Dresden, Germany
We took the train from Berlin to Dresden. It took around 2 hours. Navigating the train station was tricky because when they changed our train platform they only gave the notice in German- but thankfully we had Susanne with us.
The Dresden Train Station we arrived at. BTW there was decent stores and bakeries at all the stations I visited in Europe. So convenient if you needed to pick something up on your way home.
Susanne lives in Dresden and we walked from the station(pictured above) to her house. Since we all had our backpacks Oliver met us at the station to transport our bags, so we had a pleasant walk through Susanne’s neighborhood without our packs. We rented a 2 bedroom Air B&B near Susanne's and I stayed with her. Susanne shared her washing machine and dry rack:>
Dresen is in the Saxony state of Germany on the Elbe river. Augustus the Strong was the Elector of Saxony (big boss) in Dresden from 1694-1733. Augustus built lavish buildings and started the museum The Green Vault in his palace and is given credit for much of the baroque architecture and arts in Dresden. Dresden was damaged during WWII and became part of East Germany. It is not obvious to me why the Allies bombed it so thoroughly- but they did. Since reunification in 1990, a lot of Dresden has been repaired. It is amazing how much Dresden looks like paintings from 1747 by Bernardo Bellotto “Canaletto” that I saw in one of the museums.
It is an incredibly beautiful city and obviously very resilient….
Dresden trivia, before reunification when Dresden was still part of East, Putin lived there and worked for the KGB.
We visited the Green Vault in the Dresden Royal Palace. In addition to being impressed with the lavish collection of art and jewelry, I was shocked to hear the story of the robbery that happened in the green vault on November 25, 2019.
Near and in the royal palace or castle there are other museums and significant buildings. I went to the Albertinum, Lageplan and Frauen Kirche (restored church). On our walk there, we crossed a pedestrian bridge over the Elbe that is called Augustus Bridge. From the bridge you see the royal palace, cathedral and a lot of baroque looking buildings that I cannot keep track of.
The Palace- The Cathedral would be to the right - was connected to Palace with a walkway. August had to become Catholic to bring Poland under his realm- so he built the Catholic
Cathedral.
View from the top of Frauen Kirche (church). The closest bridge is the Augustus Bridge. One of the orange roof building past the ferris wheel was the site of Kurt Vonnegut's slaughterhouse 5
Self with Dresden architecture in the background
Dresden also had an artsy side. The Kunsthofpassage is a series of buildings with inner courtyards designed by Dresden artists. The blue building ‘courtyard of water’ integrates metal funnels and pipes to the facade of the building resulting in musical sounds when it rains.
Susanne and Oliver were such awesome hosts! I requested we drink some Gewürztraminer- because I like sweet wine. ( I actually slaughtered the pronunciation GERTSINHIMER - which was another laugh).
Oliver introduced us to Neuer Wein"new wine". This fresh (ie new)wine is sold just as it begins to ferment. This means it has high-sugar, yet low-alcohol. It can be sold as soon as reaches 4 percent alcohol, although it continues to ferment and can reach 11% before being consumed. I loved it because it was so sweet. Mala who never drinks wine had 2 call glasses. Alas this is not sold in the US.
I hadn't realized that Susanne's family owned a restaurant and she has been cooking FOREVER. She is a really good cook and with little effort (at least it looked like little effort to me) fed us all for three days(including packing lunches for day trips). My favorite meal of the entire trip was her sun-dried tomato pesto. Thank goodness for Google Translate- not perfect – but close enough (psst google tometenmark is tomato paste). Susanne used a mortar and pestle - but I am going to try with my food processor.
Swiss Saxony, Germany
From Dresden we took a short train ride and a ferry across the Elbe river to visit “Swiss Saxony '', Bastei National Park (Sächsische Scweiz). We hiked, saw a fortress, an outdoor theatre and beautiful mountains. Bastei would also be an excellent place for Game of Thrones to film IMO.
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