Dresden

Dresden
<map lat='51.049' lng='13.74' zoom='11' view='3' />
Information
Country:	Germany
State:	Saxony
Population:	508,351 (31/12/2007)
Licence plate:	DD
Major roads:	A4, A13, A14, A17
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Dresden is a city in the Eastern part of Germany. Dresden Elbe Valley, a World Heritage Site, is located on its outskirts.

General remarks

Due to the specific positioning of motorway gas stations around Dresden, passing this city from the North to the South (and vice versus) could be (but not necessarily) rather difficult.

Hitching Out

North towards Berlin, Cottbus (A13)

Take a tram line 13 (Strassenbahn in German) to the Friedensstraße stop. Continue further until the junction (you'll see a McDonald's restaurant on your right), turn right (this will be a Hansastrasse, Hansa street) and walk straight ahead (underneath the railway bridge and further). After 1 km you will find a Shell petrol station. There you have 2 possibilities: to ask drivers directly while they are refilling at the gas staion, or to stand before (or right besides) this gas station and try thumbing up the ride - there is enough space for the cars to stop on a long drive-in lane. The Hansastrasse is an access to the A4 in both directions, although it is said that most cars go North from there; however, with a right sign you might be able to catch a car to the East/South, too (Chemnitz, Leipzig...). Very often there are other hitchhikers on this gas station - if it is so, and if you don't like the place, you may walk 200m further to yet another gas station where you can try both asking drivers directly or thumbing on the road. As of 2008, the petrol was slightly cheaper on that gas station, which automatically attracts more drivers there. However, by choosing the second gas station you might miss both some company cars (the drivers of these very often have special payment cards when using "Shell" gas stations) and more snobbish (?) type of people that "Shell" customers tend to be.

Very often there are hitchhikers right behind the railway station Dresden-Neustadt. Be aware that this is a common meeting point for the users of www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de which is a car-pooling service, so if you stop a car there you might be asked to contribute to the cost of fuel, although generally it is very unlikely like anywhere else in Germany.

Another good hitchhiking spot is very close to the highway ramp. Take the bus 81 towards Wilschdorf and get off at Hellerberge. Just walk back across the small street, and you will find an exiting lane going into a factory (?). If you stand there with a sign Berlin, you probably won't wait for long.

West towards Chemnitz, Leipzig

Go to the tram stop Cossebauder Straße and walk up the big street (Meißner Landstraße). You can either ask people at the gas station or stand next to the road with a sign.

Another good spot is directly at the motorway A4 ramp. There is quite a good place for the cars to stop; in addition, drivers can notice you in advance when waiting at the traffic lights. To get to this spot, take a bus 94 towards either Cossebaude or Niederwartha and get off at the Zschonergrundstraße stop; you can also get there by local trains RB/RE going to Elsterwerda-Biela or Hoyerswerda (get off at Dresden-Kemnitz). Both for the train and/or the bus you can use one-fare-zone ticket, so it is relatively cheap.

South towards Prague (A17)

One possible option could be near bus stop Südhöhe (Lines 72, 76 & 360). There is a gas station ("Aral") but it is located on the opposite side of the road. It's the last gas station before the highway though. You could also try to stop cars on various bus stops, usually near traffic lights, throughout all the way on a Bergstraße, however, most of the road is an upward slope which makes it difficult for the drivers to stop (or to get back on the road).

(There might be better spots in Dresden Prohlis - does anyone have any information on this?)

Passing through Dresden (North->South or South->North)

If you are coming from the North (e.g. Berlin, A13 or A4 from the East) and you want to continue to the South (e.g. Prague) you might have some troubles regarding the location of where you can be dropped off for further successful hitchhiking in case when your driver is not going further your way.

The problem is that the highway splits just before the motorway gas station, so if you are dropped at the gas station (it is an "Aral" one), you will get only those drivers who go the other way (to the West).

Then, you have three further options (in any of these ways you will have similar problems and solutions):

• you might want to get dropped off way before Dresden, approximately 20-50 kilometers before getting into the city; (exact information needed!)
• you find a nice driver willing to do a loop for you meaning that he must drive off the highway after that "Aral" gas station, make a U-turn, take the highway in the opposite direction and drop you off at the gas station, and only then he can either enter Dresden or make another U-turn if he is heading West;
• if the weather is nice you can be dropped off at the highway ramp next after the gas station; then you can walk back along the highway (not on the highway, of course!) to get back to the right gas station (approximately 3.5 km).

Public transport / Blackriding

[The information below does not apply to the S-Bahn city train. See Deutsche Bahn instead]

• If you fail to show your ticket to a controller you will most likely get a fine of 40 EUR which needs to be paid by bank transfer within about 10 days. Rumors are that even if you are a foreigner but living within the European Union an announcement to pay will be send even to your country.
• Ticket controllers in Dresden are dressed in civil clothes.
• Ticket machines on tram stops give you unstamped tickets which you validate inside the tram at any time later. Bus drivers sell stamped tickets.
• You can validate your ticket in both trams and buses, the machines beep when you do so.
• Inside most of the trams there's a ticket machine that gives you an already stamped ticket. You can't rely on a "hanging around the ticket machine" technique since in case of a sudden ticket check your argument that you were "planning to buy a ticket" won't help.
• Most German public transportation directions have clear statements that you have to present a valid ticket if you're asked to do so - this rejects the possibility to rely on the argument I have not checked specifically for Dresden... during the actual ticket check.
• You need to get the ticket stamped before the ticket controllers ask you to prove your fare.
• If you did validate your ticket during the check, you can (and should) argue that you just forgot to stamp your ticket, and that you have a valid ticket nonetheless.
• After 8pm you need to get into the bus through the first (driver's) door - bus drivers are supposed to check tickets but usually don't give them a close look. It is not recommended to use some of your old student paper IDs (or any other documents) as tickets to show to the driver, however, you might have more luck if you show (quickly) an old (invalid) ticket.
• Most ticket checks (but not exclusively!) are performed from around 9am to around 1pm.

This article is based on text from the German language Anarchopedia which is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.