D

Bruhlesche Terrace (The Balkon) see from the Elbe

From the first day — or was it before the first day — that we got to Berlin we said that we must go to Dresden. After all, its a world-famous city, even if we hardly knew more about it than its Frauenkirche had been recently re-opened and that it was on the Elbe, about halfway between Berlin and Prague.

We also said that we should go while the weather was good. But things — little things like opening a bank account and registering that we lived in Berlin and big things like going to the open house of Schloss Bellevue, the official home of the German president, and attending an anti-war rally at the Brandenburg gate — kept up from going until the weather had turned cold.

Waiting in Berlin Hauptbahnhof

In the Zwinger Courtyard

Always choose the good over the perfect. Perfect would have been to stay in a top-flight hotel in Dresden for as long as we wanted. Good — even great — is what we did: make a day trip from Berlin. On a Tuesday we bought train tickets for a Friday's visit, knowing from the weather report that we might be in rain all day. On Friday we were up at 5:30 to catch a 6:45 train for the two hour trip to Dresden. Everything went great on the way there; in fact, as the first hour was still dark, we caught some more sleep. Boy, were we lucky — it turned out to be the brightest, warmest day in two weeks, just about perfect for walking around.

We stayed in Dresden late so that we could see the city illuminated. Coming back we waited on a cold platform for our train — coming from Prag and going to Amsterdam — to arrive, only to hear three times that it was delayed. Although being the envy of many we couldn't help wish that it was us that were coming from romantic Prag to canal-lined Amsterdam.

Because the train arrived/departed Dresden late and because there was much late night construction work on the tracks we got back to Berlin an hour late, about 12:30. Worries that the U-bahn/S-bahn would not be running were misplaced. In fact, they were running and teeming with people, mostly young, and largely, if not a majority, with an empty beer bottle in hand. We're old: we were glad it was not us out in the cold, skimpily clad, trying to make a quick connection into something more permanent.

Frauenkirche and Neu Markt

Golden Rider Statue of Fredrich August I

But back to the business at hand: We were only in Dresden for the day. What did we do and see? We took a tram from the Hauptbahnhof to Postplatz, and started our day with a visit to the nearby Schauspielhaus and the Zwinger: the first being the 1890s theatre and the second a 1800 enclosed court/garden meant to be a palace entrance. Fortunately most things are within an easy walk of each other. We went on to the Bruhlesche Terrace and by the time we were there were hungry, so we settled down with a river front view for a hot bowl of potato soup. Then we wanted to see the Frauenkirche but it was closed. So we ambered over to giant outdoor mural, the Furstenzug (Noble's Parade) and liked it a lot. We then got into the Frauenkirche but it was a bit of a disappointment: expectations do that! We had heard such rave reviews, but the interior was a bit tame compared to a couple of the baroque masterpieces we saw in Switzerland (St.Gallen [pictures here] and Appenzell in particular). Then we went on to see St Trinitatas Cathedral, which too had been closed at our first attempt to see it. Overall we liked it better than the Frauenkirche; that may just be the difference between rich Catholic decoration and restrained Protestant ones.

It was now time to cross the Elbe to its right bank, from the Altstadt to the Neustadt. We took a tram to Albert Platz and walked back to the river, with a few detours here and there. The distance is only about a kilometer and if we hadn't detoured it would have just taken 15-20 minutes. Along the way we saw the Driekoenig Kirche which is now litterally 1/3 of its oldself: the once spacious interior has been split into a worship hall (the smaller part) and exhibit and sales area (the larger). When people are less religious there is less money to maintain beautiful churches; that is a sideeffect of the largely secular world that Europe has become.

Out last excursion was to the east, to see a clump of castles in the Loschwitz-Pillnitz areas. We made it out to Loschwitz (see photos) and enjoyed the remaining traces of old Dresden that weren't destroyed in the war. We technically made it to Pillnitz, or nearly, but as we got near the castle night was falling and the temperature was rapidly dropping so we put our tails between our legs and took the bus back to the center of Dresden.

Halfway back we had to transfer from bus to tram. As we were talking — in English (almost of course) — we were overheard by two American young ladies: Sisters Parker and Fitts of the Church of Latter Days Saints. They struck up a conversation and we had a fine, if short chat. They've been in Dresden together for about three months; today, as usually, they had been out trowling for souls. We'd met many Mormon Elders (men missionaries), the most recent pair in Basel, but this was only our second time meeting Sisters. They are relatively few in number, as for men missionary work is obligatory; for women it is optional.

We went off to a large shopping center and had dinner. Bright and filled with glass, it would not have been out of place in London or New Jersey; in post-war destroyed Dresden and under the grim Communist times it would have been a miracle if it has existed.

After dinner we make a tour of the city to take night photos and see the illuminations. That was cut short, in order, by Gerry running out of batteries for his camera, the deepening cold, and the need to catch our train. So just before 9:00 p.m we rushed off to the station.

To see lots and lots of photos of Dresden click on any of the following links:

• Best of Dresden
• Alt Stadt
• Bruhlesche Terrace
• Zwinger
• Theater Platz
• Semperoper
• St Trinitatas Cathedral
• Residence Schloss
• Furstenzug
• Loeschwitz
• Frauenkirche
• Vehrkersmuseum
• Neustadt Albert Platz
• Neustadt Elbe Banks
• Dreikoenig
• Modern Dresden

After clicking on a link go to the new browser window and look at the photos. You can get a full screen slide show by clicking on the triangular symbol (>) in the middle of the row above the main picture on the right.