Day Twenty Two - Dresden

26th July, spent the night on some land just outside Dresden wild camping. With only 20 odd miles to get into Dresden we were there in time for breakfast which was taken at a pavement cafe on Albertplatz. Dresden is a wonderful city despite the best endeavours of the RAF during the war. Much of the cities historical buildings haven been reconstructed, often from the original stone, each piece painstakingly cleaned numbered and then reused, some buildings having only been completed in the 70's or 80's. Dresden is a spacious city. Its districts differ in their structure and appearance. Many parts still contain an old village core, while some quarters are almost completely preserved as rural settings. Other characteristic kinds of urban areas are the historic outskirts of the city, and the former suburbs with scattered housing. During the German Democratic Republic, many apartment blocks were built. The original parts of the city are almost all in the districts of Altstadt (Old town) and Neustadt (New town). Growing outside the city walls, the historic outskirts were built in the 18th century. They were planned and constructed on the orders of the Saxon monarchs, which is why the outskirts are often named after sovereigns. The strict building controls after the war have developed the city in a very sympathetic and stylish way. Its a place we think we may return to, probably for the Christmas market held every year in the city centre.