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Read more about our travels around the former DDR
Dresden is a further hour from Karl Marx Stadt and once we had arrived and checked in at our hotel, an Ibis budget in the City Centre, we went out to explore. First on our agenda was the Dresden Stasi Museum on Bautzner Strasse, which was a few miles from where we were staying. As in most of the Cities we had visited there are electric scooters available which are really useful for getting around, though the charges do rack up. The route took us through the city centre, which despite Allied bombing in WW2 much of its historical significance remains, though parts of this were reconstructed post-war. Once through the City Centre and over a bridge we travelled alongside a river path adjacent to the Elbe. Have to say on a sunny day it is a great way to travel.
We arrived at the Stasi Museum, which is a former Stasi detention centre, and found the exhibition split into three sections. It is a self guided tour and on our visit whilst there was a German language guided tour, it was not available in English. The first section we visited was an exhibition where you can learn about the Stasi organisation in Dresden and its history, as well as meeting rooms.
The next section of the museum we visited was the detention centre which really was very interesting and as it is a self guided tour, you get to explore the whole area in your own time. After having a look around the more modern detention cells constructed by the Stasi, and undertaking a small reenactment, we went and saw the underground cells which were mainly used prior to the Stasi taking control of the facility. The third section is relatively small, being the regional office of the Stasi.
Following the Stasi Museum, we found that Dresden also a DDR nostalgia museum and shop and so paid a visit. It is called Die Welt Der DDR and can be found on Antonstrasse in a shopping centre. This museum is probably slightly larger than the nostalgia museum in Leipzig and it has a lot of cool things to see. The start of the museum focuses on the history of the Trabant, with a number of models on show as well as a number of motorbikes. Then there is a section on the living arrangements and home life in the DDR, before moving onto areas such as healthcare, technology and even a model shop. There is also a section where you can buy badges, books and music as well as other bits and bobs from the DDR era or that are DDR related. The books and music from the DDR era are particularly interesting.
Here are a few pics of the treasures we left with.
So after visiting Karl Marx Stadt in the morning and the Stasi and nostalgia museums in Dresden, as well as it being our last night, we felt like we had earned a beer and so decided to see what Dresden had to offer. We went to an area of Dresden which was packed full of interesting bars and set to it. As we arrived there was also an antifa rally going on. The first bar we frequented went by the name of Zapfanstalt. They had a few interesting beers here, including ones from China. We also got some nachos here and if you're wondering whether you should get two portions for two people, we’d probably say one is enough. Then we went to a place called Die Hopfenkult, a beer shop where you can buy any type of beer you want and enjoy them on their outside seating. There really was a great selection of beer here, though it is not a pub as such. Moving on again to the end of the road we went to HORST Vier Vogel Bar, where the beer was good but it was a relatively small selection. There was a club downstairs though. After that we went on a bit of a wild goose chase searching for a brewery taproom that we think no longer exists, before deciding to head back to the hotel. Before calling it though, we wanted one more and where better to end the final eve of the trip than with a Guinness in an Irish bar. When in Rome…
Loving this post on Dresden? Read more about our Red Tourists road trip around the former DDR here.
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