Dresden's Elbe valley once held a World Heritage listing and then lost it. Inscribed in 2004 for its blend of Baroque city, river meadows, palaces and vineyards, it was removed from the list in 2009 after the city built the Waldschlösschen bridge across the meadows, a decision that sparked fierce debate. The landscape itself, however, remains beautiful: the river curves through wide green meadows, with the domes and spires of the old town on one side and the villas and vineyards of the Loschwitz slopes on the other.
The old town, devastated by Allied bombing in February 1945, has been painstakingly rebuilt. The Frauenkirche, a Baroque Lutheran church that collapsed after the raid, was reconstructed from rubble and new stone and reopened in 2005, and the Zwinger palace, the Semperoper opera house and the royal palace with its Green Vault treasury line the river. Upstream, the Blue Wonder, an iron bridge of 1893, crosses the river at Loschwitz, and further on, the Pillnitz palace, with its Chinese-style roofs and gardens, sits on the bank.
For riders, Dresden is a gateway rather than a destination. The city traffic is heavy, but the roads along the Elbe, upstream through Pillnitz and Pirna to Saxon Switzerland, with its sandstone towers and the Bastei bridge, are lovely, and downstream, the vineyards of Radebeul and Meissen, famous for porcelain, offer a pleasant ride. South, the Ore Mountains have great roads, winding through forests and villages. The best seasons are spring and autumn.
Dresden has every service a big city can offer, and its old town is best explored on foot after parking the bike. The Neustadt, across the river, is the lively quarter, full of bars, cafés and street art, while the beer gardens on the Elbe meadows have the best evening view of the skyline. Saxon wine from the slopes around Radebeul is dry and fragrant, and Eierschecke, a layered cake of yeast dough, quark and custard, is the classic afternoon treat. At Christmas, the Striezelmarkt, one of the oldest Christmas markets in Germany, sells the famous Dresden Stollen.