The Elbe Valley 2012 – Part 3
Dresden – Radebeul – Meissen
Dresden to Radebeul, 27 May
We’d walked into Dresden alongside the Elbe. The route out headed north away from the river and through Dresden’s urban sprawl. It was the Sunday of the May holiday weekend so almost everywhere was closed except for places catering for tourists and families on holiday. German bakeries also seem to open on these mornings and we were lucky enough to find one before we left the city so we could buy food for lunch. Once out of the city the walking was more varied as our route kept close to the boundary between built-up areas and open country.
The first up-along-down diversion came soon after mid-day. A short steep climb on a well-made path with concrete steps brought us to a local landmark, the Bismarckturm (Bismarck Tower), where there was a bar/restaurant with a terrace. Somehow we ignored the opportunity for a beer and ate our lunch sitting by the tower.
Uniform will be worn at all times! (At Bismarckturm)
View from Bismarckturm
From the tower a straight flight of more than 200 concrete stairs led down to a Wine Museum. We weren’t in the mood to stop and look around so carried on. One more up-along-down got us to the edge of Radebeul: the main road in took us straight to the front of our hotel. It was quite early so we sat in the courtyard with beers while we waited for our bags to arrive.
Radebeul to Meissen, 28 & 29 May
Holiday Monday so the shops were still closed but the baker’s we’d passed on the main street yesterday was open and selling rolls and plum cake. I still had black bread and digestive biscuits bought two days ago.
I don’t remember much about the walk to Weinböhla. It was a fairly short day and the “Tarmac Index” we had started estimating (for Clive’s planned letter of feedback to Corso) was lower – perhaps 60%. I think most of the off-road sections were through woods, quite open mixed woods, light and airy.
In the village of Coswig we passed a memorial to Hans and Sophie Scholl, a brother and sister who were members of an anti-Nazi student group called the Weisse Rose (White Rose). They were arrested and executed in 1943. According to Wikipedia there are many memorials to them: this one was in a private garden and hardly visible from the road.
Later with only a few miles to go we had lunch beside a small lake in the woods. A digestive biscuit sandwiched between a folded slice of black bread was cheap and (allegedly) nourishing if not particularly appetizing.
Lunch Stop
We were so early getting to Weinböhla that we left our rucksacks and went for a walk through the local woods, led by Stuart.
And then it was our last day walking. Again the Tarmac Index was over 50%. Towers are popular features in Saxony: we visited two in the first hour. The first commemorates Baron Karl von Drais who it is claimed – and confirmed by no less an authority than Wikipedia – invented the bicycle in 1817. His machine became known as the ‘draisine’. We diverted half a mile to visit the railway station at Niederau which the guidebook says is the oldest station in continuous operation in Germany, but it wasn’t particularly impressive! Mid-morning we stopped for coffee and cheesecake at a bar/restaurant by a lake at nearby Buschmühle.
A long dreary flat section (though the roadside flowers were beautiful) took us to the range of low hills called the Spaargebirge, the last higher ground before finally approaching Meissen along the Elbe-side cycle track. Just before the bridge leading to the town centre we stopped for a final refreshment break.
Meissen, 30 May
Meissen is one of those attractive small towns that seems designed to be explored on foot. The large central square with several restaurants and cafés lies at the bottom of a steep rock outcrop on which sit a castle and a cathedral. Steep cobbled streets and flights of steps lead from the square to the castle. From the top you look down on a higgledy-piggledy jumble of red tiled roofs. Incongruously there is a modern enclosed automatic lift from the upper level down to a car park in an area away from the old centre.
In the morning Clive and John went off to visit the cathedral and castle while Stuart, Tom and I went to the Meissen porcelain exhibition and museum. The 8 euros entry was good value! Visitors are directed in groups round a series of rooms where craftsmen and women and artists demonstrate the process of making Meissen objects from the raw clay to the finished product. Non-German speakers need the audio guide for their native language. The whole operation is very professional.
After the tour there’s a porcelain shop and a jewellery shop (Meissen jewellery of course), and a whole museum to look round. There are some truly amazing pieces and collections on display. I wanted to find out how the company chose new designs to make and market but I couldn’t find anyone who understood my question (or if they did, was prepared to answer it). Their market is I think deeply conservative because even the latest designs are conventional and in the same traditional line. They do, though, employ a small group of young modern artists from various countries in an ‘Art Campus‘. The artists work on experimental pieces and perhaps influence the development of the brand.
Later I climbed to the cathedral, arriving just in time for the mid-day organ recital. Clive and John were there too. I stayed behind after the recital then came across Stuart in the square outside. We had lunch in a terrace restaurant looking out over the town.
In the afternoon I walked over the river and did a circuit of a few miles through the vineyards and past Schloss Proschwitz, the stately home of winemaker Prinz zur Lippe. Unfortunately the Schloss Proschwitz wine shop and restaurant is some distance away, too far to walk in the time I had.
For our last evening we had dinner in a friendly informal restaurant built into the hillside between the square and the castle, then it was back to the hotel for bed and an early start in the morning.