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World Orchid Conference in Dresden, March 2026

This is a meeting of interest to only a few travelers! But it's a must for my wife. We've been to Dresden before, on a sort of Ostalgie vacation: Berlin-Leipzig-Weimar-Erfurt-Eisenach-Quedlinberg-Berlin. I'd hoped to finally hear the Netherlands Bach Society (A pandemic YouTube favorite of ours), because they have the most concerts around Easter. But there are shockingly few direct flights to Dresden from anywhere. It's four to six hours from Amsterdam or Brussels, plus airport access time. We may have to spend our extra days within reach of Dresden.

I'm wondering about interesting cities and towns within an hour or two of Dresden. We have Meissen on the list, and we've taken the replica steamboat eastward on the Elbe previously. Although we really liked the Grunderzeit Museum in Mahlsdorf, the "Soviet Times" are not a priority for this trip. We have stayed in Prague, and enjoyed it.

Thank you.

Posted by
114 posts

I am wondering to which "replica steamboat" you refer. The paddle steamers on the Elbe river are all originals, no replicas, and I don't know of any other steamboats in the region.

Anyway, there are plenty of very interesting towns/cities within an hour or two of Dresden. Very close (a half to one hour by train) are:

Pirna
Bautzen
Freiberg

And castles:
Moritzburg
Weesenstein
Lauenstein
fortress königstein

Also, Dresden is located in a wine region. Not only around Meißen, but in Dresden itself and neighbouring towns like Radebeul you find vineyards and wineries where you can do tastings and see exhibits, e.g. castle Hofloessnitz and Schloss Wackerbarth.

Within one or two hours by train are:

Görlitz
Zittau
Chemnitz
Leipzig
Zwickau
Decin (Czech Republic)
Teplice (Czech Republic, direct bus)

Posted by
8590 posts

Thanks for your ideas. When we were in Dresden in the summer of 2010, most of the Elbe trips were on boats with replacement (?) diesel power for propulsion. We took the only one (that week, anyway) that had a (modern, IIRC) steam engine for propulsion. I presume it ran on fuel oil, not coal. It was quite hot near the (designed for observation) engine room.

There were splendid views from the boat of sloping vineyards by the river.

Posted by
114 posts

Only the paddle steamer "Diesbar" runs with coal anymore. All the others were changed to diesel for ecological reasons. The other parts of the engines are still original, though.