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 Elbe River just above Dresden by Nemorino
During this time, Dresden and vicinity had the dubious honor of being known in the rest of the GDR as the Tal der Ahnungslosen or "Valley of the Clueless." This was because they were so far away from West Germany and from West Berlin that they could not receive western television stations.
People from other parts of the GDR claimed that for this reason the people of Dresden had an uncritical attitude towards the actions of the East German regime.
I don't know it this is really true (the ones I knew seemed perfectly normal). Have there been studies done on this point? Perhaps some German VT-members might have information about this.
Update: Many thanks to VT-member german_eagle (Ingo), who lives in Dresden, for a very thoughtful and informative e-mail on this topic. He says it was true that West German television could not be seen in the Dresden area except under unusual weather conditions. But it was not true that the people in Dresden were uncritical of the GDR-regime. On the contrary, peaceful protests began there as early as February 1982.
He points out that there has long been a rivalry between Berlin (Prussia) and Dresden (Sachsen) going back as far as the 18th century, so people in Dresden have always been suspicious of anything coming from Berlin. Also Dresden has a strong and self-confident educated bourgeoisie which was always critical of the GDR government and never forgave them for building a "new" socialist city instead of rebuilding the beautiful old city of Dresden which was destroyed during the war. Leave a Comment
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 Misician by bugulmaLeave a Comment
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"Ostmobil" is an excellent collection of old Trabbis and a lot more of the typical cars and motor-scooters used and built in the former DDR.
This collection is shown in the 1st floor (USA:2nd floor) of a shoppinghall, called Neustädter Markthalle, that looks nice already by itself with a great architecture.
BUT my best memory was the great collection of Trabbants / Tarbbis - see my last picture, where I made my own picture-combination :
Lets start on top : "Villa Sachsenruh" on the left is a Trabbi with a tent on the top and it shows the Trabbant from the movie "Go Trabbi go!" - a movie , made shortly after Germany was re-united and it shows such a Trabbi going to Rome.
On the right : Trabbi and Camper LC9, beeing just 220 kg in order to be able to be torn by a Trabby.
On the righ below : The tarbbi of NVA, the army of the DDR
And finally on the left :
Trabbi P60 Pick Up. It was planned that way in 1960 by Dr.W.Lang, the constructor of all Trabbis, but was never built.
In 1999 W.Liebig heared about these plans and built this car according to the original construction-plans.
In the museum you may also see Trabbis used by the post-office of DDR, racing-cars, hundreds of motorscooters, a Duo 4 etc. etc. etc...
Thanks a lot Ingo , for this excellent museum, I would never have been able to find myself !
Ingo is german-eagle on VT and certainly the best expert about Dresden and Saxony on VT !! Leave a Comment
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 Erzgebirge Christmas Pyramid
at the Xmas Market by Ekaterinburg, 3 more photos
At the entrance to the market was a large yellow object which looked like something from The Magic Roundabout. This apparently is an Erzgebirge Christmas Pyramid and the one at the Striezelmarkt is the largest in the world. The base of this pyramid is a bar where you can get Gluwein and other drinks. I've seen a lot of Christmas Markets over the last few years but this was the first time I'd seen one of these large colourful pyramids.
Later in the afternoon I crossed the river and visited the Christmas Market on the Haupstrasse. There was no pyramid here but it was far less crowded and not thronged with tourists. Families were shopping, little children were riding on the carousel and it was unbelievably festive and atmospheric. There was plenty of room to move here and space to admire the merchandise. Great crafts and food as well as bags, scarves and traditional beverages.
A really lovely feature of Christmas in Dresden is the Paddle Boats on the River Elbe, all decorated with lights and Christmas trees. The Christmas trees around the city were not all up and while visiting the Frauenkirche a truck trundled on to the square with the biggest tree I'd ever seen, tied on the back. Much later in the evening I came back and the tree had been erected. The square and Christmas market stalls were now absolutely buzzing and the crisp, frosty air was laden with delicious smells and sounds.
There are several Christmas Festivals in Dresden. I have details on the most unusual of these in one of the tips below.
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As well as shopping, eating at the Christmas Markets is obviously hugely popular with visitors and locals alike. My photo shows the 'main course ' I had for lunch. The mug came from the bar at the base of the pyramid and was filled with lifesaving hot, spicy gluwein, the food from a stall just nearby. I chose this instead of the succulent sausages spitting on grills all over the place, because I'd never seen it before. It looked like a baked potato but was actually a hot brown bread roll filled with melted cheese. These were baked by the tray load in a huge oven next to the stall, and served by two really friendly guys who went to the trouble of telling me the name of this local delicacy. Unfortunately, I didn't have the usual notebook to hand and the scrap of paper with the information vanished. I can tell you that they were a little on the hard side, but very tasty.
Lots of the other stalls sold food as well and I wandered down the street in search of something different for desert. This I found on a stall that sold apple slices covered with chocolate, crunchy roast almonds and my eventual choice - a banana covered with chocolate. (See photo no.2). The banana was......... ???? Let's settle for 'different' but the bag of hot roast almonds kept me happily munching and scrunching for quite some time.
Eating at the Christmas Markets is such a pleasurable experience and one I wish I could indulge in at home. Freezing cold, hot mug of gluwein warming your hands, music playing, people chatting and warming themselves by the ovens and heaters. Bliss!
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 by globetrott
This last "fan of DDR" knew a lot about history, including Austria and was quite charming, and not really wrong in every aspect...
...Still I think it is great the old times are over, and even when not yet everything is totally perfect, it certainly is better for most of the population today anyway.
And these people should also start to think about their own comrades of the former communiste party of DDR - most of them are rich and wealthy today and perfect Capitalists, simply because they found their own tricks to survive in the "bad capitalist system" Leave a Comment
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 a romantic wedding-bureau /
Standesamt by globetrott, 4 more photos
Just click on my pictures and take a closer look for that great architecture and romantic fresco at the entrance-hall.
Just a pity, this place is open during the week, BUT NEVER on a saturday and sunday !!
I found it myself accidentially, when I left the hop-on-hop-off citytourbus in Goetheallee in order to take a few photos of the Elbe and castle Albrechtsberg.
This nice building may be found at the crossing of Goethestrasse and Vogesenweg.
The officehours are - just in case :
Monday : 08.00a.m. - 12.00 noon
Tuesday : 08.00 a.m. - 12.00 noon
+ 02.00p.m. - 06.00p.m.
Thursday : 02.00p.m. - 06.00p.m.
With these officehours, it is certainly a hard job there ;-)) Leave a Comment
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 A giant Stollen
reproduction in the
market by Ekaterinburg,
2 more photos
Like most things in Dresden Augustus the Strong had something to do with this tradition and in 1730 he got the members of the Bakers Guild to make a giant stollen weighing 1.8 tons. This laid the basis for the festival which happens in Dresden each December and over the years a legend has emerged which suggests that the stollen with its white layer of icing sugar is a symbol of the Christ Child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Definitely a little far-fetched but as I once considered a bottle of wine wrapped in a white cloth to be like a swaddled new-born, I can't really refute the idea.
The Stollen Festival is a huge and colourful affair with a procession through the Old Town and the election of a Stollen Maiden. A giant stollen is carried through the streets and the Grand Stollen Knife, which looks big enough to chop off a few heads with.
It all sounds way over the top but I was not surprised to read about this because every where I looked in Dresden I saw Stollen. Eventually I got to taste some and it was indeed light and delicious. There is a basic recipe but apparently every baker has his own variation usually handed down as a family secret.
Later in December, seeing stollen for sale in our local Lidl, I was quirte excited. However, it wasn't made in Dresden so I didn't buy it.
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 up, up and away in my
beautiful balloon by richiecdiscLeave a Comment
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 where locals relax for free by richiecdiscLeave a Comment
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