NH, Dresden

...our first visit to the NH, this remains the case today.

Having completed a quick wash and brush up, it is time to visit the restaurant, having been on the road all day, only eating a snack lunch, a full early evening meal is much anticipated.

Being a large hotel, the restaurant is equally proportioned, although thanks to a clever circular design, with several dividing screens it can at the same time manage to feel quite ...
...pale wood chairs and immaculate starched white table cloths. Reading this back it sounds as though I'm reviewing a hospital here, that is certainly NOT the case - maybe I'm just making a hash of this review!

Following some initial communication difficulties with the waitress, another who speaks English attends to us. I make the mistake of ordering a glass of house red wine, the locally produced German white, served in a glass jug, ... more

An apology for boring you all with yet another travel / hotel review, but hopefully this one will be just a little different, due to our initial and entirely unscheduled discovery of this particular hotel. Indeed you could say that the room here fell into the "panic purchase" category. We needed a room for the night in Dresden and the Astron (as the NH was then called) had one available.

In actual fact more importantly than us, my then fiancée and I, needing a bed for the night, it was essential that we found secure parking for the car. The circumstances, you need to understand, both personally and on the global stage leading up to our very first stay in Dresden were to say the least, slightly unusual.

The purpose of our journey was one of those once in a lifetime, life changing events. I had driven out to Poland ten days earlier to collect Adrianna, my fiancée who was returning home with me to England. Packed into the car, goodness knows how we managed it, were all of her worldly possessions. For security sake we were not prepared to leave the car out on the street over night in a foreign city, especially in such "jumpy" times.

We should have been ecstatically happy travelling back to England after all the trials and tribulations of a nine month pan-European relationship. Like the vast majority of the world though that week we just had this awful empty feeling, world events had done their best to over take us.

We had arrived in Dresden on the Monday evening of 17th September 2001, less than a week after the earth shattering events in New York.

Dresden, partly due to being situated in Germany I suppose, has very efficient sign posts. As you depart the A4 (E40) autobahn heading towards the city centre there are two hotel routes clearly sign posted. We stopped at the first hotel we reached, a very small one which unsurprisingly had no vacant rooms. The very helpful receptionist there pointed us in the direction of the city centre and suggested the Astron; "it being so big that they always have rooms there".

It was now 5.00pm on a humid, sunny evening; we were tired having driven over 450 very difficult miles across Poland and into Germany since breakfast. The last thing on either of our minds was the quality of the hotel, nor that indeed one day I would find myself writing a review on it here. We needed a room and a garage, full stop!

My previous experiences of travelling, attractions and hotels have very much taught me that the lower your expectations of the place, the more surprising and impressive it turns out to be.

The NH as it has been called for the last two years and as I will now be referring to it, is a very large (208 rooms), ultra modern (completed circa 1990) international style four star hotel.

The building is a large red brick and glass construction on six floors and is therefore not difficult to find. However turning off the main road you have the impression that you are lost whilst driving around a private one way system to the underground garage entrance located at the rear of the building. You enter the garage down a very steep ramp, which essentially is heated in winter - this is Eastern Germany it is cold with snow here during the long winter months! The underground car park is large and very well lit - with no hidden corners. There are dedicated parking spaces for lone female drivers and disabled motorists - both adjacent to the door through to the lower lobby.

One small and immediate beef here, having humped your heavy luggage from the back of the car, you will discover that to enter the hotel from the car park you have to get through two sets of heavy glass non-automatic opening doors in order to reach the lift up to the reception. Annoying for us able bodied folk - maddening and near impossible for those less able.

The lifts, three of them to access six floors are fast efficient and have an expensive "feel" to them. Internally they are panelled in dark bronzed mirror glass. A touch that we really appreciate is that very early each morning the staff slip the weather forecast into a purpose made frame in here, very useful.

One floor up in the lift from the garage and we have reached the ground floor reception desk, attended at all times by three staff, all of whom speak passable English. Without a booking we were processed and back into the lift on the way to our third floor room within five minutes. (Try THAT in an English hotel!)

The most impressive feature of the NH Hotel is the huge glass atrium at the front. This is best appreciated from the upper floors as you get out of the lift. Looking down at all that curved glass and the reception area below is impressive enough, but looking THROUGH the glass to the city of Dresden beyond is even more impressive.

We reach our room at last - there are two corridor "wings" spreading out behind the lifts, our room on this first occasion is off of the eastern one. After a fiddle with one of those maddening magnetic card keys we step into a haven of cool and light. Each room has its own air conditioning controls, on this humid evening the atmosphere and temperature in here were perfect.

Four years later, unfortunately I have to report that the air conditioning system is rather less efficient and would benefit from some service maintenance.

Reminding you here that 9/11 was just six days ago, unusually (most of you know that I hardly use the TV) my first priority was the television. It was already switched on and showing a message "Welcome Herr RICHADA", I flicked through the channels on the remote control and was relieved to find American CNN. In Poland I had been unable to obtain any English speaking news, Mrs R had worked hard at translating the events to me as they happened but in a strange way this had just added to the surreal sense of the whole occurrence, the pictures being constantly accompanied by Polish commentary - never had I felt further away from home.

None of this is really reviewing the NH is it? Well apart from CNN the TV has plenty of other, mostly western European language, channels including a choice of four very expensive adult ones. The acceptably large screened TV sits atop a full size fridge containing a mini-bar. This is stocked with alcohol (as you would expect), water, some chocolate bar and also bags of nuts. All are frightfully expensive!
What is not provided is a kettle of any description, this is usual in Europe, we now carry our own travel kettle.

What can I say about the décor? Nothing much, it is black (leather chairs, headboards and surface tops), white (walls, ceiling and bedclothes), with a splash of colour added by the carpet, curtains and modern art prints adorning the walls. Modern, business, German would by my nutshell assessment.

For those of you requiring such facilities, as well as a room telephone a modem port is also provided. If you are on business and need to work here the lighting provided is quite outstanding.

Our first room here was on the main road side of the building, overlooking a McDonalds restaurant and with trams rattling by outside. In fact all of the "outside" rooms, including the subsequently tried family rooms are facing the roads with trams passing on both sides. I always now request a room at the back, they have pleasant views but more importantly are much quieter.

By English standards the rooms are large. All have two very large single beds along with a (very) full sized en-suite bathroom. The décor is standardised throughout, the alignment of the furniture even in each room is identical. The family rooms merely have a full sized bed placed next to the window.

Please do not ask me why, but the first thing we always need to do when reaching a hotel room is use the loo, sitting upon which usually gives you a good view of the bathroom. Again it is white, walls, tiles, porcelain and towels with only the vast mirror and sparkling chrome fittings as contrast. A particularly practical touch in here is the fitment of a magnifying shaving mirror. Again, the lighting is superb.

As with the room and bedding the en-suite bathroom is spotlessly clean. I am glad to say that, unlike in other hotels that we have stayed, almost four years after our first visit to the NH, this remains the case today.

Having completed a quick wash and brush up, it is time to visit the restaurant, having been on the road all day, only eating a snack lunch, a full early evening meal is much anticipated.

Being a large hotel, the restaurant is equally proportioned, although thanks to a clever circular design, with several dividing screens it can at the same time manage to feel quite intimate. Again, white and glass are the main themes here, pale wood chairs and immaculate starched white table cloths. Reading this back it sounds as though I'm reviewing a hospital here, that is certainly NOT the case - maybe I'm just making a hash of this review!

Following some initial communication difficulties with the waitress, another who speaks English attends to us. I make the mistake of ordering a glass of house red wine, the locally produced German white, served in a glass jug, is vastly better here. As well as the ordinary house menu, there is also a separate pizza one and now an outdoor barbeque buffet in summer months too.

The "proper" menu is a fairly simple one, four choices on each course with each carefully translated into English and offering a very good description of the food. We select a starter and main course, whilst waiting for the starter not only are beautiful, freshly baked rolls delivered to the table, but also artistic looking and delicious tasting little pastries - served with the finest garlic and cream cheese that I have ever tasted. "With the complements of the Chef".

The starters are larger than the main courses in most English restaurants. Our particular favourite is a warm avocado and bacon salad, wonderfully fresh and crispy and as with everything else here, beautifully presented. Germans obviously have gargantuan appetites as the main courses, equally superb in quality are a real challenge to finish. I am usually a three course meal man myself, we have now stayed at the NH on no fewer than eight occasions and I have yet to eat a three course meal there.

Obviously a meal of this quality is not going to be cheap the equivalent of £30 per head including wine is certainly steep by Eastern European standards, over the border in Poland I could eat a similar meal for about £6!

The restaurant is open from midday until 22.00, and from 06.00 until 11.00 for breakfast.

If you wish to relax in the bar before or after the meal it is situated behind and to one side of the restaurant. Strangely it never seems to be very busy. We tend to need a walk after a meal of that size before turning in for an early night.

Noise from the trams apart, you will get a very good nights' sleep in the NH. The walls, floors, ceilings and doors are all solidly constructed, unlike in almost every other hotel that I have ever stayed in, you hear no noise whatsoever from other rooms or in the corridor. To all intense and purposes the rooms at the back are silent.

At 6.00a.m the restaurant opens for breakfast. For my wife an I, this meal is the undoubted highlight of any stay at the NH. Day 2 of our journey takes us from here in deepest Eastern Germany to home, via Calais, a drive of over 650 miles. In order to do this, and in preparation to burn all those calories driving at breakneck speed on German autobahns, we need a good breakfast inside us.

Here as in most hotels in which we have stayed on the continent, breakfast takes the form of a buffet, large flasks of (superb) coffee having already been placed on the tables. Having shown your room card to the restaurant manager you are free to choose a table and then start making your selection of courses from the immense range of dishes on display. This is not just a visual display either, no, here all the food is absolutely fresh and top notch quality.

As you enter the large room, to your right is the main buffet 'counter', hot food, cut meats and cheeses, fresh fruit and a choice of four fruit salads are on offer here, but that is only the start of it! In front of you is another stand with cereals and pastries on one side and quite the biggest selection of bread and bread rolls that I have ever seen on the other. To go with this are a massive selection of jams and various spreads. Beyond that, yes, there's more, is the fresh juice bar - help yourself to as much as you like.

Breakfast at the NH is truly a feast of gargantuan proportions, all superbly presented and delicious to eat. If you are staying here on a room only tariff, or have stepped off the street, breakfast will cost you 14 Euro each.

Having waddled back to our room to complete the final packing it is time to check out. On the reception counter there is a bowl of deliciously fresh looking green apples, matched by a bowl of wrapped sweets - just in case you have a hole after breakfast!

On that first stay in 2001 my credit card bill recorded a cost of about £130, bed and breakfast, plus evening meal for the two of us. On each subsequent stay we have carried out a net search on rooms at the NH and always pay £60 - £65 bed and breakfast. By Eastern European standards that probably is a little pricy, however when I think of the mediocre 3 star English hotels that we have stayed in for considerably more, in my book at least, the NH has to be regarded as offering superb value for money.

Every time we stay at the NH we comment that next year we should stay here for three nights and properly see the superb city of Dresden. Question is, after three days eating like this, would we be able to stand up to leave?
 

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