The hidden wonders of Dresden.

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Dresden

Only 4 of us hopped off the at Dresden, myself, Louise (my previous NZ roomie) and Tim and Liz, a couple from Berlin. After a quick lunch at the super cheap corner store, Lou and I wandered the streets around our hostel in the new district of town where all the locals live. We came across some cool graffiti, awesome op shops (I bought a super cute pair of leather heels fof 10 euro, Lou got some tops) where we met a hippie local who's advice for evening entertainment was to just hang around the town square, drink and smoke weed. Haha



After more walking we ended up at the very top of the town and found what looked to be a very old gothic looking church, it was empty so we took a few photos of the inside too. On the way back into town I discovered a breakfast and musli shop. Not so exciting to many of you but breakfast is something I look forward to and I love it when effort is put into breakfast as I feel like I have started my day with something special. I put it on my list of things to come back to and experience.



We looked over our 'must do's in Dresden' list / map and started off in the direction of the nearest ice creamery (my influence, not Lou's). It just so happened that the ice creamery was situated in the cutest alleyway with the most kitch boutiques in town! Find! There was new age stores, cafes, jewllery, stationary, clothes, an amazing antique store with everything you could imagine (the owner was re-stringing a chair). There was mosaics of a giraffe and monkies on one wall, a series of pipes that filtered water as it reached ground level (not unlike a game of mouse trap, but stuck on the wall), living grass on the balcony floor of a cafe, a tiny brook running through a laneway with a bridge and water play area for the local children!! Basically someone had been given creative licence to create something masterful and gone nuts with their wildest dreams! Unless you knew it was there it was hidden away too!



We ran into Tim and Liz who had walked into the old town to see the statue of a golden horse. After a quick change as the temperature had finally reached 28 and I was comfortable for the first time sincd Dubai, we headed off to find it for ourselves. We did find east Germany's favourite traffic light man and lady. In Berlin they have a slightly different traffic light man called Ample man who looks like he is very dedicated and off to work in his hat when the light turns green. In Dresden they are even more equal and some streets have Ample lady (known by her identifiable pigtails....what were YOU thinking when I said 'ample'? Hehe



We found the golden horse eventually and also, many bridges over the canal separating the old town from the new. I was shocked at how old the 'old town' looked. It was certainly much more touristy over on the other side. The lawns on either side of the canal were filled with people cycling, playing games, drinking, picnicing and enjoying the sunshine. There was even a Jane Austen old English style house I fell in love with. We stopped at a beer garden that had lounge chairs overlooking the river and I had a cocktail and Lou had a beer. We sat for a few good hours and chilled, chatted and generally just enjoyed the fact we both didn't have work to do or anything to stress us! It was one of my highlights from my trip so far. So relaxing. Dinner at a local placd and then off to a reasonably early night, we were both exhausted and I was still recovering from illness I got before I left Australia.



The next day we hired our own bikes and set off for the old town where we took a walking tour of Dresden which began at the Schlossplatz square. We learnt about the Semper Opera House which was destroyed by fire, but rebuilt by the same architect in the same way, the Catholic Church which was pretty much demolished in the war and had to be completely put together again. This was only completed in the last 20 years! The Zwinger where the aristocracy would show off their finery (and the statues are infact coated in silicone so the limestone doesn't go black (little known fact). We visited the Residential Palace and saw the Procession of Princes and the Frauenkirche which is made entirely out of kiln fired painted porcelain tiles.



One of the most amazing structures was the newly rebuilt Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady) this was almost completely destroyed in the war and only one column was left standing. It was rebuilt by private supporters who set their kwn budget and timeline to complete the renovations. They used the left over foundations and tried to rescue as much of the rubble as possible to rebuild the church to the same standards it was originally built. I took a photo of the ruins and then after the renovations which were only finished in the last decade. The transformation both on the inside and the outside is amazing, if I hadn't known it was recently rebuilt, I could have easily believed it to be the original structure. Even more amazing was the fact that the builders stuck to their budget and timelines for building, not something that usually goes to plan. Lou and I took the lift up to the last tier and walked the stairs the remainder of the way, the views of both sides of Dresden and the canal were amazing.



After a quick trip back to hostel to change camera battery, via a camping store for new water bottle (mine got stolen in Paris), took out the bikes again, my new water bottle clip immediately then broke... Arg. Ice cream again, (helped me feel better about the water bottle) and off to the shops as I wanted some decent walking shoes/joggers. I ended up buying both....whoops. Then we stopped for tea and biccies as it had poured with rain outside and we wanted to avoid getting wet. By this time it was nearly 6 and we still wanted to see the Dresden gardens so we headed for the park.



The Großer Garten (English: Great Garden) is a baroque style park in Dresden. It is oblong in shape and covers an area of about 2 km² in the middle of the city. Established in 1676, it has been a public garden since 1814. Pathways and avenues are arranged symmetrically throughout so it's hatd to get lost. We cycled past the zoo and then decided to follow the train tracks to the very end of the garden as a good afternoon workout. This was hampered inly slightly by the fact that it started to pour with rain again. Luckily we found a very obliging tree who sheltered us very lovingly and kept us almost completely dry. I rather enjoyed thd whole experience but Lou was less impressed.



The park was not strictly gardened in all sections either. Parts were certainly regularly mowed and had meticuliously kept flower plots but other sections were left more wild and had natural wild flowers and unkept grassed areas. After the shower we headed off in what we thought was the right direction when infact was (luckily) slightly off. In the middle of an unkept patch there was a very precise hedge so we followed it out to what we then found was the main road with the most amazing palace in the middle of the garden with its own pond! It was called the Sommerpalais and is now home to concerts and musicians. We could even hear a choir practising as we walked around the palace.



I didn't have a guide for this garden so I found the following from wikipedia:

The garden was made by the Electress Sophie. Her mother and father made the Hortus Palatinus. Sophie spent her childhood in the Netherlands before her marriage to the Elector of Saxony. She spoke French and had her French gardener, Martin Charbonnier, trained in Holland. Her son, George I of England, has a mausoleum in the garden. The Schloss used to be the focus of the garden but was destroyed by bombing in 1943. Outside the garden, lies a romantic (Anglo-German) landscape park with a soft almost-marshy character. It has a temple dedicated to the philosopher Leibniz, who used to come here.



After a long cycle back, I managed to convince Lou to come and try salsa dancing with me as they had a beginner class before the social. We had a great night of dancing and then had some delicious german sausage with chips and sause for a late night traditional German dinner. The next morning I headed off to investigate the breakfast shop I had spotted on our first day. I was not disappointed, fresh fruit (one I never had before called a chinese lantern, kind of sweet like a strawberry but shaped like a cherry tomato) fluffy yoghurt, freshly baked bread and cheeses...I was in breakfast heaven.



Which was ironic because I followed this up with then getting my bike tyre stuck in tram tracks as the tram was heading towards me. MAJOR near death experience!!! I had a boy-frame bike and couldn't get my legs out and then stacked it as the tram was heading towards me. Talked about adrenaline! I rescude myself and the bike (tram luckily stopped) and hobbled over to the side of the road where I was shaking like a leaf, Lou said I was also pretty pale! Haha Nothing for it but to get straight back on and head for the markets, which was actually our original destination. We wandered for an hour amongst the trash and ocassional treasures before heading back to the bus to go to Prague.

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