Month: July 2018

Wednesday, July 11

First thing in the morning we walked over to the train station to buy tickets for our trip to Krakow.  We normally buy them online but for some reason these tickets had to be mailed.  We couldn’t take a chance on them not arriving in time so off to the station we went.  Since we were in a business district we tried to find a post office where we could buy our stamps.  It appears no one actually buys stamps in this city any longer.  The only available option was to give your letter/package to the clerk and let them take care of it for you.  What a world we live in. 😉

We headed back towards Old Town and crossed the Elbe via the Augustusbrücke into Neustadt.  We walked past another museum housed in a former palace.  The so-called Japanese Palace was built in the late 1500s when everything Oriental was in vogue.  August the Strong intended it as a place to showcase some of his collectables including his porcelain collection but this dream was never realized.  It was used as a library instead.  Today it houses three museums: The Museum of Ethnology, The Museum of Pre-History and the Natural History Museum.  We weren’t really interested in seeing these museums but we were curious about the building.  We walked into the courtyard and had a look around.  It was charming.

Next we walked over to a building near the Neustadt train station that had been used to warehouse Jews awaiting transportation to the concentration camps during World War II.  The building was in terrible condition.  The walls were damaged, the roof had partially collapsed and it was completely overgrown with vegetation.  There was a fence surrounding the building to prevent people from entering but I found a way in and took a bunch of pictures.  It was a surreal experience trying to imagine what conditions would have been like during the war.

(WWII Jewish Deportation Center)

Our plan was to have lunch at a place called the Pfunds Molkerei.  It’s a dairy that was started around 1880 by the Pfund brothers.  The building is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as being, “The Most Beautiful Milk Shop in the World”.  It’s decorated from floor to ceiling with hand-painted porcelain tiles from the neo-renasissance period.  There is a small shop downstairs where they sell cheese and other dairy products.  People line up to try their fresh buttermilk.  We sampled some of the cheeses on display; they were quite good.  We had lunch in the cafe upstairs.

Deborah ordered a bowl of cheese soup and a serving of the house cheese sticks (breadsticks baked with cheese) and I had plate of five different cheeses from Saxony along with a Cherry/Chocolate milkshake.  The soup was good but hardly tasted of cheese.  The cheese plate, which came with sweet pickles, onions and a baguette, was quite good.  Shockingly, the cheese we liked the best was the blue cheese – and we’ve never really cared for blue cheese in the past.  The shop is definitely worth a visit but the cafe is somewhat overpriced.

(Saxony Cheese Plate)

We had spied a stamp shop on our way to lunch and now decided to return for a look.  We suspected that these were collectable stamps and that they would cost more than we wanted to spend but we had to take a look.  We explained to the shop owner that we were looking for German stamps with pretty pictures of Dresden.  Fortunately, he spoke English well enough to find us several good candidates – all issued during the mid 1980s and all said DDR on them.  We bought them all.  Total cost: €4.00.  He even gave us a nice little case so they wouldn’t get bent.  We were thrilled.

Next, we wended our way to an alley called the Kunsthofpassage where there were three courtyards that were said to be worth a visit.  The first courtyard, called the Courtyard of the Elements, looked like a scene from a Dr. Seuss book.  The building had been painted blue and had a tangle of drainpipes shaped like musical instruments.  It was created by sculptor Annette Paul and designers Christoph Rossner and Andre Tempel.  This piece was inspired by a Rube Goldberg Machine, converting the mere patter of rainfall into a spectacular orchestral symphony.

(The Courtyard of the Elements)

Nearby is the courtyard of mythical creatures.  Here the walls are covered with colorful paintings and ceramic mosaics of bizarre creatures.  It was created by an artist named Viola Schöpe whose gallery is located in the courtyard.  Lastly, is the courtyard of light.  This courtyard is alleged to contain metallic mirrors that project artistic patterns on the walls.  We visited the courtyard but found no evidence of the mirrors.  The entire area is a mecca for charming shops and interesting cafes.  It’s a fun part of town to explore.

(The Courtyard of Mythical Creatures)

Before heading home we stopped at a bakery that we’d previously been to named Schwerdtner.  They’ve been around since 1937.  We ordered some donuts, a plum strudel and some apfelkuchen to take home.  We’re looking forward to dessert tonight!

(Schwerdtner’s Bakery)

We had originally planned for this to be an easy day but turned out that we walked quite a bit…

Distance Walked: 11.5 miles

Monday, July 9

Afer a grueling couple of days in the museums of Dresden we (especially our feet) were pretty tired.  So, what did we decide to do?  We went on a trip to another city.  The idea of being in Dresden and not visiting Meissen was simply unthinkable.

We took the 7:39 am train from the main station.  The tickets cost just  €4.25 each and the ride was just over 30 minutes.  As the train passed to the Northwest we got a good glimpse of the many vineyards.  One of the things that Meissen is known for is it’s wine production.  Our main goal for the day: the Meissen porcelain factory.

The factory is just a short walk from the train station.  We had about 30 minutes to kill before it opened so we took refuge in a local cafe where they make their own breads and pastries.  We ordered two cappuccinos and an oversized donut make with a choux pastry dough that was generously filled with cream and black cherry jam and topped off with a coating of thick chocolate and a few crushed nuts.  It was definitely going to hold us until lunch time.

At 9:00 am we walked into the factory and bought two combination tickets (yes, it’s getting to be a habit with us).  The tickets were for a tour of the factory and the nearby Albrechtsburg Castle.  It was going to be another long day.  While we waited for the tour we explored the gift shop and the adjacent store.  The gift shop had a few overpriced touristy trinkets for sale but the store had a nice selection of products for sale.  In the front they had a large selection of their latest products, which have a very sleek and modern look about them with very little embellishment.  In the back we saw many more old style pieces that were more elaborate and meant more for display rather than use.

The tour was a series of demonstrations by artisans who work in the factory.  Each subsequent room showed a progression of how the pieces go from a clay-like substance all the way through to the finished product.  In the first room we saw a piece being shaped on a foot-driven potter’s wheel.  He also showed up how pieces are formed using molds.  Another person demonstrated how flowers and appliqués are made.  She formed several pieces in molds and then assembled and finalized them by hand.  In the last two rooms we saw artists doing underglaze and overglaze painting.  All of the artisans worked quickly and easily showcasing their years of experience.

After the tour we visited the factory’s museum.  The main display, which took up two full floors, had examples of their products since their opening in 1710.  It was the most complete collection we’d ever seen.  There was also a temporary exhibit of young artists who’d come to the factory to be mentored.  Most of those pieces were pure art rather than functional design.

(Decorative Platter from 1861)

The tour ended in the store where we tried to find something to buy as a memento of the trip.  In the museum we had a seen a small collection of musicians that included a bass player.  The store had many pieces from that collection for sale but no bass player.  We also thought about buying some cufflinks.  They were cased in gold and had a small round piece of porcelain with the Meissen crossed swords symbol.  We passed on them when we found out that they were gold plated silver.

Here’s an interesting little aside: Meissen has been trying to make porcelain organ pipes since their very beginning without success.  During the 1950s documents relating efforts from 1730 and 1920 were rediscovered prompting them to try again.  A breakthrough was finally achieved in 2000.  A small organ with 22 porcelain pipes is on display in the museum.  Music performed on this organ is available on CD in the gift shop.

(Organ with Porcelain Pipes)

We did, however, have lunch in their cafe.  Deborah had the potato soup with Vienna sausages while I had green salad with prosciutto, feta cheese and olives.  It was all just an excuse to have dessert – we were dying to have a piece of their house-made Meissen torte.  It’s several layers of chocolate cake separated by rich champagne buttercream all covered in thick marzipan decorated with the crossed swords.  It was as delicious as it was beautiful.

(Meissen Torte)

Next we took a 20 minute walk up the hill, through the old town to see Albrechtsburg Castle.  The castle, which is in the city of Meissen, has an amazing history and is intimately connected with the porcelain factory.  The castle, built in 1471 in the late Gothic style, was the first castle of its kind in Germany.  It was never intended as a fortification but was simply a home to the  rulers of Saxony: the family of Wettin.  In 1485 Fredrick II divided his territories between his sons, Ernest and Albert.  Albert’s territories, which included Meissen, were ruled from Dresden.  It is Albert that August the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland descended from.  It was August’s collection of porcelain that we’d seen in the Zwinger Palace.  August was mad to discover the secret of Chinese porcelain.

Sometime in the early 1700s August put together a team consisting of an alchemist and a scientist/mathematician and tasked them with creating porcelain.  They finally discovered the secret in 1708.  August was desperate to keep the secret to himself and so built a factory inside the somewhat remote Albrechtsburg Castle.  The factory began producing wares in 1710.  It was an incredible achievement.  This was the very first porcelain that was created in Europe.  For August it brought immense pleasure, prestige and wealth.  August had spectacular presentation pieces made to impress his guests and often gave them elaborate porcelain gifts.  He also traded porcelain in exchange for items to fill his museums.

How was all of this financed?  Did we forget to tell you that Meissen had large deposits of silver?  First discovered in the 12th century silver brought great wealth to the rulers of Saxony.  By the 14th century the mines were said to be exhausted but August the Strong helped to develop new mining techniques providing him the funds for building projects, art and, of course, porcelain.

Our ticket provided us entry to the castle and an audio guide in English.  It told us about the history of the castle, the events that took place there and how each room was originally used.  According to the guide the castle underwent an extensive renovation in the 19th century.  The intent was to restore the rooms to their original decor and function.  In some cases their information was faulty but the castle was preserved and is now in fantastic condition.  The most impressive rooms were the great halls with their soaring vaulted ceilings and floor to ceiling murals.  The central unsupported spiral staircase (Der Großer Wendelstein) was an engineering marvel for its time and was copied by architects throughout Europe.

(The Banquet Hall)

Next door to the castle is Dresden Cathedral.  It’s a towering Gothic style church with two tall bell towers.  Building began in 1250 and was done in stages.  It was finished in 1908 when the two towers were finally completed.  It is said that, because of limited space on the hilltop, the Cathedral is one of the smallest in Europe.  Walking around the inside you’d never suspect that was the case.  The church seemed to go on and on and there were rooms off to the sides that sprawled in every direction.  Many members of the House of Wettin are buried in the chapel near the rear.

The bell tower can can be seen only via guided tour and only after climbing 304 stairs.  Naturally, after several long days we were pretty tired, so we immediately bought tickets for the next tour.  😇  Unfortunately, the tours are only given in German but when I told the guide that I spoke only a little German he gave me a fact sheet in English.  Still, I was able to understand most of what he said during the tour and was able to translate for Deborah.

The climb was actually pretty easy.  The guide told the story of the history of the church incrementally as he stopped along the way.  At one point we were up close and personal with the largest bell weighing in at 7.8 tonnes.  He showed us the electronic controls that had been recently installed.

(Elbe River as Seen from the Bell Tower)

When we finally got to the top we had an incomparable view of the city and could see for miles in every direction.  At one point the guide was discussing the war and one of the other people on the tour said something about how the Americans destroyed Dresden.  He gave me a weird look but I just assumed that I’d misinterpreted what we said.  Later the subject came up again and the same person got in my face and said that he saw the American planes dropping bombs on Dresden.  He seemed like he was looking for a flight.  I simply told him that I wasn’t there and walked away.  The tour guide gave me a sympathetic look.  The man was younger than me so I know that he didn’t witness the bombing himself.  It was our first encounter with anti-American sentiment since we hit the continent.  Most people seem to genuinely like Americans.  We didn’t let that incident scar the rest of our day.

(Albrechtsburg Castle as Seen from the Bell Tower)

Before we left we had one more thing on our bucket list.  We were looking for a cafe called Konditorei Zieger, which is said to be the only place in town that still sells a pastry called Fummel.  Now here’s an interesting story.  The pastry is made from wafer thin dough.  When baked it inflates like a balloon and is very fragile.  The final product is usually dusted with icing sugar.  August the Strong, who actually invented the pastry, would only entrust his possessions to couriers who could carry Fummel from Meissen to Dresden without breaking it.  You can’t make this stuff up!  We found the bakery but were heartbroken to learn that it was closed on Mondays.  We might just have to go back.

Distance Walked: 6.7 miles

Saturday, July 7

There are lots of museums in Dresden and we wanted to see them all.  Of course that’s not really practical considering the length of our stay and the size of our budget but we decided to make a go of it.  For €27 per person you can buy a combination ticket to 17 different museums.  The catch: you only have two consecutive days in which to use the tickets.  Sounds like a challenge doesn’t it?  We made three lists: those we really wanted to see, those that we could go either way on and those we really didn’t care at all about – and you thought we just went to churches.  Ready, set, go!

The museums are open from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm everyday except Monday when they are closed.  We arrived at the ticket office at 9:45 am to buy our tickets but found it didn’t open until 10:00 am.  Oh no!  Waiting to buy tickets was going to cut into our museum time.  We could feel our blood pressure rising.

The first museum we entered was the Old Masters Picture Gallery at the Zwinger Palace.  It’s a huge exhibit consisting primarily of paintings dating from the 16th – 18th centuries spread over two full floors.  Many of the works were from German artists we’d never heard of and many were quite good.  There was also the usual selection of Italian and Dutch paintings including several Rembrandts and quite a few by Rubens.  We read that the two Correggios were the highlight of the gallery until they had acquired a Raphael.  In our opinion the Correggios were very nice (although hard to see because of bad lighting conditions) but the Raphel was nothing special.  We’d seen much better examples of his work when we were in Rome.  Some of our favorites: a Portrait of Charles de Solier by Hans Holbein the Younger from 1534, Double Portrait by Domenico Tintoretto from around 1600 and a Portrait of Alessandro Contarini by Paolo Veronese in 1565 to name a few.  We took enough time to see and read everything  but somehow managed to be done around noon.

(Charles de Solier by Hans Holbein the Younger from 1534)

To save time we opted for lunch at a cafe on the palace terrace overlooking the gardens.  They had a small selection of sandwiches which turned out to be better than we expected.  Then we were off to see the porcelain collection, which was also at the Zwinger Palace.

Like the paintings most of the porcelain was collected by The Elector August the Strong.  In fact, most of the works in the museums can be traced back to him.  Later generations of the family did commission, acquire and collect but none with the same enthusiasm.  From here on in we’ll stop repeating that the collections were large, interesting and diverse.  Just consider it a given.

For a very long time the only people with the knowledge to make porcelain were the Chinese and their methods were a well kept secret.  Europeans tried for centuries to develop the technology but in the 15th century all porcelain in Europe was sourced from either China or Japan.  This made it very rare and so expensive that only the wealthiest could afford to collect it. It wasn’t until the early 1700s that Europeans finally began producing high quality wares in the city of Meissen, which is less than 20 miles from Dresden.

The porcelain collection starts with Chinese objects made before the year 1,000 AD.  The objects were manufactured in sets with different themes or colors.  The condition of the pieces was only surpassed by their beauty.  Eventually the collection approached the 1700s and we saw displays of Meissen porcelain.  We’ve long been admirers of Meissen but had never seen a collection of this magnitude.  One whole room contained life-sized sculptures of exotic animals.  Another was full of huge pieces depicting religious and historical events.  Another room was filled with centerpieces and table settings that were commissioned by August the Strong for special occasions.  We never knew that Meissen had ever made pieces of this size or quality.  It was an overwhelming sight.  This museum is a must see for anyone with even a passing interest in porcelain.

(Meissen Centerpiece from 1750)

Next we visited another museum at the Zwinger Palace called the Math and Physics Salon.  The first floor had a large collection of scientific instruments, clocks, drafting instruments, sun dials and artillery aiming devices.  Most were made for the Elector’s collection, were beautifully detailed and manufactured out of precious metals laden with precious stones.  It’s likely none had ever been used for practical purposes.  Upstairs there was a display of burning mirrors and lenses as well as some of the earliest optics and telescopes.

We had now seen all of the museums at the Zwinger Palace so we headed over to the Residenzschloss to see the Coin Cabinet where there were over 300,000 coins and medals on display spanning from before ancient Greece until the present day.  The Coin Cabinet is only accessible through another museum called Giants’ Hall so we took the opportunity to explore that first.

Giants’ Hall has displays of armor and weapons from the Medieval to early Renaissance periods.  These were not your run of the mill suits of armor – these were showpieces created by wealthy aristocrats for ceremonial purposes.  Many were intricately detailed with etchings and highlighted with precious metals.  One room had a display of several suits of armor with a full regalia of weapons made entirely out of silver.

(Knight Fight)

Also on display were several of the magnificent swords presented to members of the House of Wettin on their elevation to the title of Elector.  The first one, given in 1423, was prominently displayed.  The tradition goes back to Emperor Charles IV from the early 1300s.

At last we arrived at the Coin Cabinet.  One room had a display of coins minted by the rulers of Saxony starting in the early middle ages.  Another was devoted to medals and medallions throughout the ages.  Yet another room showcased coins of the world and went back even further than the ancient Greeks.  If more of the information had been in English we would have enjoyed this museum a bit more.

The Turkish Chamber was in the next room so we just couldn’t resist stopping in for a peek.  This museum is said to have the largest display of Ottoman artifacts outside of Turkey.  There were huge numbers of weapons, armor and even an enormous Ottoman State Tent on display that had been ordered from Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent by August the Strong during one of their personal meetings.  Most impressive were the large numbers of daggers with carved ivory handles encrusted with precious jewels.  They even had a complete set of gold laden ceremonial weapons that had been presented to a Hungarian officer from the 1750s.

In for a penny, in for a pound – next we visited the Renaissance Gallery featuring a special exhibit of costumes worn by various electors and their families over the years.  It included tools, furniture, games and musical instruments from the 1600s.

Our last visit was to the Princes’ Gallery.  Here we saw portraits and busts of Saxon Electors and Kings from the House of Wetton and the Albertine line.  Their dates ranged from the early 1500s to 1918 when King Friedrich August III abdicated.

Eight museums in one day.  Each of these exhibitions is called a museum, and they are rather large, but in reality each one is more like a giant wing of a single enormous museum.  Still, that’s a pretty good effort for one day even if we do say so ourselves.

Distance walked: 7.9 miles

Sunday, July 8

As if yesterday’s activities weren’t enough today we visited even more museums.  Remember, we had a two day ticket and we planned to make the most of it.  Today we started at the Albertinum, another former palace that was converted into a museum.  Our first museum: The New Masters.

New Masters sounds very modern but basically this museum starts where the Old Masters museum left off.  The works start in the mid 1800s and go until the late 20th century.  Our poor feet.  These collections seem to go on forever.  Again, it covered two full floors of the palace.  We can walk all day but standing about and shuffling along at a slow pace is very tiring. Still, we were determined.  Deborah’s knowledge of works from the 20th century far outshines my own as does her appreciation of these works.  Still, even I found many of the works to my liking.  Klimt, Monet, Rodin and Degas were well represented.  Some of our favorites: Girl with Cigarette by Oskar Zwintscher from 1904, Grandmother and Granddaughter by Julius Schöltz from 1863 and a self portrait of Max Leibermann from 1929.

(Girl with Cigarette by Oskar Zwintscher from 1904)

The museum is also used to store a huge number of antiquities  (mostly sculptures and pottery) that have been cataloged and restored but are not on display.  The rooms where they are stored are not meant to be seen but they are open to the public.  We saw them all.  One room in particular had five enormous Assyrian carvings made of alabaster from around 800 BC that were particularly impressive.  We have to give a shout out to a very clever and amusing work by an artist from Brussels named Nevig Aladag entitled, “Music Room”.  The work, from 1972, is a room full of musical instruments in the shape of furniture.  Instead of slats the back of the chairs were made of strings, the tables had skirts made of glockenspiel pipes and so forth.  We liked it a lot.

Next it was on to the sculpture museum, which was also in the Albertinum.  The works were from the same period as the paintings.  Some were in a traditional style but quite a few were avant-garde.  One piece was in the form of a large 3D square that made us think that the artist must have moved recently.  It was composed of all sorts of packing materials and things you’d typically throw out when relocating.  It was pretty amusing.

We had lunch at one of the cafes in the big square near the Frauenkirche.  Deborah had spaetzel covered in cheese with port wine infused shallots covered in crumbled fried onions served in a cast iron skillet.  It was basically a fancy version of mac and cheese.  The shallots were amazingly good.  I had a thin crust pizza made with fresh whole wheat dough topped with meats and cheeses served with a side salad.

(Mac and Cheese Dresden Style for Lunch)

Fully refreshed we walked over to the Residenzschloss (sometimes referred to as Dresden Castle) to see even more museums.  First was the New Green Vault.  We’d see the Historic Green Vault during one of our first days in Town at the same location.  It was not included in our combination ticket.  Like the Historic Green Vault this museum also contains works and collectables acquired mainly by August the Strong.  Why two green vaults?  One reason is the sheer number of pieces.  Another, the collections in the Historic Green Vault were displayed by theme and were actually meant to be a museum.  These works, some of which were at one time in the Historic Green Vault, are just some of the overflow.

Perhaps the most famous item in this museum is the 41 carat Dresden Green Diamond.  The jewel likely came from India and is green in color because it had been exposed to natural radiation.  It was acquired in 1742 from a Dutch merchant at the Leipzig fair by August III.  Initially it was displayed with a simple setting but in 1768 it was made into a rather elaborate hat pin along with two large diamonds and 411 smaller ones.  It’s rather gaudy; we would have preferred to see what it looked like in its first setting.  The museum contains an uncountable number of beautiful, golden, intricate and precious objects ranging from jewelry, to medallions to furniture to collectables.  It was just overwhelming.  Our favorite work: an enormous ivory carving of a wooden ship being held up by Poseidon/Neptune from 1620.  The planks are engraved with the names of all the rulers of Saxony.  Even the sails are made from very thin pieces of ivory.

(Ivory Carving from 1620)

Our last museum of the day was the Cabinet of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, which is also at the Residenzschloss.  The exhibits in this museum change periodically; they have no permanent exhibition.  We saw a collection of Polish works starting from the latter half of the 20th century.  Artists in Poland had a great deal more freedom of expression during the Communist occupation and many of the works were actually critical of that system of government.  There were also a great many satirical comic strip style pieces.  Some of the most interesting/amusing were the works dealing with the proliferation of computers and the Internet.

Well, we only did four museums today but we did a total of 12 in two days.  Not bad for old people.  We had seen all of our must dos, all of our might dos and even a few more.  The other five really held no interest for us as they featured mostly folk art and ethnographic displays.  Of course there are even more museums in Town and we may get to one or two of them as well.

It should be noted that all of the museums we saw were delightful.  The number, scope and breadth of the exhibitions was remarkable.  We would have expected these types of collections only in much larger major cities.  All of the works were well documented in German and in English, the one exception being the Coin Cabinet which was almost exclusively in German.  If you have the time, and don’t think you can do 12 museums in two days, you can buy a combination for  €50 per person.  That will give you an entire year to see everything.

Distance walked: 6.1 miles

Wednesday, July 4

Happy Independence Day!  There wasn’t much celebrating in these parts.  The weather was fine so we decided to explore Großer Garten – it’s a large park in the middle of Dresden and just a few blocks from our apartment.  It’s a very pretty park with long boulevard-like avenues, trails through the woods and beautiful manicured gardens.  In the center we found a large fountain surrounded by a small man-made lake adjacent to a 17th century Baroque style palace that hosts concerts and cultural events.  The Dresden Zoo is on the West side of the park but we didn’t venture over that way.  We may go there another day.

(Großer Garten Palace)

We had lunch at a café near the apartment.  Our neighborhood is a little outside of the main tourist area so this means that we’re eating and shopping where the locals do.  It’s pretty quiet and not everyone speaks fluent English but fortunately we know enough German to get by.  It’s pretty easy to ask a question in German but the problem is we don’t always understand the response.  Our brains have not really adjusted to the new language yet.  We often respond in the first language which pops into our heads which can be Italian, French or even Bulgarian (hardly ever English!)

Distance walked: 3.1 miles

Thursday, July 5

Today was the day we decided to visit several of the Town’s renown churches.  Like most buildings in Altstadt the churches were heavily damaged or destroyed during World War II.  Starting around 1990 they have all been rebuilt to look exactly as they did before the war.  We wanted to see for ourselves what kind of job they did.

Along the way we encountered one of Dresden’s most famous sights: The Füstenzug or Procession of Princes.  It’s a large mural created in the late 1800s to celebrate the rulers of Saxony.  It’s made up of over 23,000 painted tiles made of Meissen porcelain.  At over 235 feet long it is the largest porcelain work of art in the world.  It spans an entire city block and it’s an impressive sight to see.

The first church we saw was the Frauenkirche.  It’s a large Baroque style Lutheran church with a sculpture of Martin Luther in front.  The site originally contained a Catholic church but during the reformation it changed to the Lutheran denomination.  In the early 1700s the original church was replaced by a new Baroque style building.  The church’s most distinctive feature is its 300 foot high dome nicknamed the Stone Bell.  It is an engineering marvel.  It’s made of 12,000 tons of sandstone resting on only eight slender columns.

Next to the present day church is a small remnant of the original outside wall.  It was the only piece of the church to survive the bombings of 1945.

The interior of the church is very large and beautifully decorated.  Bright and colorful frescos adorn the walls and the ceiling.  Above the main floor there are three levels of balconies and a very large pipe organ in the choir loft in the rear.  The entire re-creation was done in sandstone like the original church built in the 1700s.  The area around the alter appeared to be highly veined marble but a closer inspection revealed that it was painted sandstone.

(Main Altar)

Entry to the church was free but we paid about $20 for the privilege of climbing the bell tower.  An elevator takes you about half way up and then you must climb an additional 127 steps to reach the top – just 27 more than our apartment in Prague! 😀  Along the way there were windows that allowed us to see into the church from above.  When we finally got to the top we were greeted with fantastic 360 degree views of the entire city.

Next we visited the Hofkirche  or Dresden Cathedral.  It’s a large Catholic church near the opera house.  It was badly damaged during World War II and was recently restored.  Previously it had been the official church of the royal court of Saxony.  The church features an organ that was built around 1700 and had at one time been played by J.S. Bach.  It has been completely restored.

 

The interior of the church is rather plain compared to most Catholic churches of that size and age.  There are carvings near the altar that, from a distance, appear to be made of marble.  Closer inspection revealed that they are made of plaster.  There are numerous paintings throughout the church which appear to be from the Baroque era.  We were most impressed with the cycle of 14 paintings depicting the stations of the cross that were hung all around the perimeter.

(Stations of the Cross Series)

For lunch we walked over to Brühl’s Terrace in search of some street food.  The terrace is an elevated walkway along the Altstadt waterfront.  In days of yore the wall served as part of the city’s fortifications but today it is a nice place to stroll.  There are scenic views and many opportunities to buy souvenirs.  We ate a bratwurst and a Bavarian style pretzel from a street vendor.  We were disappointed to see that none of the street vendors have sauerkraut.  No pictures.  We aren’t to be trusted!

For good measure we visited a third church named Kreuzkirche (Church of the Holy Cross), which is right next to the Old Town Hall.  This church was originally built in the 1200s but had been destroyed and reconstructed many times.  It was badly damaged during World War II and was reopened in 1955 with a very austere interior.  Frequent choir and organ concerts take advantage of the excellent acoustics.

Distance walked: 8.4 miles

Friday, July 6

The first order of business was lunch.  The other day we discovered a shopping mall in Altstadt called Altmarkt where the food court appeared to have interesting choices at reasonable prices.  Today was our day to sample the wares.  After taking a full turn around the food court we settled on a margarita pizza and some fried shrimp.  Both were fresh and delicious.  No need to take out a loan for this meal.  We knew that Germany was going to be much more expensive than the other places we’ve visited over the past seven months which is one of the reasons why we planned to stay for just two weeks.

We aided our digestion by walking around the gardens surrounding the Zwinger Palace.  In 1697 August the Strong decided to build a palace that would rival the recently built Versailles.  While not nearly on the scale of Versailles the palace is large and beautiful and today hosts several museums.  The courtyard and gardens are open to the public.  There is a large black crown with gold trim on top of the street side gate that can be seen for many blocks that overlooks a man-made pond that feeds a nearby lake.  We walked along the gardens and enjoyed the fountains before ascending to the elevated walkway that goes around the entire perimeter.  It was a nice walk with views of the gardens, the palace and the city.

(Zwinger Palace Gardens)

Our next stop was the Transparent Volkswagen Factory on the edge of the Großer Garten.  We had a 3:00 pm appointment for a tour in English.  It is a large, modern building with clean lines and bright interior.  It houses a working assembly plant, a gift shop, a restaurant and an interactive showroom.  The tour only cost us €4.50 each.  We received a discount for being senior citizens (more precisely, for being retired).

Our guide started by giving us some background information about the plant.  It’s a small assembly plant geared towards testing new production techniques, new technologies (such as robotics and self driving cars) and producing electric vehicles.  The tour took us onto the actual assembly line floor.  It was a clean, modern and state of the art plant where people and robots work together to produce vehicles.  We walked from station to station where we saw different stages of completion.  The mechanics stayed in one place while the cars moved from station to station on a rotating track.  In this factory it takes about 15 hours to complete a car.  In VW’s high capacity plants it takes four hours to complete the same amount of work.  The best part of the tour: watching the robots install the tires and windshields on the cars.

After leaving the factory floor we saw some concept cars.  Some of them were very interesting but unlikely ever to be released to the general public.  After the tour ended we went over to the display on self driving cars where we donned virtual reality helmets and were able to “test drive” autonomous cars.  We didn’t know what to expect when we booked the tour but it certainly exceeded our expectations.  It was a lot of fun.

What do you think is Volkswagen’s best selling product of all time?  It’s part number 199 398 500 A – a Currywurst that they originally developed for the canteens in their factories.  They sold 6.8 million sausages in 2017 alone.  They even sell them at the restaurant at the factory we toured.  Would you be surprised to learn that we had one after the tour?  It was delicious!

(VW Part Number 199 398 500 A)

Distance walked: 7.1 miles

Saturday, June 30

We took a 10:10 am train from Prague for the 2.5 hour ride to Dresden.  This time we booked the cheapest fare possible which also meant that we didn’t have assigned seats.  The tickets didn’t even indicate which train car to board.  This was going to be a new experience.

As usual the crowd let all of the people who were disembarking off the train before starting to get on.  The narrow aisles really only allow one person to transit the car at a time.  Unfortunately a bunch of people decided to get off after the Prague people had already started to board.  It was a mess.  Dozens of us were standing in the space between cars with our luggage hoping that they would be able to squeeze past the people looking for seats before the train started moving.  We thought we might be standing there for the duration.

After that situation finally resolved itself we were still trying to figure out where we were allowed to sit.  A very kindly fellow passenger explained that there were strips of paper near each compartment indicating which seats were assigned.  Any unassigned seats were fair game.  It’s simple enough if you know the rules.  Just about the time we settled into our compartment the train started to move.

We were quite curious how Dresden was going to appear.  Much of the city was heavily damaged during the allied bombings of 1945 and most of the buildings were completely destroyed.  After World War II Dresden was behind the Iron Curtain and the communists had no interest in rebuilding the old churches and palaces.  The rebuilding of the Altstad (Old City)  didn’t start until after the fall of communism and the unification of Germany in 1990, which was less than 30 years ago.  Thanks to heavy financial support from what was then West Germany the remarkable feat was accomplished very quickly.

We arrived at Dresden Hauptbahnhof on time and caught the number 10 trolley right in front of the station.  In no time at all we were in our new apartment meeting our new host.  After settling in we took a walk towards the Elbe River and strolled towards Altstadt.  Grassy areas and bike paths extend all along the river on both sides.  We saw the weekly flea market setup next to one of the bridges.

Altstadt is a very beautiful area with an elevated walkway along the river that used to serve as a fortress wall.  Nearby all of the great buildings have been reconstructed to look exactly as they did before.  Whenever possible original materials were used.  Even the carvings in the stones look worn to simulate natural aging.  Right near the Residenzschloss the famous opera house looks just like it did when it opened in 1841.  We scored some tickets for Monday afternoon’s performance of Wagner’s, “The Flying Dutchman”, which premiered in that very house on the second of January in 1843.

Of course we couldn’t resist popping into one the pastry shops to look around.  We were about to make a clean getaway when someone offered us a sample of one of their confections.  It was a dense chocolate cake with walnuts, dried cherries and kirschwasser (cherry brandy) covered in a thick layer of fudge.  It was too good to resist.  We immediately sat at one of the tables and ordered several along with a couple of cappuccinos.  We also walked out with some butter cookies topped with apricot preserves.  We’re going to put on a LOT of weight here if we’re not careful.

We had dinner at an interesting little restaurant in the heart of the Old Town.  Dinner was good but the dessert was amazing.  We’re not sure what it was called but it was cake layered in marzipan and jam covered in a thick white icing.  We’ve been surprised to see that the foods in general incline more towards the Viennese style rather than the Bavarian style we found in nearby Budapest and Prague.

(Amazingly Good Cake)

After walking around Altstadt twice to make sure we didn’t miss anything we crossed the river and took a quick tour of Inner Neustadt (Inner New City district).  We hit the supermarket next to our apartment building before calling it a day.  Unlike many of the other cities we’ve visited there are no free tours of Dresden so we opted for the do-it-yourself approach.  It worked out just fine.

Distance walked: 9.3 miles

Sunday, July 1

There are quite a few interesting museums in Town and we learned about a combination ticket that will let you visit multiple museums at a discount.  The catch: you only have two days to use the tickets.  Since we were going to the opera on Monday we decided to go to one of the museums that was not covered by the combination ticket.  We went to see the Historic Green Vault.

Since 1465 Dresden was the seat of the Dukes of Saxony.  Later, in 1697 under The Elector Augustus the Strong, it became a leading center of technology and art.  Since the 13th century electors have had the privilege of electing the king of the romans whom the pope would crown as the Holy Roman Emperor.  Electors were not kings but their status was higher than most princes.

Augustus the Strong acquired a vast and varied collection of art and displayed it in his palace where a select few were occasionally invited to see it.  It was one of the first museums in Europe.  The palace was virtually destroyed in the bombings of 1945 but most of the treasures were preserved and protected.  The nine rooms of the museum have been carefully recreated to look just as they did in the 1700s.  In many cases the same construction techniques and building materials were used.  Even the artwork is displayed just as  if nothing had ever happened.

Why was it called, “The Green Vault”?  It was referred to as a vault because there were secure rooms underneath the palace where money and treasures were stored.  It was called green because that was the color of the under paint, which sometimes showed through.

The nine rooms each have a separate theme.  One was ivory, one gems, another bronzes and so forth.  Each room was stacked to the ceiling with rare and precious objects.  It was overwhelming.  No photography was permitted.

For lunch we walked over to Outer Neustadt; it is also on the other side of the river.  This district is well known for its many cafés and restaurants.  We ate at a place that was recommended in one of the guides called Lila Soße.  It was a charming little place in a back courtyard.  Deborah had a variation of eggs benedict served in a bowl over spinach.  I had cold pork served with spicy mustard, horseradish and amazing rye bread.

(Cold Pork for Lunch)

On the way home we stopped at a local bakery and tried one of their apfelküchen.  It’s apple pie filling squeezed between two pieces of soft cake topped with a sugary glaze.  Yum!

Distance walked: 6.3 miles

Monday, July 2

Today we went to the 1:00 pm (13:00 for you Europhiles) performance of Wagner’s, “Der Fliegende Holländer” or The Flying Dutchman.  It’s a story about a sailor who’s cursed to sail forever unless he can find a faithful woman to marry him.  Wagner wrote the libretto and the music and even conducted the premier in 1843 at this same theater in Dresden.

(The Semperoper House)

We had looked for tickets to the famous opera house before we arrived in Town and found that anything that we might want to see was sold out so, on the first day we were here, we went over to the box office to see what could be had.  We were fortunate to get tickets to the upper balcony seats with obstructed views.  The two tickets cost €12.  For most of the performance we stood with the standing room people where we had a good view of the entire stage.  Fortunately this opera was performed as Wagner intended, without any intermissions, so the entire performance was only 2.5 hours.

(Interior of the Semperoper House)

The overall performance was wonderful.  The theater is absolutely gorgeous and has some of the most amazing  acoustics we’ve ever encountered.  The singers performed flawlessly and were almost always heard above the orchestra even when the accompaniment was louder than it should have been.  The staging and the costumes were a little on the modern side and didn’t seem to fit in the production that well.  Overall it was a great experience.

Distance walked: 2.4 miles