Road Trip

We rented a car. A Smart car. It was so cute and fun to drive. In the spirit of Evan and John I called it Fritzl. It was fun to zip zip around though they’re also somewhat impractical. They really don’t have a lot of room. We drove down through the Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland) south of Dresden, along the Elbe river.
We had a stop in Bad Schandau where we had lunch. And then we drove on to the little itty bitty town of Schmilka. Just so I could say that we’d been to Schmilka. There were about 10 houses there. The sandstone craggy cliffy like outcroppings of hoodoo like geological features were quite interesting and lined the shore of the Elbe River. We then took a little back road trip through the valleys and woods of the aforementioned features to a place off the map. It was snowy and beautiful and peaceful. We got as far as Königstein where we stayed overnight. We thought perhaps too it would be a nice place to see in the daylight but in the morning everything was grey and dreary and the big castle fortification at the top of the hill was closed and would have been a 35 -40 minute strenuous hike so we skipped the whole thing, got back into Fritzl and were on our way.


We headed westward into the Erzgebirge. This is where they hand-make my favourite Christmas decorations on our family tree. It is in the southern most area of this part of the country. At one point we were driving right along the Czech border. This mountainous area is filled with lovely roads through small villages, snowy fields and wind-swept countryside.
Families going sledding and skiing together. We took the back roads and enjoyed the peacefulness of the sleepy towns. We stopped in Bad Gottleuba and had lovely Kaffee and Kuchen in a café shop.
The people in this area of the world are very friendly. They’re chatty and heartfelt and always greet you when you come in. Even other customers in the store might greet you when you come in. Seiffen was another beautiful town. It is a famous town for its Christmas decorations.
It still felt very Christmasy here. Everyone still had their decorations up. The Schwippbogen in each window are very beautiful and the snow and cold and the familiar looking church all added much ambiance. It was cold and blustery and we ended up staying there overnight after it was suggested that the roads were probably not good for driving in the dark.
The next day we stopped in Grünhainichen at the Wendt & Kühn workshops where I bought yet more favourite ornaments. I spent way too much money but it was very exciting and I was glad.


Driving through the eastern German countryside was interesting. The villages are quiet and still grey for the most part like it had been in East Germany. There were still many things that were reminiscent of the GDR and that was okay. It gave them their own charm. It doesn’t all have to be like it is in the ‘west’. It was interesting to see that those people who have chosen to paint their houses, renovate them, freshen them up, often chose to paint them in very bright colours; oranges, yellows, pinks. Quite funny actually.

We ended in Leipzig. Road trips are fun. I love road trips.