Rest Day Dresden

May 30 2023

Dresden was a great pick for a rest day or maybe an off the bike touring day.   Dresden has long history dating way back to middle ages as a trading center on the Elbe River. It was a center for the arts. It also became a manufacturing center for cigarettes in the 1800's.  In 1945 it was fire bombed into a smoking heap and then had to endure 50 years of soviet occupation.  However it is totally amazing how many of the buildings have been restored and how beautiful the city is. There are huge walking parks gardens throughout the city as well as hundred of huge plazas. 

After breakfast here in the hotel Ken and I took the Hop-on Hop-off tour bus around the city.  With the head phones you could listen to the commentary in English.  The bus tour took us past all of the historic sites and through a lot of very nice neighborhoods which had huge mansions, many of which have been converted to museums.  I was amazed at how green the city is with all the parks and lush trees.  The tour was about 2 hours long and so we wound up back at our hotel right at lunch time.  I needed to get some more tooth paste and sun screen so we hit a local super market.

One of the things we had seen on the first pass of the Hop on Hop off tour was the VW Glass factory.  It is the so called glass factory because all of the walls of the factory are glass.  Inside they assemble the VW ID electric cars.  So after lunch Ken and I headed back to get the guided tour of the VW assembly plant.  One one side is a huge circular structure which can hold 280 cars. The other side is the assembly floors.  There are three floors.  One assembles the chassis, one the bodies and one floor puts the two together.  The floors are all hardwood with a center section which moves along.  The bodies sit on pedestals and the workers put the parts on the cars.  Robots deliver parts to each station and help with the assembly.  When the body is ready a robot delivers the completed chassis and an other robot bolts the two together. It was a fascinating tour. Unfortunately NO photos in the factory.   

After we completed the tour we walked back and I saw the perfect chair that Agnes and I have been looking for our place in Phoenix in a shop window.  

A great site seeing day in Dresden.

Tomorrow we are back on our bikes with a 68 km ride down to Decin.  We have three ride days to Prague for our next rest day.

Terry