Dresden

Yesterday morning, I got up at 3:30 in order to get ready and catch the 5am train. Getting only three hours sleep was totally worth it. In terms of "cityness" it is my favorite city that I have visited so far. Berlin might get the nod once I visit the museums there, but we will have to wait and see on that one. The only thing that Dresden has going against it is that it was completely destroyed during the war, as opposed to other cities that were only mostly destroyed. Large amounts of the buildings and statues in Dresden are black. At the time, I assumed that they had been charred during the fire-bombing. After speaking with a guy from Dresden last night, I found out that it is just a natural thing that happens to that kind of sandstone, like copper turning green.

The most famous site in Dresden is the Frauenkirche. It was rebuilt recently from the rubble of the original destroyed church, in what might be the world's most complicated way to complete a jigsaw puzzle. It is a very impressive church to see, from both the outside and the inside. According to that same guy from last night, it is going to be completely black in the next twenty years or so. I am not quite sure if it will be more impressive after that or not. I suppose I will just have to come back to see it again after that happens and decide for myself at that time.
It is probably possible to read "Martin Luther" on the statue. It is also likely that one can guess who is going to have a statue in front of a protestant church in northern Germany, but I figured I would make things easier for everyone. You can see that some of the stones are already black.

Once upon a time, the Dresden Old City was a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They got the title stripped when they decided to build a big modern bridge over the Elbe. I didn't think it did that much damage to the sites, but I didn't decide it. I figured I would just mention that, since it is an interesting fact.
The bridges that you can see here are the old ones. The new one is behind me.

After seeing the Frauenkirche for the first time (there was a wedding there the first time, so we had to come back in the afternoon), we walked along the Elbe and down towards the opera house and Zwinger palace. On the way, we ran into the part of the Dresden Castle on the left and the Hofkirche on the right.

There was also a wedding in the Hofkirche, so we weren't supposed to go in. We did anyway. It was pretty, but not as impressive as the Frauenkirche.
The opera house. To the left is the Zwinger palace.
The entrance to Zwinger. The grounds.
The wall pavilion.
The crown gate.
The Glockenspiel pavilion. This portion has the porcelain collection. Sadly, I did not get to see it (Dresden is famous for its porcelain.) The other side as an old master's painting gallery, and we decided to see that instead. I might need to go back and see the porcelain, if time allows. If not, I will just have to add it to my list of things to do on the return trip. I don't feel like I made a bad choice, since I got to see paintings by people like Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian, and lots and lots of others. You aren't allowed to take pictures, so I have none. There are lots of them on Wikipedia. You can probably find more of them other places on the internet, if you are interested.

After that, we went to the Frauenkirche again and actually got to go in. Again, you aren't allowed to take pictures. There are some on its website. Google it, or, better yet, see it in person. After that, we went to the New City, on the other side of the river. There are lots of shops and other new buildings, but nothing too interesting to photograph. It is more important if you live there and need something to do.
Statue of Augustus II.
Yesterday was 65 years after VE Day. I guess it is a thing that is celebrated every year in Europe (and the day afterwards in Russia, for some reason) To celebrate the holiday, the Intercultural Center had a European Night. It was my intention to only stay for an hour or so, since I was beat from getting up so early and walking around all day. That didn't happen. I ended up staying and talking to people until past 2am. Whoops. Luckily, they didn't decide to shoot any cannons until 11am, so I got to catch up on sleep a little bit. Now, I think I am going to finish catching up on that sleep. Gute Nacht.

Marc