Heading east to Dresden

Friday morning Noah and I packed up one of our Statt Auto cars with the dogs and our suitcases and road-tripped up to Dresden.  We met my mom and her friend Kathleen for the last weekend of their Europe trip.

After a five-hour drive we arrived late Friday afternoon to our hotel – shortly before the ladies showed up from their train from Prague.  But to make it to the hotel we had to make a stressful detour through the old city to avoid flood-damaged streets. At one point Noah had to make an awkward 3-point U-turn between two horse carriages right in the heart of the city (with a manual, no less!). But thankfully no real harm was done and I navigated us in time to greet our guests.  The four of us dropped our bags in the rooms and grabbed the dogs to explore the ‘core’/tourist part of the city (for blog purposes I will refer to as just the city, though obviously Dresden is much more than this central tourist section).  I think we were all a bit surprised to see how close everything is in this area – After walking for just 10 minutes from our hotel (the Innside Dresden – great location), we were already hitting the other edge of the city.  Perfect for a 48 hour mini-vacation! 

We began our ‘window shopping’ walking tour of the city with the Frauenkirche, then headed over to the Brühl's Terrace.  This took us along the river to the Schloßplatz - where the Residenzschloss, Katholische Hofkirche, and Staatsoper Opera house all meet up. 

We tried to check out our ticket options for the Residenzschloss for Saturday, but the offices were already closed.  Oh well – back to the Staatsoper where everyone was dressed very fancy for a ballet.  Noah had the idea to get tickets to the ballet so we could see the inside of the Opera house (which is supposed to be fabulous), but no one really had the right clothes for that. 

Behind the Staatsoper is Der Dresdener Zwinger – a palace that served as the Dresden Court back in the day.  Now you are able to walk around the building and gardens on your own, and it is a rather lovely place (even though the courtyard has a bit too much dirt area and not enough garden area for my tastes). 

It seemed like in just a few hours of walking we had already seen the entire old Dresden city, at least from the outside.  Though at the same time, the denseness of historic buildings (ok, maybe reconstructed historic buildings) combined with the “car-free” walking alleys/boulevards is what makes this city so great.

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant near the Frauenkirche (isn’t everything near that?), and then headed to the Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes).  This is a large mural made of roughly 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles on an outer wall of the Residenzschloss.  Very impressive – though this is one panorama I didn’t attempt to try to capture.  We also grabbed a few shots of the other attractions during the blue hour.

Saturday morning we made our way back to the Residenzschloss to purchase tickets for the afternoon as the Historical Green Vault requires you to reserve a specific time.  Side note – it sure seemed like the tickets for the ‘on the hour’ (as in 11am, 3pm, 4pm, etc) sold many more tickets than those on the ‘30s.  Anyways, after securing our 3:30 time slot after a bit of confusion (I guess our 15:30 sounds too close to 14:30 when we speak German), we headed to the re-built Frauenkirche. 

Before getting to the church, we were distracted by a Meissen porcelain shop.  I am always on the hunt for nicer souvenirs that we will want to keep forever (think Icelandic wool blanket instead of a magnet of a Viking hat), so I liked the idea of buying a piece of porcelain from Meissen.  However I quickly learned I have expensive taste – my favorite vase was over 600EUR!  Instead, I turned my focus towards some porcelain candle holders that look pretty with or without a candle lit inside.  As we were shopping, the employees brought out some water in a nice porcelain bowl for the dogs to drink out of.  They were treated like royalty – I don’t think I have ever had a drink out of something so expensive! 

After we dropped the dogs and purchases off in the hotel, we finally made it to the church.  Our first stop was to go up to the very top of the Dome for some fantastic views of the city. 

After snapping way too many pictures across three cameras, we made our way back to the bottom with hopes of seeing the inside of the church.  However a wedding was starting, so the doors were shut to visitors.  No worries – we could come back later since our hotel was just down the street.  Instead we opted for a video in the visitor’s center a few blocks away.  We paid our 2EUR each for an exclusive English screening of their movie (exclusive only because we happened to be the only ones there) and learned all about the extensive reconstruction of the church. 

Basically the Dresden Frauenkirche was built back in the 18th century, but was destroyed during the WWII bombing of Dresden.  During the Soviet Rule, the site was kept as an anti-war memorial.  There was always intent to rebuild the church, but it wasn’t until after reunification that it finally came to fruition.  In the 90s reconstruction finally began, and they re-used as many stones and artifacts as possible, recreating those beyond repair.  What stands now is an almost complete replica of the original church, showing the scars of WWII in the contrasting dark stones (the original ones) and light stones (the new ones). 

After the movie we were all pumped to go see the inside of the church, but as the wedding wasn’t over we settled for lunch – buffalo burgers and ribs at a Canadian restaurant.  Hey – can you blame us for avoiding German food when we can’t avoid it back home?  As we were finishing lunch, we saw the church open up and crowds begin to enter.  As we had picked up the dogs from the hotel room for lunch, we couldn’t go as a group.  Noah and I went first, followed by Sandy and Kathleen.  Luckily my mom, like 80% of the people inside, didn’t pay attention to the ‘no photos’ signs and captured some shots. 

On the right: The alte Turmkreuz that melted in the WWII bombings

We were now getting close to our 3:30 time slot at the Residenzschloss’ historic green vault, so off the dogs went to the hotel room, and off we went to the ‘Dresden Castle’.  Our camera’s had to be put away for the vaults (both the old and new green vaults), so you just have to take my word that there are some amazing treasures inside.  These rooms are filled with beautiful jewels, stones, and fancy creations that overwhelmed my senses. 

After letting the museum wear us out (museums tend to do that to me), we got ice cream treats and headed to the steps of the Brühl's Terrace that look over the Schloßplatz.  We ended up sitting by an accordion player that apparently only knew two songs.  I used this time to take about 100 photos of my dogs, so be glad I am only posting a few. 

Ok, so the top left one is from the Zwinger visit on Friday.  But it was too cute to not include here.

After finally being driven mad by the accordion, we crossed the Augustusbrücke to have a beer (ok, a Radler for me) at Augustusgarten.  Just the week before the Elbe River was flooded and rose over 25 feet above normal levels.  As the Biergarten sits on the banks of the Elbe, they had photos on display showing the beer tables completely immersed and the pavilions halfway under water.  Basically we would have been sitting completely immersed in a river just a week prior.

For the record - I put water in the beer glass for Rita

After a repeat dinner at the Italian place (where I sent a dish back for the first time in my life – the pasta wasn’t cooked!), we wrapped up our long Dresden day.

Sunday morning I had the bright idea to go to Pfunds Molkerei (The Guinness Book-certified ‘world’s most beautiful dairy shop’), so we headed on a long and hot walk beyond the ‘city’ into more of the real city.  First we walked to Augustusplatz to see the pretty fountains, and then began the long walk down a road that is under construction.  Once we finally arrive at Pfunds Molkerei, I learned it is really just a cheese shop with some nice tiles.  And we had a 30 minute walk back.  This time we stayed to the riverbank for our walk, so it was a bit cooler and nicer, but overall I think we could have skipped that part (but thank you to Noah, Sandy, and Kathleen who kept their mouths shut!).

With checkout time at hand, we packed up the car and headed back home to Munich.  Monday morning we said goodbye to our last of the long string of visitors and began looking forward to Noah’s birthday weekend in Hamburg!