Blaues Wunder, Schwebebahn and Bier at Schillergarten

After leaving the paddle boat we got a quick bite to eat. Getting a quick bite in Dresden is not as simple as it sounds. Most restaurants serve at a very, very leisurely pace. Even at the end of the meal when you would like the check and say, "Zahlen, bitte", there is no rush to get you out the door. Once it took 15 minutes for the check to arrive. So the pace is relaxing and civilized.

But as you can see we did get a great little meal from a pair of Kurds.

We then crossed over the Blaues Wunder. This bridge has come up quite a bit, mostly because we bike under it every day. The Blue Wonder is a wonder, and a great stroll.

Across we go, and over to the Schwebebahn. The Schwebahn is a kind of hanging monorail. One cable connects two cars, and when one car goes up the hill, the other one goes down. The Schwebebahn was completed in 1893 by Eugen Langen. Eugen then went on to design the first monorail system in the world in Wuppertal. The Wuppertal Schwebeban is still in operation as part of the local transportation system.

The Schwebebahn in Dresden just goes up the hill to a fantastic look out point. The sun was setting, boats were passing by on the Elbe below and hot air balloons were floating in the gentle breeze. As we looked across the river we could just make out (in one of the pictures you can see it to the right and below the balloon) the Max Planck.

Well after a long day we were ready for that relaxing meal. We went to the SchillerGarten. The SchillerGarten is just at the base of the Blaues Wunder in Blasewitz. On one side of the bridge is the fantastic Toscana, and on the other side SchillerGarten. The restaurant can trace its colorful history back to 1730. The restaurant was a very popular destination after the opening of the Blaues Wunder in 1893. During the period of the DDR it fell on hard times. In 1960 the owners got in trouble with the government when they operated it as a dance spot. They eventually fled the country. The restaurant was completely destroyed in the floods of 2002. It was rebuilt in the traditional style. The sauerbraten was fantastic, as were all the traditional German food.

One end note. We went in to the restaurant at about 6:30. They were turning people away, but we still asked if they had a spot for 5. The answer was no. We hung around for about 10 minutes inside the lobby area, trying to decide whether to just go home, or try another place. All of a sudden the Maitre d' comes running over to us. "How many", he asks. We answer and he rushes off. In a minute he is back, and sits us at a table. Later we figure out that the table was probably reserved for 9:30. They were going to hold it for the night! We were lucky that they figured us out correctly, and we were not going to stay all night. But that is typical Dresden.