Dresden

The weekend of July 24-26 I went to Dresden, Germany, which is in the state of Saxony, near the Czech border. The city is divided (by the River Elbe) into Altstadt and Neustadt (old city and new city). I was able to see both and most of the sites I wanted to see in one day. but it is 6 hours away from Wiesbaden, so it isn't a day trip. The second day I went to Spreewald, an area designated as a Biosphere reserve by UNESCO. But that will be the next entry.

Anyway, Dresden was really cool. There are a lot of really cool buildings there. And a lot of museums. If you are going to see more than one museum (or even just more than one exhibit at the Residential Palace) it is probably worth it to get the museum day pass. It was 20 something euro and covers most of the museums in the city. Obviously you should check and make sure the ones you want to go to are covered before you buy it, but most likely it will be worth it. Somehow I found time to go to four museums.

Pedestrian and shopping area

Kreuzkirche

Rathaus

Altmarkt

One of the most popular sights in the city is the Frauenkirche (again, Church of Our Lady, every city has one). It is beautiful. It took a lot of damage during the bombings in WWII, but it was rebuilt exactly how it was. If you have the option to go on a weekday (obviously I didn't) you should do that, because it is open for very limited hours on the weekend. The day I went it was only open for one hour, and there was a huge crowd waiting to get in when that hour started, so I ended up not going inside. It probably would have been cool because you can go up to the top of the dome. That is probably the only thing that I didn't see in Dresden that I really wish I had.

Frauenkirche

The Johaneum, a cool building that houses the Transportation Museum

Part of the Kunstakadamie, which houses several art exhibits

Kunstakadamie

Albertineum, which also houses art exhibits

Part of the Bruehlsche Terrace, which overlooks the Elbe River

Across the river

The other side of the Kunstakadamie

And none for Donatello

Standehaus

The Kathedrale

Another angle of the Kathedrale

The Residential Palace houses several exhibits of collections once owned by former rulers of Saxony, including armor and weapons from the tournaments at court, artifacts from battles/interactions with Turkey, a coin exhibit, and the Green Room, which is a really cool exhibit of all the art and decorations collected by the various rulers. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photography inside the exhibits, so all you get to see is the outside of the building. But trust me, the Green Room especially was really cool. Such amazing craftsmanship in the jewelry and artwork. There were a lot of things made out of "exotic" natural materials such as nautilus shells, coral, mother of pearl, and ivory, which made me kind of sad. But considering how long ago the items were made, righteous anger seemed pointless, so I tried to focus on the beauty of the pieces instead of how many animals died to make them. And it wasn't all that hard, as the artists of the time made some beautiful things out of the materials.

The Residential Palace next to the Kathedrale

This mural is called the Fuerstensug and shows a procession of the princes and leaders of the state

The mural was originally a painting, but in order to preserve it from the weather, it was replaced with porcelain tiles, making it the largest piece of porcelain art in the world.

Another side of the Residential Palace

The outside of the Zwinger, a large building that hosts several museums and exhibits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the gates to the Zwinger courtyard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "Crown Gate"

The courtyard. The building to the left is the Mathematics and Physics Salon, which has a collection of antique scientific instruments

The Old Masters Gallery, and art museum

Some of the optical instruments at the Math and Physics Salon

They also had a section of clocks, so I had to take a picture for my Grandma, who loves clocks.

Semperoper, the opera house

Then I went over the bridge to Neustadt.

Park on the other side of the river

All the cool buildings visible from the other side of the river

The Japanese Palace. I don't remember why they call it that.

The Museum of Folk Art. I only went in because it was included in my day pass, but they had some neat things in there.

Government Building

A statue called "The Golden Rider"

Another pedestrian shopping area

Dreikonigkirche. Three Kings Church. I walked past it when the choir was practicing.

The Rathaus where you can see the tower on top.

After getting back from Neustadt, I went to Grosser Garten, a large park in the city. It was pretty big and awesome.

Entrance

Apparently that is what it looks like when they aren't working on it.

But even so, the Mosaic Fountain looks pretty cool.

There is a palace in the middle of the park

a creek as I exited the park

A cool modern-looking movie theater

The same theater, lit up at night.

I tried to capture all the cool buildings along the river, not sure it worked.

But yeah, I recommend Dresden, it was a beautiful city. I had a lot of fun.