Visiting Dresden

The street sign at the corner where I am staying

I decided to make a trip to Germany to visit old friends this summer and things seemed to go wrong right from the beginning. First of all I came down with some sort of bug just before it was time to leave. Germany has no entry requirements so it was not necessary to provide a negative covid test. The trip itself was harrowing: four hours to get to the airport, five hours waiting in the airport because the flight was delayed two hours.

Actually things started to come apart three days before when my travel agent called and told me that certain legs of my flights were not available. I had booked this in March. I was scheduled to fly Lufthansa from Mexico City to Frankfurt with a connecting flight to Dresden. The connecting flight was cancelled so they were putting me on a train (four and a half hours instead of two hours on the plane), However, since the flight was two hours late out of Mexico City, of course I missed that connection. I stayed in the Holiday Inn at the Frankfurt Airport. Good hotel, by the way, but total cost came to over 300 euros. So the next day I had to buy my own train ticket to Dresden (around 100 euros) which involved a considerable wait in line. The train itself, an ICE, intercity express, was quite nice.

The other news from my travel agent was that the flight back was also screwed up: no seat available on the Dresden Frankfurt leg. I remind you I purchased this ticket in March. We solved that by moving to a different day. You might be wondering why I didn't get after Lufthansa to replace my train ticket the next morning? Well, the employees all went on strike the day after my flight. I just hope that my flight back does not get canceled!

Dresden itself is very pleasant, warm but not hot and most days have been sunny. Mind you, I have been trying to recover from the flight for most of a week: insomnia and health issues. I've sometimes thought of spending more time in Germany, but I can see several reasons why that would be undesirable. The first is transport. At home I have a private driver that takes me wherever I need to go. This is not very expensive. In Germany as there is no Uber (at least not in Dresden) and taxis are very expensive I would be forced to use the public transit which, while efficient and modern, is also inconvenient and expensive.

In this part of Dresden, a very pleasant middle-class residential neighborhood, there is a single large grocery store, remarkable in its sheer ugliness and unpleasant atmosphere. It is overcrowded and grim. There are absolutely no other options, no corner stores, no 7/11 type stores, no mom and pop groceries and no markets. I wonder why this is? My general impression is that individual entrepreneurs--small businesses generally--are severely discouraged in Germany. One consequence is far fewer options for most people.

Yes, I'm sure there is a rich cultural life in those areas that I like--notice that the cross street where I am staying is Haydnstrasse. But in many other ways, ordinary life in Germany is very constrained in ways that are not acceptable for me. It does make me realize that I am lucky to have the kind of life I do with so many advantages.

Follow-up a few days later. We had lunch in a lovely medieval era restaurant near the Frauenkirche in the central part of Dresden. Nearby was a Canadian steakhouse named Ontario:

And down the street was an Australian restaurant. In the neighborhood where I am staying, the choices are not so good. Mind you, there is a pretty good breakfast place, what they call a "Bäckerie-Conditorei" where you can get typical German breakfasts of rolls with coldcuts and jams and a pretty decent milchcafe. But apart from that the pickings are slim. There is a bistro with hearty German dishes somewhat sloppily presented and a kebab house that I found simply inedible.

I'm flying back today and, to be frank, I will be very happy to get home! More later of course, when I am feeling better.