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After a visit to Frauenkirche, you can cross the Neumarkt (new market) and stroll along Fürstenzug (procession of princes), where you pass a building that once housed the rulers’ carriages and horses. One wall of this building shows the largest porcelain painting of the world – depicting all the Wettin princes, dukes, and kings on horseback. The picture consists of 24,000 porcelain tiles from the Meissen manufactory and covers almost 1,200 square yards. Then you will
get to Schlossplatz (castle square) and see the Cathedral of St. Trinitatis,
which is with 295 feet the tallest church of Saxony and the symbol of Dresden.
Beyond the cathedral, you can visit the famous Semper Opera, a renaissance
building that was opened in February 1878. If you cross the theater square,
you will pass the equestrian statue of King Johann of Saxony to the right
and go on through the arches of Zwinger, which certainly is Dresden’s most
well-known and magnificent baroque building. August the Strong used it
for representative purpose, stage performances, and concerts. Inside the
Zwinger buildings, there is a mathematical-physical exhibition, King August’s
armory, a large porcelain collection, and a picture gallery with several
masterpieces of Raphael, Reubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the German painters,
Dürer, Cranach, Holbein, and others. You would need several hours,
if you wanted to see all exhibits and paintings there.
South-east of the old town, the Grosse Garten (big garden) invites you for strolling through the oldest and largest park of Dresden that includes a zoo and a botanical garden. Across Lingner Square, the German Hygiene Museum displays a unique exhibition on the human body. The museum’s most famous exhibit is the “Gläserne Frau” (glass woman), a life-size, detailed model of a human being, first shown to the public in 1930. On Strassburger Square, visitors can watch the running production of Volkwagen automobiles through the glass walls of the factory, which was opened in 2001. After a long
and extensive tour through the city, you can take a rest on Brühlsche
Terasse, have a cup of coffee or tea on the banks of Elbe, and watch the
paddle steamers rolling up and down the river. Beneath this terrace, you
can visit the remains of the old Dresden fortress and the subterranean
arms and ammunition depot of the Saxon kings. Beside traditionally German
food and local specialty restaurants, Dresden also offers Italian, Spanish,
Greek, Indian, and Chinese cuisine, and even has two bars in American style.
It‘s a matter of course that you can wash down your delicious Saxon dish with a genuine Radeberger beer in one of the many beer gardens along the Elbe or taste a glass of wine from the vineyards of Meissen, a place ten miles north-west of Dresden. In the Christmas season, you should not miss a visit to Dresden’s Christmas market and taste some Striezel – also called Dresdner Stollen – a Christmas cake that looks like a loaf of bread covered with icing sugar and is filled with lots of raisins, almonds, and candied lemon peels. If you like milk, cheese, and other dairy products, you should visit Pfund’s Molkerei (Pfund’s dairy) on Bautzner Strasse 79. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the most beautiful dairy store of the world. It was opened in 1892, and the walls and ceiling are covered with hand-painted porcelain tiles of Villeroy & Boch. In the restaurant on the second floor, you can taste lots of dairy delicacies, milk shakes, and about 120 sorts of cheese. As a city of
the arts, Dresden offers lots of music events – from operas and musicals
to German folk and popular music. In case, you are no opera fan, you can
go to rock concerts all through the year, or visit the annual International
Dixieland Festival in May, when jazz bands from all over the world give
concerts on several squares, in many bars, and Dresden’s Kultur Palast
(palace of culture). And in June, the Dresden Music Festival invites for
concerts of classic music and stage performances.
If you have
enough of sightseeing and the hustle and bustle in the city of Dresden
but still sufficient time to explore the surroundings of Saxony’s capital,
you should take your hiking boots and catch the next local S-Bahn train
to Saxon Switzerland. The train, leaving from Platform One of Dresden’s
main station every thirty minutes, will bring you to Saxony’s most popular
hiking destination east of the town – an area which is full of sandstone
cliffs and vertical outcroppings that look similar to some rock formations
in Colorado. When the train snakes its way along the river Elbe, you will
pass the renaissance castle Pillnitz and the town of Pirna with its Church
of St. Mary that rises above the skyline. The next place on the opposite
river bank is Wehlen, which lies on the narrow flat land between the river
and the mountains, and stretches up the hills on terraces. On the banks
of Elbe, some remains of an ancient castle can still be seen, which was
used as a customs station. Most buildings date back to the early 20th century,
when Wehlen was a refuge for Dresden’s upper class. Today some of the large
houses are divided into apartments and pensions to provide accommodation
for the numerous tourists who want to enjoy hiking tours through the National
Park of Saxon Switzerland. From Wehlen you can follow well-marked trails
through a dark beech forest to the rocks of Bastei, the most accessible
and spectacular cliffs and pillars of the national park. From the top of
the rock platform, you can enjoy the view of the sweeping curves of Elbe
and steamboats moving up and down the river. The railroad line, tiny villages,
streets, and fields one thousand feet below the rocks look like a perfectly
crafted model railroad scene. On the other side of the cliffs, you can
peer into deep ravines, spanned by the Bastei Bridge. Amidst the sandstone
rocks and pillars, you can explore the remains of a medieval fort which
once safeguarded the trade routes along the Elbe river and dates
back to the 13th century. A reconstructed catapult and some stone balls
are on display and an old well can still be seen. When you walk down the
footpath to the health-resort and town of Rathen, you will pass the two-thousand-seat
outdoor theater Felsenbühne (stage in the rocks), which is surrounded
by vertical stonewalls and rocky pillars and where theater plays and musicals
are performed throughout the summer months.
The museum of Königstein tells everything about the history of this important fort, and when you walk along the perimeter, passing old canons, many look-outs, and the loop-holes in the battlements, you can see nearly all of Saxon Switzerland. You will discern the Bastei rocks and Lilienstein (lily stone) – one of the most prominent rock table and a two-hour walk from the ferry station in the town of Königstein that lies at the base of the fortress. You may notice many other sandstone rocks in the distance as well and will have a wonderful view of the Elbe valley with its checkered grain fields and the dark green forests left and right of the curves of the river. For accommodation in Dresden please visit the homepage www.dresden.de, which also provides a link “Living and Working in Dresden”. Information on places in Saxon Switzerland can be found at www.stadt-wehlen.de / www.kurort-rathen.de / www.koenigstein-sachsen.de or www.bad-schandau.de. For information about the national park, contact the information center via www.nationalpark-saechsische-schweiz.de. To contact
Jörg Click Here
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