Dresden, a beautiful city
Day trip to Dresden today, our first day trip since the start. We caught an early morning bus and rode about two-and-a-half hours south of Berlin to Dresden, a beautiful city that was once the capital and royal residence for the Kings of Saxony.
The city today is an interesting mix of new and old – it’s both really intriguing and very confusing. The old part of Dresden has most of the newer buildings, and the new part of Dresden actually has a bunch of the older buildings. The reason for this is because much of the old part was destroyed by Allied carpet bombings near the end of World War II.
Most of the “historic” buildings we saw today have been completely rebuilt and matched as closely as possible to the originals. Despite the confusing array of new and old buildings, Dresden is still a very beautiful city, with a chiller vibe than the more populated Berlin tourist areas.
We basically winged our trip today – we printed out a list of top ten things to do in Dresden, took a map, and figured out which places we wanted to see. We started off in front of the Semperoper, a huge opera house and walked over to the Semper Building gardens, which had a great display of baroque carvings and architecture.
Inside the Green Vault
After a currywurst lunch, we stopped by the Green Vault, which housed a lot of the royal treasures, including the crown jewels. It was a seriously impressive and dazzling display of the riches of past rulers, and I especially enjoyed the main crown jewel room, which had walls and mirrors laced with gold, with everything shining despite its centuries-old treasures.
Exiting the Green Vault, we made it to a guided tour of the Semperoper opera house, checking out the impressive decorations inside the building and sitting in the seats, imagining ourselves listening to an opera. The place is fully functional and has over 300 opera showings a year, so maybe once day I’ll go back and enjoy one.
It was nearing the end of our stay, so we stopped by the Frauenkirche (War Memorial Church) and walked along the banks of the Elbe River, enjoying the beautiful weather (after some random rain, again), and I even managed to get a quick 20-minute power nap while basking in the sun.
We ended our stay with a nice dinner at a café, where I ordered a pork knuckle with sauerkraut. All in all, a fun and successful day trip to a beautiful city in Germany – a day well spent!
Chilling in front of Elbe River
Stay tuned and read about my other adventures in London, Paris, Berlin!
Steps taken: 21,300 | Miles walked: 7.05
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Old town, new town at randomtidbitsofthought.wordpress.com
