My plane to Berlin landed at about 9:30 am.
	I missed the first bus to Berlin (€2.30, $3) because the people in front of me couldn't figure out the bus ticket machine. (I struggled, too.  The sun was hitting the screen at just the right angle that it was difficult to read!)
The bus from the Tegel airport to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) was packed!  I was lucky to get a seat. I arrived at the main train station at 10:30 am.
	I just made the 10:45 am train from Berlin to Dresden with 5 minutes to spare! Price was €42 ($56) and included a seat reservation (coach 260, seat 71). I rushed from the ticket office (which had no line!) to the train downstairs!
My train compartment to Dresden was all women, and I was the only English-speaker! (Others spoke German, Italian, and Czech.) The weather was sunny and gorgeous.  The temperature was supposedly 2 °C (36 °F).
This was an older train car with paper reseravtion cards. (I was seat 71 by the aisle.)	Our compartment was so crowded--all 6 women had giant bags--that two of the women even put their bags in the aisle!  (It made getting the snack trolley through a challenge.)
I arrived at the Dresden Hauptbahnhof at 12:49 pm on Sunday, April 1, 2012. It's an old-fashioned train station, but I didn't see a sign on it that SAID it was the train station!
	My hotel, the Etap Hotel Dresden City, was about a 20-minute walk from the train station.  It is part of the recently refurbished Altmarkt Galerie mall.
Here are pictures from my room at the Etap Dresden City.  For $42.45 per night (€32, including tax), I got my own quiet, nonsmoking ensuite room (shower in room, toilet in closet) with a comfy bed, sink, flat-screen TV, and window that opened.  The room also had good wifi included.  Negatives: no real storage space.
After checking in to my hotel and e-mailing that I'd made it safely, I set out walking.  My first stop was the pretty Neumarkt. (Remember that Dresden was bombed in World War II, so these pretty buildings are all restored.)
Next, I found myself on Munzgasse, Dresden's touristy "Restaurant Row."	I got a yummy, hot €2 ($2.75) bratwurst from one of the many stalls and ate it as I went along.
I walked up the steps and found myself on the Bruhlsche Terrasse, the "Balcony of Europe," with stunning views of the Elbe River. (It was a sunny but chilly April Sunday afternoon; there were more people around than these pictures show!)
There were many boats tied up along the Elbe River. This was the start of my walk along the riverside path to the Blue Wonder Bridge.
I then started the walk from central Dresden along the riverside path to the Blue Wonder bridge. It was a great thing to do on my first day in Germany!
	You know I love to visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Well, Dresden USED to be one, but its designation was removed in 2009 due to the bridge in this picture, which was said to harm the scenic view.
It was amazing to think about this riverside walk being flooded in 2002.
It took a little over an hour to walk from central Dresden to the Blue Wonder Bridge.  It was fun to see families and friends out enjoying the glorious Sunday afternoon.
Here I am with the Blue Wonder bridge in the background!
Made it!
	It was fun to walk over thr bridge. Before walking over, I got a yummy €0.80 ($1.05) pineapple sorbet near the Schillergarten.
Rather than walk the hour back, I spent €2.00 ($2.65) and took tram 12 back to Postplatz (next to my hotel).
	One of my favorite things about Dresden's trams was the list of the next few stops on the wall.
Here's tram 12 arriving at the covered Postplatz tram stop, steps from my hotel.
Here's a panorama I took of Dresden's top site, the Zwinger. It was much smaller than I imagined!
	I waited around to hear the Meissen bells play at the Zwinger at 5:15 pm, but I guess this wasn't one of their days.
Next to the Zwinger was more pretty, historic buildings on Theaterplatz.
	It was a Sunday night, and there weren't many shops open. I decided on a kebab dinner with a Sprite for €5 ($6.65).