The City That Was Rebuilt

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Geo: 51.051, 13.7337

Dresden was once described as Germany's Florence. On the night of Feb 12 1945 over 700 Allied planes bombed 90% of Dresden's town centre out of existence, part of Churchill's plan to create terror within Germany as a means to end the war.

Dresden has been rebuilt to the point where little of the damage can be seen.

We visited the Zwinger Palace and visited three world class museums within.

The first was the Gemaldgalerie Alte Meister, which is probably the finest collection of old master paintings outside of the Louvre. The feature painting is The Sistine Madonna painted by Raphael, a master work that the Saxony King paid 140 thousand franks for in the mid 1700's to add to his collection. Also contains Girl at a Window Reading a Letter by Jan Vemeer and a host of other well known master paintings.

We then visited the Porcelain collection of August the Strong, a significant Saxony King

Then to the Mathematics Museum, which wasn't what it sounded. It was an incredible collection of scientific instruments such as weights and measures, telescopes, clocks, astrological spheres etc.

We went into the Frankiensckirche which has carefully been put back together stone by stone.

Viewed the Procession of the Princes, a massive 150 metre long chronology on ceramic tiles of the kings of Saxony.

A great city to visit and the people were very friendly.

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