Exploring Dresden

Last weekend we traveled to Dresden for a long weekend. Dresden was one of the most heavily bombed cities during WWII. Since then, all of the important architecture has been rebuilt; the buildings here are some of the most beautiful ones we've seen so far in Europe.

The first thing we came across was a little French market set up in a market square. They were selling soaps, crepes and macaroons!

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring many of the historic buildings in the altstadt (old town).

Kreuzkirche

Apparently in Germany the 4th Ninja Turtle is not Donatello, but actually Erwin von Steinbach!

Putting my toes in the Elbe River

Courtyard of the Zwinger

The Zwinger

Semperoper (Opera House) The birthplace of German opera

We finished our evening by attending the concert of the Dresdner Kreuzchor boys' choir. They are a world famous choir that performs at the Kreuzkirche. The acoustics of the church were phenomenal, which created a very powerful performance.

The next day we had beautiful weather, so I made sure to capture many pictures of all the gorgeous buildings.

Frauenkirche

A piece of the original church (before the bombing of 1945)

Procession of Princes (rulers of Saxony)

Hofkirche (the Catholic church)

We took a 90 minute cruise on the Elbe River. The Elbe is one of Europe's major rivers.

Vineyard on the banks of the Elbe

The "Blue Wonder" is the name the locals call the Loschwitz Bridge. The bridge was built in 1893; at the time, it was a wonder that a bridge this long could be supported without river piers. The "blue" in the name comes from the urban legend that the bridge was originally painted green but that the sun turned it blue over time. The bridge wasn't blown up during WWII because two locals cut the detonator wires to the explosives.

Blue Wonder

View of the city from the river

We enjoyed bratwurst sandwiches after the cruise with a fantastic view of the Elbe.

After lunch, we visited the Residenzschloss, which houses several museums. The most spectacular museum we saw was the Neues Grunes Gewolbe (New Green Vault) which contains the unique goldsmithery items made by court jeweller Dinglinger. Dinglinger created some of the finest Baroque jewelry art. The museum doesn't allow photography, but I found some pictures online of the most beautiful pieces.

We climbed the tower in the Residenzschloss to get a great view of the city.

Part of the clock mechanisms 

Chris enjoying the view

We spotted several hot air balloons taking off on the banks of the Elbe.

We finished our trip by visiting the Natural History Museum. It was a different perspective to see history from the German perspective. Most of the artifacts that were displayed originated in Europe.

Chris compared to a woolly mammoth