Geeky World Tour - Dresden
In Which I See A City No Longer In Ruins
I always like to take a daytrip at some point in a vacation. Amy and I had looked at the country castles surrounding Prague, but found that short March opening times and inconvenient train schedules made them not-worth-it, especially since it would be too cold (for me) to hike through their surrounding countryside.
At that point in the planning, I realized that Prague is very close to the German border, and that Dresden is only a two hour train ride away. Dresden is the capital of the German state of Saxony, which was formerly an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire. Like Munich, which I saw last year, it has palaces and cathedrals and the accoutrements of a national capital, though it no longer is.
There's only one problem: Dresden was largely destroyed in an Allied bombing campaign near the end of World War II. It was a major industrial center, and given that the Luftwaffe destroyed the Cathedral of Coventry in the Battle of Britain, and was deliberately trying to destroy St Paul's in London (and came very close to succeeding), the RAF wasn't feeling inclined to mercy. Most, but not all, of what you see in Dresden is restored or rebuilt since the war.
The train ride from Prague was gorgeous. The day was overcast, but the northwestern corner of the Czech Republic we were traveling through was still lovely. The track followed the course of the Elbe, and we passed picturesque villages with each curve. I kept one hand on my Kindle to read a David Weber novel, and the other on my DSLR to take pictures. (Most of which, alas, didn't come out well. Silly smudged window.)
Unlike Prague, which still shows signs of its communist past in the ugly apartment buildings in its suburbs, Dresden feels like a vibrant, modern city, but definitely a German one. Everything new is made of clean, cold straight lines, and even the old buildings are all angles. The train station is situated near an outdoor mall, and we walked through it on the way to the historic center, stopping only to pick up some euros from a Deutsche Bank, which proved more challenging than we expected.
Our first stop was to the rebuilt Catholic Cathedral, which is on the Elbe riverfront across from the town hall. We entered quietly, as a midday service was in progress, and the choir sang its praises sweetly up to the vaulted ceilings and beyond. The place felt different than most cathedrals I've been in: brighter and simpler, but breathtaking. From there we had a quick lunch (I had wienerschnitzel) and went to Dresden Castle (the Residenzschloss), the main reason for our coming to Dresden.
We had a timed ticket for the Old Green Vault, the treasure rooms of Augustus the Strong. This is a carefully choreographed succession of rooms that Augustus used to take visiting ambassadors and nobles through to show off his wealth and power. Each room has a theme--for example, amber, or gemstones, or bronzework. The pace of opulence is finely choreographed, with two obvious climaxes. While I've seen more wealth in one place before -- Windsor Castle, say, or the Vatican -- this was among the most impressive. Presentation is everything.
From there we viewed more treasures in the New Green Vault (a more traditional museum gallery, with a Hope-sized diamond, only green.), a grand Arms and Armory museum, and, in a surprise, an Ottoman museum full of gifts that Turkish embassies had given the Saxon Wettin dynasty over the years, or which had been captured in battle. The palace complex was huge, and took us most of the day. When we emerged, it was late afternoon/early evening.
Knowing we had a train ticket back to Prague around 7 PM, we rushed to the Frauenkirche, the grand old (actually only rebuilt in the past two decades) Lutheran church a few blocks away. This domed church was one of the few curves we saw all day; it looks quite large from the outside, but feels intimate inside since the chapel is small but spirals up and up through multiple levels. There was some gorgeous art on the walls, though, alas, I can't remember if they were paintings or frescoes.
Ironically, it took us forever to find a German restaurant for dinner (though we found three Italian places and a tapas bar), so when we did, we ordered sausage dishes that looked like they'd be quick, rushed through a tasty dinner, and then rushed back to the train station, as it began to drizzle. We made it back with a few minutes to spare. I regretted not having time to see the art museum full of Old Masters (Amy did not regret this. :-) ), but it had been closed that month and we wouldn't have had time anyway.
We went to bed relatively early, and at that point our trip together was over, though mine was only a little over half done. Around 4 AM or so the next morning, her wake-up call came, and I gave her a drowsy kiss good-bye, and she was off to the airport for her ridiculously early flight to Amsterdam and from there back to the US.
It had been wonderful to have her with me, and we both were glad we finally got to take a trip together, even if it was too short.
I always like to take a daytrip at some point in a vacation. Amy and I had looked at the country castles surrounding Prague, but found that short March opening times and inconvenient train schedules made them not-worth-it, especially since it would be too cold (for me) to hike through their surrounding countryside.
At that point in the planning, I realized that Prague is very close to the German border, and that Dresden is only a two hour train ride away. Dresden is the capital of the German state of Saxony, which was formerly an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire. Like Munich, which I saw last year, it has palaces and cathedrals and the accoutrements of a national capital, though it no longer is.
There's only one problem: Dresden was largely destroyed in an Allied bombing campaign near the end of World War II. It was a major industrial center, and given that the Luftwaffe destroyed the Cathedral of Coventry in the Battle of Britain, and was deliberately trying to destroy St Paul's in London (and came very close to succeeding), the RAF wasn't feeling inclined to mercy. Most, but not all, of what you see in Dresden is restored or rebuilt since the war.
The train ride from Prague was gorgeous. The day was overcast, but the northwestern corner of the Czech Republic we were traveling through was still lovely. The track followed the course of the Elbe, and we passed picturesque villages with each curve. I kept one hand on my Kindle to read a David Weber novel, and the other on my DSLR to take pictures. (Most of which, alas, didn't come out well. Silly smudged window.)
Unlike Prague, which still shows signs of its communist past in the ugly apartment buildings in its suburbs, Dresden feels like a vibrant, modern city, but definitely a German one. Everything new is made of clean, cold straight lines, and even the old buildings are all angles. The train station is situated near an outdoor mall, and we walked through it on the way to the historic center, stopping only to pick up some euros from a Deutsche Bank, which proved more challenging than we expected.
Our first stop was to the rebuilt Catholic Cathedral, which is on the Elbe riverfront across from the town hall. We entered quietly, as a midday service was in progress, and the choir sang its praises sweetly up to the vaulted ceilings and beyond. The place felt different than most cathedrals I've been in: brighter and simpler, but breathtaking. From there we had a quick lunch (I had wienerschnitzel) and went to Dresden Castle (the Residenzschloss), the main reason for our coming to Dresden.
We had a timed ticket for the Old Green Vault, the treasure rooms of Augustus the Strong. This is a carefully choreographed succession of rooms that Augustus used to take visiting ambassadors and nobles through to show off his wealth and power. Each room has a theme--for example, amber, or gemstones, or bronzework. The pace of opulence is finely choreographed, with two obvious climaxes. While I've seen more wealth in one place before -- Windsor Castle, say, or the Vatican -- this was among the most impressive. Presentation is everything.
From there we viewed more treasures in the New Green Vault (a more traditional museum gallery, with a Hope-sized diamond, only green.), a grand Arms and Armory museum, and, in a surprise, an Ottoman museum full of gifts that Turkish embassies had given the Saxon Wettin dynasty over the years, or which had been captured in battle. The palace complex was huge, and took us most of the day. When we emerged, it was late afternoon/early evening.
Knowing we had a train ticket back to Prague around 7 PM, we rushed to the Frauenkirche, the grand old (actually only rebuilt in the past two decades) Lutheran church a few blocks away. This domed church was one of the few curves we saw all day; it looks quite large from the outside, but feels intimate inside since the chapel is small but spirals up and up through multiple levels. There was some gorgeous art on the walls, though, alas, I can't remember if they were paintings or frescoes.
Ironically, it took us forever to find a German restaurant for dinner (though we found three Italian places and a tapas bar), so when we did, we ordered sausage dishes that looked like they'd be quick, rushed through a tasty dinner, and then rushed back to the train station, as it began to drizzle. We made it back with a few minutes to spare. I regretted not having time to see the art museum full of Old Masters (Amy did not regret this. :-) ), but it had been closed that month and we wouldn't have had time anyway.
We went to bed relatively early, and at that point our trip together was over, though mine was only a little over half done. Around 4 AM or so the next morning, her wake-up call came, and I gave her a drowsy kiss good-bye, and she was off to the airport for her ridiculously early flight to Amsterdam and from there back to the US.
It had been wonderful to have her with me, and we both were glad we finally got to take a trip together, even if it was too short.