Krawkow, Dresden, and Berlin in January
 

We love winter in Europe and will put up with the cold (sometimes bitter) to experience great cities (the people, galeries, cafe's, restaurants, etc..)with not so great crowds. This January we have chosen a Berlin, Krakow, Dresden 8 day trip. We were planning on taking night trains and getting a private first class sleeper car for the days of travel between Berlin and Karkow, and then back to Dresden. We were planning 3 days in Berlin, 3 in Krakow, and 2 in Dresden. Any ideas if this sounds like a good mix for the limited time? Any favorite things not to be missed (that will be open) at that time of year? Thanks!

Hello,
We just returned from a fabulous trip to Poland and spent 3 days in Krakow. I think you need at least 3 days there. It is a wonderful city...not as crowded as Prague. WE stayed at the Hotel Saski which I highly recommend. Definitely go to Wawel Castle and Cathedral. The cathedral is free and we also bought tickets to see the Staterooms and had a guided tour of the Royal Palace Apartments, which are all worth seeing. Spent a lot of time strolling around Old Town and the Main Market Square taking photos and enjoying the ambience of the area. Shopped in the Cloth Hall. Went to the Art Museum on the second floor of the Cloth Hall. Definitely go inside St. Mary's Church. It is a must!! Most ornate church I have ever seen. We also went to Auschwitz and the Salt Mines at Weilicka. Both places are a must. There are other small museums in Krakow that we didn't have time to go to and there are other day trips from Krakow, such as Zakopane and the Black Madonna, which we didn't have time for. Hope this helps. Enjoy!

Being a Dresden resident I can only speak about this city. You could spend weeks in the area and would not get bored, but with your limited time (and considering it will be in January) it is okay. Sounds like an excellent mix to me.

You should definitely spend a morning walking through the old town along the river (like all the tourists do). Of course you will see the Zwinger palace, Taschenberg Palace (hotel), the Semper Opera house, the cathedral, the stables, the procession of princes (genealogical mosaic of Meissen porcelain tiles), the Royal Palace (under reconstruction), walk along Brühl?s Terrace and see the church of Our Lady (under reconstruction, but the façade is almost completed except the spire). Depending on your interests you have the options to join a guided tour of the Opera house (better attend an opera in the evening) or visit museums/picture galleries.

The Zwinger houses several museums (porcelain collection, armour collection, Mathematical-Physical salon [scientific instruments and clock collection]) and the outstanding picture gallery Old Masters. Warning: these are closed on Mondays.

The Albertinum is home of museums, too: Picture Gallery New Masters (Romanticism, Impressionism e.g.), and sculptures collection (originals and copies of ancient works, Baroque works). These are closed on Thursdays. Unfortunately you will miss the Green Vault (jewellery collection), which will be closed Dec 31 for the move to the Royal Palace.

To soak up some local atmosphere I recommend to stroll through other quarters of Dresden: The New Town on the opposite bank of the river e.g. (Baroque quarter). Or take a tram (No 12) from the Old Town to Dresden-Blasewitz, Schillerplatz square. On the way (20 minutes) you can see the transparent manufacture where Volkswagen produces its new car ?Phaeton? and a nice residential area with villas in Historistic and Art Nouveau style. Get off at Schillerplatz, walk across the Blue Wonder bridge and take the funicular up to Dresden-Weisser Hirsch, where you can have lunch, coffee or dinner in the restaurant Luisenhof with a spectacular view over the city (great at night, too).

An option for the second day is a day trip to the surrounding. I suggest a visit of Weesenstein castle, the fortress Königstein or castle Moritzburg (a former hunting lodge), which are open all year round. Weesenstein and Königstein are easily accessible by train, Moritzburg by bus.

Or visit the small town Meissen, with medieval old town, castle and cathedral up on the hill dominating the town and the famous porcelain manufacture (everything open all year round).

You see there is much to do. Feel free to ask more questions.

Ingo

Dear Mr Devens,

The reference library of a city near you may have the Thomas Cook European Timetable. Table 57 winter shows that you can take a two berth, first class, sleeper from Berlin East at 2120 to Krakow Glowny at 0803. That station has pickpockets in gangs of three, so at 0750 you should put a little money and one credit card in a front pocket, and all other valuables, including passports, deep inside your biggest piece of luggage, for use at hotel reception. Then on arrival you can pile bags on a trolley, go up by lift to the station roof, and find yourself at a taxi stand. You can take any taxi that has a phone number on it, stop at an ATM (bankautomat) to draw Polish money, and carry on to your hotel.

I expect you know that the night journey back to Dresden lies via Berlin. Krakow Glowny 2118, Berlin East 0817 to 0947, buffet car train, Dresden 1145. You may prefer to go by day, Krakow Glowny 0850, restaurant car train, Cottbus 1700 to 1742, Dresden Neustadt 1933. Or Krakow Glowny 0631, restaurant car train, Wroclaw 1013 to 1137, buffet car train, Dresden Hauptbahnhof 1606.

Favourites of mine in Krakow are the Leonardo da Vinci portrait of the lady with the ermine and any evening of klezmer, and in Dresden the museum of the history of Dresden. If you are in Krakow on a Sunday I can name you a good church service in English.

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To Ben Haines (and bobdevens of course): As far as I know you the sleeper Krakow-Berlin goes via Görlitz where you can change to a standard train to Dresden, where you would arrive approx. 2 hours later (7 am I believe). At least a friend from Texas did it a couple of weeks ago.

The museum of the history of Dresden is unfortunately undergoing renovation and closed. It won't be open before summer next year I think.

Ingo

For Ingo. Many thanks: I did not know about the museum. I wonder what they are changing: I must go next year and see. It used to present the Anglo-American fire bombing and the Communist days in interesting and balanced surveys.

The Thomas Cook book shows the night train as running north of Goerlitz: Krakow depart 2118, Legnica dep 0344, Cottbus dep 0638, Berlin East 0817. You can indeed leave Cottbus 0742 and reach Dresden Neustadt 0933, but unless time presses I should opt for the longer dogs-leg via Berlin East, and a full night s sleep. The overnight train from Warsaw at 2127 to Dresden at 1006 does indeed run via Goerlitz, but has no sleepers nor couchettes. All in all, Goerlitz station has gone down in the world since the loss of through services from Poland via Goerlitz and Dresden to Frankfurt am Main. A shame, really: the town has rare monuments to the Enlightenment among the middle orders. Let us see what Union Entry in May 2004 does to the town. There have been mutterings of a second road bridge over the Oder. At much less cost, the Poles could take their fast trains twice a day to Zgorzelec and run them just two kilometres more over to Goerlitz, to offer further connections into German Rail.

Ben Haines, London

Ben, thanks for the correction! You're always welcome to come and see. I think the building was in need of a restoration. There won't be many changes of the exhibits. I agree with you that the the presentation was very interesting and balanced. I'll keep you updated.

Re: Krakow - Dresden
I hope Görlitz will recover soon (economy wise). It is such a gem of a town.

I had a look at the schedules of trains again. It came up with somewhat different times of dep/arr, but only a few minutes.

IMO the option with the change in Cottbus is not bad. Should be enough sleep for a night on the train :-) According to my information you should arrive in Dresden-Neustadt at 9:06 - great time to have a nice breakfast and explore the city later.

Ingo