Day 31-32: Dresden and Radebeul

Tuesday turned out to be one of the most physically demanding days we’ve put ourselves through. We have found a training program to prepare us for the half marathon, and made Tuesday our official start date. The first exercise was a 2 mile run, followed by 5 aerobic intervals (run a little faster than you are comfortable with for 1 minute then reduce your speed until you recover), followed by another 2 mile run. The result was a run just under 5 miles.

Afterwards we showered, had an early lunch then headed out to find the bike rental shop. We had an idea of where to find it, but it was further out of town than we expected, and at one point we were walking along a narrow shoulder of a fairly busy highway. The rental shop was on the edge of the Elbe river bike path so, once we got our bikes it was actually quite a nice path. We headed towards Dresden (13km) with the intention of booking our train to Prague, and finding a beer garden that was recommended to us. The following are pictures we took along the way into Dresden:

In Dresden we locked up our bikes near the river and walked up through the town to the train station, then back to the river. The beer garden was another 5km up the river, putting the total one-way distance up to around 18km.  It was well worth it though, as the beer garden was nice and shady and had a pleasant view of the river. Falling chestnuts proved to be a little hazardous, but I had better luck than Jackie avoiding them.

Around 5:45 we decided we were going to be hard pressed to get home before it got dark so we reluctantly left the beer garden and biked the 18km back to the apartment for the night.

The following morning we took at a more leisurely pace. We had a late breakfast and went for a stroll through the neighbourhood. There was a stairway up the escarpment that we had seen on a map and we figured it would provide us excellent views. The following are the pictures we took in the neighbourhood.

By now it was getting late for lunch so we headed to a square in town (see pictures below) that we had biked through the day before on our way to Dresden. It was full of small shops, bars, and cafes. We found one of the busier street cafes and had a traditional Saxon meal. For Jackie that was a turkey salad and for me it was blood sausage with sauerkraut, both washed down with the haus brew.

We biked around the town a bit more but ended up back in the square again for a beer from a different beer garden. I have to say, this is living the life.

Tomorrow we leave Germany, ending the first leg of our German tour, and head to Prague. Jackie will tell you (and rightly so) that Prague is the city I have been looking forward to most. So until next time, auf wiedersehen!