Dresden, Part III

Our first stop today was over the river to the Neustadt...to Pfund's Molkerei, the "most beautiful cheese store in the world." And it was! Sooo pretty! The walls were covered with painted tiles from Villeroy & Boch.

Then we walked over the bridge, back into the old city to see everything in the daylight.

Michael being an eskimo. (It was chilly and windy!)

Semperoper

Frauenkirche

inside the Frauenkirche

And we ended our trip to Dresden with a visit to the Konditorei Kreuzkamm on the Altmarkt for some Kaffee und Kuchen. I had Dresdener Eierschecke with hot raspberries and whipped cream, Elisabeth had Herrentorte (layered marzipan and cake, with chocolate covering), and Michael had Sachertorte. We had to wait a while for a table...it was a busy place on a Saturday afternoon!

Haha, and this picture to the left...at first I didn't even recognize myself. Michael wanted a picture of how we walked through the city. Kathryn always leading the way and Elisabeth tagging behind, following my red hat and trying to keep close in the crowds. Can I just say: she hasn't looked at a map, left the house alone, or changed physical money this whole trip. She has her Schwester! If anyone wants to do a two-person twin study on us, it's fascinating how our our personalities have developed complementarily. I am a bossypants and like to control everything...Elisabeth enjoys sitting back and enjoying the ride...letting me make all decisions and lead her around. (P.S. Elisabeth would like to point out that she is perfectly capable of doing the above things...she just doesn't need to.)

nächtlicher Spaziergang: nighttime sightseeing

Frauenkirche

 After thoroughly amusing ourselves at the Christmas market, we continued on to see more of the old city, the baroque center of old Saxony: the Frauenkirche, the Residenzschloss, and the Semperoper. Until its destruction in WWII, Dresden was known as one of the most beautiful European cities, called "Florence on the Elbe".  Now the old city along the river has been almost completely rebuilt.

Everywhere we went we also ran into more Christmas markets. They had them everywhere in this city. Around the Frauenkirche, in the castle...This was definitely a great time of year to visit Dresden. 

The gorgeous baroque Frauenkirche (left) was almost completely destroyed in the bombing of Dresden February 13, 1945. For a long time, the pile of rubble was a memorial to the war. The reconstruction was only recently finished (2005). You can see in some of the daylight photos how they tried to re-incorporate some of the old stones, black from the firebombing.

eating some roasted chesnuts (heiße Maronen)

Elisabeth on the Brühlsche Terasse, the "balcony of Europe"

 To the left below you see part of the Residenzschloss, the neo-Renaissance palace of Saxony. I guess not a lot of this was rebuilt during East German days, but is also largely just recently rebuilt (since reunification in 1989). It's really fascinating how East Germany has this different history and how often it comes up. "Oh, here there used to be a memorial to the Soviet Army"... "Oh, this was an anti-war memorial reminding everyone of the destruction of Dresden by the West"...

from the Terrasse: the Residenzschloss and the Kathedrale (Hofkirche)

 Below you can see the Fürstenzug, a golden frieze made out of 24,000 tiles of Meissen porcelain. It shows Saxony's rulers 1123-1904. We had fun reading all their names: Otto der Reiche (Otto the Rich)... Friedrich der Strenge (Friedrich the Strict)...Georg der Bärtige (Georg the Bearded)...August...Friedrich August...Friedrich August II...

the awesome (literally) Fürstenzug

Fürstenzug

 As the protestant Frauenkirche was being built, August III had this cathedral built to be the largest in Saxony.

Cathedral (Hofkirche)

 Below is the Semperoper, the opera house. This building, too, was destroyed in the war. In the original, Richard Wagner premiered Tannhäuser and other operas. The architect (Gottfried Semper)went on to become very famous (we just recently saw another building by him in Bern, Switzerland).

Semperoper

 Below are a few pictures of the Zwinger...sorry we don't have better ones. It's this awesome complex of bulidings near the castle, very symmetrical and has nice fountains/gardens in the inner courtyard.

Zwinger

inside the Zwinger

Dresdens Striezelmarkt, or: Magic Fairytale Christmasland

 

We spent the last two days in the magical Christmas-land of Dresden. The German Train (Deutsche Bahn) has a special group ticket where you can have up to five people travel together for a special price--as long as you take regional (not high-speed) trains. So the trip took 3.5 hrs from Berlin, but was pretty cheap (about 50 EUR each way). We played Bohnanza (Elisabeth's favorite game...she brought it with her) the whole way and the time flew by. 

It gets dark here so early (around 4:00 pm), so our first experience of Dresden was at night, with all the buildings illuminated and the Christmas market (here called Striezelmarkt) gorgeously decorated and lit up.  (We all agreed it is much prettier at night.) And it magically stopped raining while we were at the market! Poured the whole time we were on the train, and all night after we got back in for the night. Keinen Schnee. :(

 We wandered around the market, had some Apfelglühwein (apple cider), rode the little ferris wheel and got a view over the market (first picture at top), and bought lots of Christmas gifts. Dresden is near the Erzgebirge region, which has all these traditional little German artisan woodcrafts (the little angels, Christmas trees, Räuchermännchen). And of course Dresden is best known for Stollen! Had to get some of that...I may actually be sugared out by Christmas. Seriously. I know: even for me it's extreme.