On his last milestone birthday he brought us to Bavaria to follow his family’s historical trail, focusing on the Renaissance and Reformation. This trip, we went further back in time, and further east. We based ourselves in Saxony and spent much of our time chasing the stories of the 10th and 11th centuries, particularly the lives of Ottonian rulers a remarkable man named Wiprecht von Groitzsch. A coming story will explain why.
Classical concerts and opera featured heavily, too, in this heartland of great composers. We mixed charming, atmospheric AirB&B’s with visits to 25Hours destination hotels. We gorged on white asparagus, the famous “spargel” over which the Germans obsess just coming into season. Between historic pilgrimages, musical indulgences, and sybaritic self-care, we stitched together a rich, resonant two-week journey.
Thanks to extended holiday weekends at the start and finish of the break we travelled over 17 days, stopping at five places:
- 2 nights in Aachen (Mercure, city centre)
- 6 nights in Dresden (“Weinblick” AirB&B, in the grounds of Schloss Albrechtsberg)
- 4 nights in Berlin (25Hours Hotel Bikini Berlin)
- 3 nights in Leipzig (“Palace by the Zoo” AirB&B in a grand 19th-century apartment on the edge of the historic centre)
- 2 nights in Cologne (25Hours Hotel The Circle)
Dresden: The Expected Star
As a fan of the German Baroque I had high expectations. Dresden is world-famous for the reconstruction of its 18th century town centre, flattened in World War II. It is one of the world’s greatest examples of heritage restoration. But I didn’t realise how rich the offerings would be beyond architecture. The city’s museums are stuffed with dazzling treasures and its opera house is gorgeous.
The 19th century treated Dresden even better than the 18th, seeing whole neighbourhoods of gracious apartment blocks and mini-mansions pop up for the wealthy bourgeoise. Factories were disguised as fantasies from the Arabian nights and opulent shops were kitted out to serve the rich. Pfund’s dairy, entirely covered in Villeroy and Boch tiles, is the German equivalent of Harrod’s Food Halls or the tiled cafe at the Victoria and Albert museum.
Dresden is the best place I’ve seen in Germany to get a picture of the rich, gracious, sophisticated world destroyed by the stupidity of 20th century wars. What’s been restored helps you imagine it, while what’s still derelict, missing or has been replaced with modern architecture reminds you of the pain just below the surface.
The super-rich of the 19th century built castles on the top of the bluffs looking over the river Elbe towards town, culminating in the ridiculously cute suburb of Loschwitz. Day trippers coming here could take a funicular up to a glamorous viewpoint to drink and dine. A few schlosses down the ridge towards town was our Albrechtsberg, where we were lucky enough to be staying on the estate.. Once home to Prince Albert of Prussia and his morganatic wife Rosalie, who moved here to escape disapproval of their relationship, the estate still exudes faded grandeur and is a popular walking spot for locals. Our accommodation was in a large farmhouse amongst the estate’s side buildings. We had two bedrooms, a generous sitting room, a kitchen and a garden terrace with views through the trees to the Elbe. It was splendidly isolated, so on most days we adopted a rhythm of big lunches out and light suppers in.
The super-rich of the 19th century built castles on the top of the bluffs looking over the river Elbe towards town, culminating in the ridiculously cute suburb of Loschwitz. Day trippers coming here could take a funicular up to a glamorous viewpoint to drink and dine. A few schlosses down the ridge towards town was our Albrechtsberg, where we were lucky enough to be staying on the estate.. Once home to Prince Albert of Prussia and his morganatic wife Rosalie, who moved here to escape disapproval of their relationship, the estate still exudes faded grandeur and is a popular walking spot for locals. Our accommodation was in a large farmhouse amongst the estate’s side buildings. We had two bedrooms, a generous sitting room, a kitchen and a garden terrace with views through the trees to the Elbe. It was splendidly isolated, so on most days we adopted a rhythm of big lunches out and light suppers in.
Our Dresden days included:
Berlin: Modern Power and Dark History
From Dresden, we drove north to Berlin, abandoning the car in the hotel car park for three days. Our base was the 25Hours Hotel Bikini Berlin. We loved our stay at this chain’s offerings in Copenhagen and Paris, and wanted to try more. I love their quirky design … usually re-purposing old commercial buildings … their ethos that works to deliver a boutique experience at large scale and the fact that no two are ever the same. This one has a jungle theme, tied to its location overlooking the Berlin Zoo. The rooftop houses the Monkey Bar and Neni, an Eastern-Mediterranean restaurant present in all of their hotels.
The highlight of Berlin for me was our hotel room; we got an upgrade due to Piers’ frequent stayer status at Accor hotels, with which this chain is associated. The room had a freestanding bath and a cosy, round, upholstered reading pit perfect for a picnic dinner.
- Easter services in the historic Frauenkirche
- A hop-on-hop-off bus tour
- A lavish afternoon in the Residenz palace museum
- Tosca at the Semperoper
- A leisurely wander through the military history museum
- Day trips to castles tied to Wiprecht and to Meissen
- Several historic restaurants
Berlin: Modern Power and Dark History
From Dresden, we drove north to Berlin, abandoning the car in the hotel car park for three days. Our base was the 25Hours Hotel Bikini Berlin. We loved our stay at this chain’s offerings in Copenhagen and Paris, and wanted to try more. I love their quirky design … usually re-purposing old commercial buildings … their ethos that works to deliver a boutique experience at large scale and the fact that no two are ever the same. This one has a jungle theme, tied to its location overlooking the Berlin Zoo. The rooftop houses the Monkey Bar and Neni, an Eastern-Mediterranean restaurant present in all of their hotels.
The highlight of Berlin for me was our hotel room; we got an upgrade due to Piers’ frequent stayer status at Accor hotels, with which this chain is associated. The room had a freestanding bath and a cosy, round, upholstered reading pit perfect for a picnic dinner.
The city itself has changed dramatically since my last visits in the early 20th century. What seemed then to be one big construction site has settled down. The new buildings are starting to age into place, there are fewer reminders of the GDR years and the old East German side of town has become super trendy, with most of the hottest bars and clubs here and old communist apartment blocks rehabbed as luxury condos.
If Dresden is a dowager lady in cashmere in pearls heading off to the opera, Berlin is an affluent, 30-something professional who works hard and plays hard, the latter possibly in fetish gear. The locals enjoy their reputation for a bit of avant garde.
Our Berlin itinerary included:
Imagining Saxony’s second city as a character, I see a rebellious university student facing off to that Dresden grand dame across the fertile hills and valleys. He or she is likely to grow up to be a prosperous merchant driving hard deals, but university days bring a bit of rebellion and a taste for the new. This impression is doubtless shaped by the fact that we got caught up in a noisy but good-natured May Day march (Power to the People! Marx was Right! Anarchy!), but Leipzig immediately feels different from Dresden. Younger. Louder. More Diverse. A bit grubbier.
We stayed in a gracious 19th-century flat a short walk from the historic centre. Fittingly, given our Longborough Opera track record, we were just a block from Richard Wagner Platz. It had charm—lofty ceilings and abundant light—and was ideally located for exploring on foot. I wish we would have discovered Wagner’s restaurant and wine bar, just of the Platz, on our first night rather than our last. We would have been there more. The nearby zoo looked impressive, though it didn’t make our itinerary.
We really only had two sightseeing days here. The first was another day following Wiprecht’s trail and the second focused on Leipzig’s formidable musical heritage.
Cologne: Tomorrowland with Mezze
We broke our return journey with a final two nights in Cologne, again at a 25Hours Hotel. This one occupies a circular mid-century modern office block, reimagined in a style that splits the difference between Disney’s Tomorrowland and an ‘80s arcade game. It was tremendous fun, and we appreciated the free parking.
Our Berlin itinerary included:
- A hop-on-hop-off bus tour (a useful intro but frustrating in the amount of time spent sitting in traffic and the sparse commentary)
- A morning in the Neues Museum (Ironically, called “new” but home of ancient civilisations)
- A sobering guided tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
- The GDR Museum
- A stroll around Unter den Linden, the Reichstag and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe memorial
- Two classical music evenings
- A final flourish at Sanssouci, Frederick the Great’s Rococo masterpiece
Imagining Saxony’s second city as a character, I see a rebellious university student facing off to that Dresden grand dame across the fertile hills and valleys. He or she is likely to grow up to be a prosperous merchant driving hard deals, but university days bring a bit of rebellion and a taste for the new. This impression is doubtless shaped by the fact that we got caught up in a noisy but good-natured May Day march (Power to the People! Marx was Right! Anarchy!), but Leipzig immediately feels different from Dresden. Younger. Louder. More Diverse. A bit grubbier.
We stayed in a gracious 19th-century flat a short walk from the historic centre. Fittingly, given our Longborough Opera track record, we were just a block from Richard Wagner Platz. It had charm—lofty ceilings and abundant light—and was ideally located for exploring on foot. I wish we would have discovered Wagner’s restaurant and wine bar, just of the Platz, on our first night rather than our last. We would have been there more. The nearby zoo looked impressive, though it didn’t make our itinerary.
We really only had two sightseeing days here. The first was another day following Wiprecht’s trail and the second focused on Leipzig’s formidable musical heritage.
Cologne: Tomorrowland with Mezze
We broke our return journey with a final two nights in Cologne, again at a 25Hours Hotel. This one occupies a circular mid-century modern office block, reimagined in a style that splits the difference between Disney’s Tomorrowland and an ‘80s arcade game. It was tremendous fun, and we appreciated the free parking.
To be honest, after two solid weeks of sightseeing our day exploring Cologne was a bit of a bust. We were too tired, too jaded, and had spectacularly bad luck. We walked half an hour to the edge of town to see the tomb of one of Piers’ many times great grandmothers, to find the church entirely closed for renovation. (Not something that came up on internet searches.) I returned to the main cathedral to see the bits that had been closed off on my earlier visit … at exactly the time they were closing it off again for confessions. We encountered the biggest crowds of the whole trip here and it made us grumpy. This is probably thanks to the combination of the booming river cruise industry and Cologne’s appeal to stag and hen weekends. The hotel’s Neni branch is so popular with locals we couldn’t get a reservation either night, and were too tired to go out in search of a traditional restaurant. 
So both the penultimate and final night of our holiday found us having some early cocktails in the rooftop Monkey Bar before ordering Neni mezze and picnicking on our bed while streaming the new Andor series. Given the hotel’s design, it was a perfect match.
What Comes Next
In the weeks ahead, I’ll share deeper dives into the themes that cut across this trip:
So both the penultimate and final night of our holiday found us having some early cocktails in the rooftop Monkey Bar before ordering Neni mezze and picnicking on our bed while streaming the new Andor series. Given the hotel’s design, it was a perfect match.
What Comes Next
In the weeks ahead, I’ll share deeper dives into the themes that cut across this trip:
- How following in the footsteps of medieval ancestors like Wiprecht von Groitzsch took us down some non-traditional paths well off the beaten track
- An impressive range of classical music experiences that pushed the envelope, despite the historic composers
- Exploring difficult stories from Germany in the 20th century: hard, but important
- Food: the search for differentiation in the land of Schnitzel
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