Today we woke up in Berlin with even more excitement in our hearts and eyes for what lay ahead in this Epic journey. Our goal today was to end in Dresden Germany, which was about an hour train ride from the central terminal of Berlin. This train route takes us through some spectacular German hills and farmland. The train itself was not the most luxurious of the trip but definitely one of the easiest connections we had since there was no switching trains during this ride.
Dresden is one of those cities that truly stands out and burns a hole in your memory when you first see it. It is first off, a wounded city from the second World War. A large section of the city is divided by the Elbe river. This is important because the US allies bombed the opposing side harshly in the war, and destroyed allot of the historic part of the city. Nonetheless, the city itself is now historic for that reason, and the buildings left over are some of the most beautiful examples of Gothic Architecture I have ever seen.
To start the day, we checked into the hotel which was about half a mile walk from the train terminal, thus it took about an hour to reach on foot. We approached the check in and for some reason on google maps it showed the hotel in a lake, and I was very confused. What was unique however, was that this hotel was actually a stationary boat that had been turned into the hotel we were to stay in. Very cool surprise!
Once we left our luggage we headed back towards the city. We walked along the river to get to the FlugelBrucke bridge. This was the main entry point to the city, and thus where we started our tour. There is so much to see in this city in such a short walk that its hard to even explain, however the first stop was the primary courtyard featuring amazing statues and bronzes. The courtyard was surrounded by a building which in itself was museum , but we did not tour this as we had allot of the city to get to and it was already noon.
Our next stop was to walk through multiple cathedrals across the street from this area. It is worth mentioning that most of these historic building are in a walking distance and area, thus there is little car traffic, and the ease to get to other buildings was exceptional. The church we entered was the Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatisand and it had a beautiful interior featuring more white marble and gold. Unfortunately there were many sections of this building that were under construction so we could not tour the entire area.
From here we walked around the historic area, and decided to get Ccdonalds for a quick lunch. Mcdonalds from each country was also an interesting experience being from the USA, as the different food items, and drastically different prices reflect on what is viewed as important to certain citizens and cultures. Even the price of ketchup is much higher there, where as we don’t have to pay extra for it in the USA. The overall food seemed to be healthier too, but I may have been too hungry to know the difference! Either way, after lunch we headed out to another church, which was within the main, albeit large, town square of Dresden. This was called the Frauenkirche Dresden and we were blown away by the pink and jade interior, with the ornate marble carvings as you can see here. This place was a treat, and possibly the best part of the city up to this point.
Once we sat down and took in the cathedral, we found that there there was about a quarter of the city left to explore. This meant that we had about 3 hours of day light, and thus we went to the river overlook where there were statues within the park gardens that one may explore. This area is also across the street from the government buildings, which in their own right are worth a second look. Overall, there is much Roman influence in this architecture in Dresden. Large pillars and dome shaped buildings. However the most impressive part was still to be discovered.
This is the painted wall. This wall is located between the two churches in the town square, and is the story of the city from its founding almost 1000 years ago! It shows ornate paintings of events, and historic times that were elaborately portrayed by gold and black hued paintings. Overall, I viewed this one of the coolest parts of the day if not the entire trip.
Since we were done exploring what we came to see, with the little sunlight left, we headed across the river to the part of the city that was originally bombed, and with that decided it was time for dinner. First, however, we needed to see a famous painted courtyard which featured unique and colorful plants, and paintings for a local community which you can see below. This was called Neustadt, and it is worth taking time explore while you are in the city.
As the sun set we decided we wanted to eat while there was light in the air. We stopped at a nearby restaurant which was a german venue on the strip of this area. This area had been rebuilt after the war to reflect more of a tourist atmosphere for shopping and food. I particularly enjoyed the back courtyard of this, so much so that we decided to venture along the strip and find a large Hofbrauhaus beer. This was the perfect way to end the night and we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and were ready for our next day to head South towards Prague.
Train
(2:42 RB 18647 to sedlitz chg 5:39-7:01 RE 18401)
Dresden
EXPENSES
2.50 coffee
7.30 food
4.69 dunkin donuts
500 EU withdrew (606$ from budget)
12.47 mcdonalds
3.90 picture
2.90 water
10.60 groceries
31.20 dinner
7.50 beers
Total- 83.06 (158.73 +.66= 159.39)
HOTEL: a and o dresden Hauptbahnhof 148016790243 (52.37) CONFIRMED