Visiting Dresden and Blumenau

My wife and I will be visiting Dresden in May 2006.

During one of the two and a half days there we will rent a car and drive to Blumenau where her dad was from (Its a small village southwest of Dresden near Olbernau).

Things we should see and do while there?

We’re both in our early 60’s from Seattle (We’re very active: at home we alpine hike, ski, bike) Interests include sightseeing, doing active things, architecture, and music. We’ll try to be thrifty - likely staying in mid priced hotels or small pensions (though my mind imagines me as 21 staying in hostels) We like a mixture of “must sees” and small unexpected surprises.

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Blumenau is a suburb of Olbernau

http://www.olbernhau.de

%26quot;Saigerhütte%26quot; (a copper hammer works - kind of open air museum)

olbernhau.de/olbernhau/kultur/kult-saiger.htm

http://www.erzgebirge.de/

http://www.seiffen.de

http://www.freiberg.de (de,en,fr)

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Have a look at these sites:

http://www.sachsen-tourismus.de/

http://www.saechsische-schweiz.de/

http://www.oberwiesenthal.com/index-en.htm

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Thanks Abalaba and Bill for your suggestions. Now we have added questions. And our trip has been postponed to September.

It will be our first trip to Europe. We%26#39;ll spend 16 days, flying into Frankfurt, visiting Dresden/Saxony, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, and Rhineland/Mosel.

Near Dresden we want to visit Blumenau, a small village where my wife%26#39;s father was born near Olbernhau. I know, trying to cram too much into a short trip, but likely our only trip to Germany/CR/Austria, so want to see a wider area. We’re winnowing and rearranging to fit things in.

We%26#39;re considering the following:

1. flying into Frankfurt thence to Dresden at the very beginning of our trip and staying in Dresden for 3 nights, 2.5 days. One of those days we%26#39;d rent a car and drive to the Erzenbirge and Blumenau.

or

2. renting a car in Frankfurt and driving through Sachsen to Olbernau or thereabouts, then the next day going to Dresden for 1 or 2 days. Then taking train to Prague.

Questions:

(a) Is it reasonable to drive Frankfurt to Olbernau in a day, or need 2?

(b) Anything you%26#39;d recommend we see in the Erzenbirge / Olbernau area?

(c) Any comments/suggestions re our itinerary?

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You only need one day for going from Frankfurt to Dresden but driving all the day on highways isn%26#39;t very funny, you will save time if you take the plane to Dresden.

For places you should visit in Blumenau/Olbernhau try the links abalada wrote.

And good but not to expensive hotels and pensions in Dresden you can find here

…citysam.de/guenstige-hotels-dresden.htm

the site is also in English.