Dresden
A friend from German course, Sithira, moved to Dresden to work at the beginning of the year. It was a good chance on this long weekend to drive up there and visit him, see the beautiful city of Dresden, and not have to pay for accomodation. Actually Sithira had just moved to a nice, centrally located apartment in Neustadt, which made our stay a very convenient one.
Very prominent in Dresden is the river Elbe, which divides the Neustadt and the Altstadt (new and old town). We spent a bit of time walking over to the Altstadt, checking out sights such as the recently rebuilt Frauenkirche (Lady's Church), which was destroyed during the war. The travel guides list the Frauenkirche, the Opera theatre and the Zwinger (a large palace / courtyard, now art galery) as the must see sights. They are all fantastic places to walk around and look at. While I took a tour of the opera theatre, I couldn't follow the German commentary.
We travelled by car to Dresden on Thursday 17th May, which was Father's Day in Munich. This is just 4 days after Mother's Day - I suppose it's practical, then we don't have two dates to remember. As it turned out, in other parts of Germany, this day is somewhat less family oriented - it is called "Men's Day". Plenty of beer trolleys next to the river, ample loud music with speakers that they brought along, and drunk men that stare at me because I was trying to take photos of the festivities. When we went out late at night the bridge to the Altstadt was shut off by police cars - we were then told that it was a yearly habit to have fights on this day, which need to be broken up by Police - in this case arriving in helicopters early in the evening.
We also made a visit to the "Transparent Factory", which manufactures VW Phaetons. Yes, that famous flop from the maker of the people's car. The idea is that the final assembly and car collection from the customers occur in the middle of Dresden, next to the large city park. The ugly work occur elsewhere - the welded bodyshells are delivered to Dresden, finishing and storage done in Friedrichstadt (in Dresden), the parts are then trammed to the transparent factory, where the parts are unloaded. Suspension parts are assembled in the basement, after which the marriage of the upper body and the lower suspension components, as well as the finishing, are carried out in the visible areas. Good idea, but all very misleading, if you ask me.
The next day we went to the Sachsische Schweiz, which translates into something like "Saxon Swiss". There's a lot of these something Swisses around this part of Europe, which are usually names for mountainous regions. The scenery in this area was breathtaking - narrow, tall rock formations protrude out of the ground in close proximity to each other, like hundred of fingers trying to protect something in the centre. There is even a natural theatre somewhere - we could hear the music from quite a distance away. But we were in a hurry to get home, so we had to be content with a walk up to a vantage point.
One interesting place in Dresden that I didn't go to (apparently it is in Neustadt), is this:
http://www.kunsthof.com/
I think it's pretty cool.
Photos in Flickr are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokmanho/sets/72157600382174095/
Very prominent in Dresden is the river Elbe, which divides the Neustadt and the Altstadt (new and old town). We spent a bit of time walking over to the Altstadt, checking out sights such as the recently rebuilt Frauenkirche (Lady's Church), which was destroyed during the war. The travel guides list the Frauenkirche, the Opera theatre and the Zwinger (a large palace / courtyard, now art galery) as the must see sights. They are all fantastic places to walk around and look at. While I took a tour of the opera theatre, I couldn't follow the German commentary. We travelled by car to Dresden on Thursday 17th May, which was Father's Day in Munich. This is just 4 days after Mother's Day - I suppose it's practical, then we don't have two dates to remember. As it turned out, in other parts of Germany, this day is somewhat less family oriented - it is called "Men's Day". Plenty of beer trolleys next to the river, ample loud music with speakers that they brought along, and drunk men that stare at me because I was trying to take photos of the festivities. When we went out late at night the bridge to the Altstadt was shut off by police cars - we were then told that it was a yearly habit to have fights on this day, which need to be broken up by Police - in this case arriving in helicopters early in the evening.
We also made a visit to the "Transparent Factory", which manufactures VW Phaetons. Yes, that famous flop from the maker of the people's car. The idea is that the final assembly and car collection from the customers occur in the middle of Dresden, next to the large city park. The ugly work occur elsewhere - the welded bodyshells are delivered to Dresden, finishing and storage done in Friedrichstadt (in Dresden), the parts are then trammed to the transparent factory, where the parts are unloaded. Suspension parts are assembled in the basement, after which the marriage of the upper body and the lower suspension components, as well as the finishing, are carried out in the visible areas. Good idea, but all very misleading, if you ask me.The next day we went to the Sachsische Schweiz, which translates into something like "Saxon Swiss". There's a lot of these something Swisses around this part of Europe, which are usually names for mountainous regions. The scenery in this area was breathtaking - narrow, tall rock formations protrude out of the ground in close proximity to each other, like hundred of fingers trying to protect something in the centre. There is even a natural theatre somewhere - we could hear the music from quite a distance away. But we were in a hurry to get home, so we had to be content with a walk up to a vantage point.One interesting place in Dresden that I didn't go to (apparently it is in Neustadt), is this:
http://www.kunsthof.com/
I think it's pretty cool.
Photos in Flickr are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokmanho/sets/72157600382174095/
Comments