To Germany and Beyond, well, just to Dresden

What do you know about Germany? "Besides the obvious, that they have beer, sausages, and i do not understand their language... not much."

Last weekend Dave and I finally took a trip outside of the Czech Republic for the day. And where did we go? Germany! I have never been to this land of WWII, beer, oktoberfest, and sausages so I was extremely excited when we jumped into a rented car Saturday morning to start our little drive to Dresden. Quick history lesson: Dresden is where all of the Czechs go to buy goods.. it's about 1/2 the price as the Czech Republic and more of a selection, which usually means you aren't getting ripped off like you are here. Also, the allies during WWII completely destroyed the city.. literally leveling it to the ground. All of the buildings were rebuilt using old brick and new brick... it's a really cool city and very friendly!

Saturday morning was cold here; about 4C. I had asked Dave earlier in the week if we would have problems with snow, since it was rumored that the Czech/German border would get some snow over the week. Dave said no.. and I never checked the weather forecast, if i would have listened to my mother I would have known better, but alas we started on our roadtrip adventure! TomTom a.k.a. Tania took us through the Northern Czech mountains on a two lane stretch of road that lasted about 70 kilometers... it was beautiful and really a lovely drive. About half way through we noticed we were heading into the mountains... no problem we thought. But, as we started to go up we saw snow...

View of the really pretty road and the mountain we began to climb right after Teplice, Czech Republic. So much for no snow that weekend!

The trees still have all of their leaves... And most of them are still green!!!!

Well, being the good little travelers that we are we didn't think much of it. Perhaps it was just a little dusting... nothing to be concerned about. But, as we climbed the mountain we became accutely aware of just how much snow had actually fallen during the week... and it was more than a light dusting. Once we reached the top of the moutain there was no sun, no leaves, and about 2-3 feet of fresh snow with more starting to come down as we were driving. To say that we were nervous would have been an understatement. We definitely floored it to the German border and decided we would not be taking the same way later on that evening.

Top of the mountain... no sun, no leaves, just a lot of cold-fresh snow. BBRRRRR....

Once we got over the border and into Germany nothing really changed except for the fact that there was even more snow here than there was in the Czech Republic! I was excited jumping up and down in my seat like a 5 year old child, though Dave, the driver, was not as eager about jumping up and down until we were finally in Dresden, and away from the snow and ice. On our way we went through the cutest little German town... red and yellow buildings with the traditional German style architecture (it reminded me a lot of Helena, Georgia.. except here i was looking at the real thing). Toward the middle of the town they had a ski slope... which was open for business!!! Dave and I thought about stopping in and getting our ski on.. but we had a date with Dresden and we were ready to get there.

Cute little German town over the border... keep in mind it was noon when we drove through the town; i know it looks like 4pm.

Finally, around 1pm we finally made it into Dresden! The trip itself is only supposed to take about 3 hours but it took us about an hour extra since we drove through all of that snow and Dave was careful to be the extra cautious driver... which i of course appreciated!

A really interesting mosiac next to the river, Dresden, Germany

After such a long drive I was feeling a little hungry and well, was getting a little antsy for my first German beer. Apparently, it's very similar to Czech beer, which I LOVE, but just for the sake of experimenting I thought it best to really see for myself. The verdict, yes, it tastes very similar if not almost the same as Czech beer... so basically it was awesome!

Pretty much my favorite things all together: potato soup with sausages and veggies, and a nice dark "sweet" beer. God... my life is amazing! P.S. This is where Dave did all of my translating... he speaks German well!

After my scrumptios lunch we walked across the bridge back into Dresden to do a little more sigh seeing, beer drinking, and of course shopping, because like good Czechs we also know that everything is cheaper in Germany!

Cutest picture ever!!!

So, back across the bridge there is a really great park that looks over the river and onto some government buildings. I love parks, 1) because they are usually very beautiful and well manicured, 2) most importantly because they are free!

This was suppose to be my catalog photo for the military... don't you see all of the matching colors? PURPLE!

After all of our walking around the city, in parks, buildings, monuments made Dave and i VERY thirsty for another German beer so we went into another pub where Dave found the love of his life! What you thought that it was me.. lol.. oh, you guys are funny! No no, Dave found a pub that serves a 1 liter beer (like the ones in Oktoberfest!) Since, Dave could not go to Oktoberfest because evil DHL told him he had to go to a meeting instead, Dave pretended like it was his first beer there and we had a nice time sitting and talking. Of course we didn't have the same atmosphere of drunken men and women, women in crazy german outfits carrying 7 of those bad boys at a time, but it was still fun watching him drink it!

Dave.. drinking his beer also know as his God!

me and my baby beer

So, all in all, Germany was awesome. We got home later that evening around 11:30pm. Not bad for a days drive... beer, snow, a decanter and a glass bowl for snacks..and of course time spent with my amazing boyfriend! I can not wait until the next time we go to Germany!