Dresden

The last big trip of our stay in Germany was on Tuesday. We were going to meet one of our teachers from Boise State, but things didn't end up working out so we decided to go anyways. We had our train all planed out it was going to be an early morning, but that way we could see some of the sights on Tuesday, the rest Wednesday morning and then we would only need to stay one night. Beyond that we didnt plan very well so we ended up missing a few things, and we realized that two half days are not enough for the city. Sure we were able to see most of the really "important" buildings and things, but there were a lot of museums that would have been great to visit.

The ride there was fairly uneventful. we took the 6:04 am tram out of Köllerbach to Saarbücken. We were able to get on a train that went straight there, which was good and bad. It was a long trip without any breaks, but at least we could walk around.  When we got into Dresden we realized that we really didn't have a plan. We had a general idea of where to go to find the hotel but that was all. I was a little turned around so we walked a little bit in the wrong direction, but we found a different hotel with wifi. We weren't able to pull up google maps on our phones, but the hotel website, one of the sites we could get to for free, had a map that was able to help us move in the right direction. Once we found the hotel we checked in, but we couldn't get into our room until 3. It was 230. We had to leave our things is a storage room to come back after 3 for them so we could go see part of the city. Where we didn't have a lot of time to see everything we wanted to, waiting for 30 mins to check in really wasn't an option. We walked into old downtown, which is basically where everything is.


Our first stop was the Zwinger. It is an old palace, that now houses several art collections. The entrence for the collections was a little on the steep side, but we could go onto the grounds for free. We took lots of pictures and were amazed by all the little detailing everywhere. One thing about Dresden is that it is almost entirely Baroque style. The other thing that was really cool about Dresden is that during the war,WWII, it was practically obliterated during an allay air raid. The people have since rebuilt practically everything, but in the original style, so it still looks old.






After the Zwinger we walked around the back to the opera house. Where we discovered we could take a tour of the Opera. We luckily were able to catch the last tour of the day.

The Dom

We had about 30 minutes to wait so we decided to run across the street to the Dom. The Dom was very pretty as they usually are, but we were lucky enough to be there just before a mass and so there was someone playing the organ. It was the first time we were about to hear one of  the organs in the churches. Let me tell you the sound is amazing. And a little on the loud side. The entire church was filled with the music! I have some of it recorded so hopefully that part of the film will turn out :)

The Opera

Then we headed back for a tour of the opera house. They allowed Chris to purchase a photography license so he was able to get some cool pictures of the inside. The tour was interesting telling us about how the original opera was burned down and then redesigned by the same architect, later to be bombed in the war. Then after it was restored there was a flood in 2002, and parts had to be redone yet again.

inside the opera

There are a few places where the original stone still stands, and you can tell if you look closely, but they have done a really good job at matching it to the second original. We really enjoyed the tour until the end. The last stop on the tour was the actual theater. We went inside and sat in the seats, which was cool. They were working on the stage and so it was a little difficult to hear, but we managed, at least until the tour guide started go off on tangents about which plays were better than others and went over time by 30 minutes. The theater was warm, and where it had been such and early morning, it started getting really hard to pay attention, and then really hard to stay awake. I managed somehow.

Furstenzug

Across from the Opera is the Residence Schloss, we looked at the outside more the next day, but it wasn't very impressive. In between the Residence Schloss and the Dom is the longest porcelain mural in the world (I am pretty sure), called the Furstenzug. It is made up of yellow tiles, painted with the different princes of Dresden. The Furstenzug lead us right to the Fauenkirche, one of our favorite churches in Germany. Unfortunately it was 6 'o clock and they were about to start mass, so we couldn't go inside.

gold man

We decided to call it a day, grabbed some pizza and a salad for dinner, and headed back to the hotel. After chilling in our room for a few minutes we headed downstairs to the lobby. It was the only place in the hotel we could get wifi for free. We checked our emails, facebook, and planned a little bit for the next day. Then we went back up stairs to bed.

The next day we woke up around 7 and were out the door by 8. Our last train home left around 1 so we didn't have a lot of time to see the rest of the city. The first stop was a grocery store for breakfast and then the train station. We didn't want to carry the bag around all day so we locked it up in a locker at the station.

We decided to see what there was to see on the other side of the river and then work our way back to the train station. We saw a golden statue of a man on a horse (not really sure who he was...) and the Japanese Palais. The Palais wasn't what I was expecting it to be. It looked like a government building in the states, and had been turned into a museum. Maybe it was prettier on the inside. We didn't look, but Dresden is defiantly  a place I want to go back to so I will put it on the list for then. There are a lot of different museums there. We could have easily spend another couple days just visiting museums. Besides the Japanese Palais, which is a natural history type museum, I believe (there was a spider exhibit advertised), there are the transportation museum, the hygiene museum, and oodles of art museums.

Frauenkirche

The last thing we saw on the other side of the river was the Dreikonigkirche (Three Kings Church). It was still a little bit before 10, when the churches open, so we didn't go in. From what we could see though it was a modern interior in an old building. The outside was pretty. 


We walked along a tree lined path back to the bridge and then along the outside of the art school to the Frauenkirche. The art school is an amazing building. And it is massive! Along the outside were the names of different classical and ancient painters.

inside the Frauenkirche

 When we made it to the Frauenkirche we learned we would walk up to the tower. It is the only church you could go up. We decided to go for it, despite the sign outside saying we did so at our own risk, understanding that the path to the tower was not up to current building standards. It sounded a lot worse than it was. We took an elevator up about halfway and then walked along a ramp that lined the dome. Up a very steep staircase, or about 10 steps and then of course a spiral staircase and we were there. It was a great view, and one of my favorite parts about that climb was that where we were in the dome we could see down into the church. The church itself was amazingly beautiful. One of my favorites in Germany. The seating went up 4 stories.

police station

We still had a little bit of time to kill so we walked down a street we hadn't been down before and found a very beautiful building. It has amazing stone work on the outside, and we wondered what it was. Turns out it was the police station! Only the prettiest police station I have ever seen. We continued wandering around and came across another church.

I don't know what this church was called, but it was unique and one of my favorites for a different reason from the Frauenkirche. As I said before Dresden was almost completely destroyed in the war, but just visiting there you wouldn't be able to tell. Same with many of the other cities we visited. Instead of remaking this church in all of its original glory, it was rebuilt with cement and then left as it was. Where there were large salvageable pieces of rubble they were placed back where they would have been originally, but most of the church was just cement. It was different looking at the building and being able to tell what was old and what was new, and knowing that at one point all of it was just a pile of rubble.

intresting perspective

There was a different feeling in this church. One I can only describe as melancholy. Not a feeling of sadness necessarily, but one of sober reflection. Even though I don't think the church was meant to be a memorial of the war and its devastation, for me it was. I felt it stronger here than I did anywhere else in Germany. Not in the bunkers, nor in the memorials to the Jews in Berlin.

you can see the original and the new

As I wandered around the church looking at what was left, I thought about how devastating it would have been to see your church, your haven, in a time of fear be destroyed. I thought about how much it would have meant to those people to have it back again.  I thought about how important it was to remember that it was different before. A striking reminder of the consequences of war to the innocent. In most of the other places we visited, the war might as well not have happened. At least there was no proof or reminder, besides a few dedicated memorials. I am not saying that things should have been left ravished, but rather sometimes it is nice to keep a reminder. Not a new place, but an old place that actually felt the pains of war as a reminder, so we wont go back. 

After we were done looking around. We walked back into the city center, found some lunch and headed home. We only have one more trip planed before we head off to Frankfurt.

Just a fountain in the city center.