after they had a look on the menu.

So final conclusion is that Dresden is worth visiting and I would go there again. Maybe next time we will hit the clubs. ;)