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| Glenn's Journal for 9-21-02 - Dresden Our first full day in Dresden is a day to explore the city and gather information about what to see and do. We will, also, check on other accomodations in town and transportation to Prague. Dresden is located in the Saxony region of Eastern Germany. During the 18th century Dresden was considered the "Florence of the north". The town was destroyed by fire bombing raids in February of 1945, near the end of the war. There were many discussions about the purpose of bombing Dresden, which is stated to be inspired more by vengeance than necessity. We walked by the Albertplatz towards the center of town. Our first stop was at the Theaterplatz district where the Semperoper and the Zwinger are located. The Semperoper is the local Opera house which opened in 1841 and has been rebuilt a few times since then. The Zwinger was built in 1728 for royal tournaments and festivities.The exterior has many examples of baroque scuptures and Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. It currently houses five museums including the Old Masters Gallery and the Rustkammer. After our visit to the Zwinger we found our way to the information booth to check on other accomodations. We checked out a HI hostel and found it to be nice but sterile. It was not worth moving for. We then stopped into the main train station to check on ways to get to Prague and to Saxony Switzerland. With information from the DB information booth and the public information booth near there we had some ideas. The bus to Prague left from the train station at 6:00 am every morning. A little early for us but an option. We are interested in going to Saxony Switzerland tomorrow and part of the train tracks are still not open, again due to the recent flooding. We would have to take a train to Pirna and then bus the rest of the way. No worries!!! From here we came across the Alt Markt (Old Market) with many little booths for shopping and food. Erin was really interested in the chocolate covered bananas, apples, and especially the strawberries. We missed the opportunity as we wanted to see the local boys choir sing at 6:00 pm at Kreuzkirche, a nearby church. We got there a little early but it was well worth the wait. The boys choir is listed at over 400, while we had over 100 young men sing in the choir tonight. Don't ask me what they were singing as it was all in German. At one point the whole audience sang along, except us!! After the boys choir we returned to the Alt Markt only to find the shops all closing up for the evening. Sorry Erin, no chocolate covered strawberries for you tonight. Maybe next time!!! From here we located an internet cafe and spent a few hours working on the website and responding / sending out emails. On the way home we found some dinner, domers (a sort of burrito) for Erin and pizza for me, before returning to the hostel. At the hostel we chatted with some other travelers before calling it a night. |
| Dresden at Night!!! Beautiful!!! |