You can make a day trip to the National Park on a river cruise, which starts in Dresden and runs down the Elbe to the Sandstone Mountains.
Dresden has a fairly mild climate, which makes it a suitable place for people to live. It is warm in the summers, but not too cold in the winter. The lowest temperatures rarely go below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The land along the Elbe banks is also quite flat, which makes it easy for people to bike around the city. I think the general flatness of the city also made it easy to build many buildings and a robust transportation system, which makes present-day Dresden feel very urban.
The Elbe River floods every few years. The city of Dresden has many flood barriers and trenches in place along river banks to prevent flooding from reaching the city. Additionally, buildings must be built a certain distance away from the riverbanks to allow for a floodplain.
Since Dresden is split into two parts by the Elbe River, there are several bridges that connect the two sides of the city. Some of the bridges are for bikes and pedestrians only. Other bridges are built specifically for cars, trams and the S-Bahn. When the weather is nice, I enjoy walking across the bridge that connects Dresden's Altstadt to Dresden's Neustadt. Every morning, I ride cross a bridge on the S-Bahn train to get to work.
