Teaching an Old Dresden New Tricks

Two weeks ago (I know, I've been slacking on these blog posts!) I visited Dresden. The city is divided into two halves. On the north side of the Elbe River is Neustadt, or New Town. Altstadt, or Old Town, is on the south side. I spent the first day and night in New Town.

Here's a cool fountain I saw. Look at that ball spin.

This is in Albertplatz.

Another fountain. This one is on Hauptstrasse, which goes north and south through New Town to the Augustus Brücke (bridge).

I got into Dresden in the evening, so I stopped at this Bohemian restaurant for dinner.

I ordered pork beer goulash...

Which looked like this, and tasted delicious.

I got a beer called Staropramen Granat, which had a cool red color.

It's kind of hard to tell, though, because of the lighting. It was also delicious, by the way.

This was some kind of museum. It's not listed on any of the maps I looked at, and they're doing construction around it, so I couldn't really get a closer look.

 Three more fountains. What can I say? I like fountains.

Here's Augustus the Strong, one of the Prince-Electors of Saxony (the federal state of which Dresden is the capital).

Here's the statue at a better angle. The sun was kind of behind it in the last one.

Here's a look down Hauptstrasse (Main Street).

I went back to my hostel. Hmm, in retrospect, I guess I could have taken a picture or pictures there. Oh well. Anyway, I woke up and went to Mass at Hofkirche, a beautiful Catholic Cathedral. Augustus the Strong was Prince-Elector of Saxony, and also King of Poland. When he died, his son wanted to be King of Poland, but the pope would only allow it if he built a Cathedral in Dresden. Thus, even though Dresden is strongly Protestant (only 5% of Dresdeners are Catholic), it has a really nice Catholic Cathedral.

And here it is.

Here's the sanctuary.

The beautiful organ.

It kind of has an opera house look to it.

Here's a side-chapel.

Here's a statue of someone. What's he pointing at?

Oh. He's pointing at his buddy on the other side.

Hmm, a T-shaped cross. My first thought was that maybe it was another apostle. But he still has the spear-wound through his side, and the crown of thorns, so it's safe to say this is Jesus.

Still not sure what the technical name for these things are, but they're really cool-looking.

This is kind of blurry, because the room was dark, and they don't allow flash photography.

But it's a sculpture of burning men, honoring the martyrs listed in the plaque.

The church has the miter of St. Benno, who used to be a bishop here.

Here it is. Their picture's better.

Here's some more information about St. Benno.

I left the church and started to explore the Old Town. Interesting story about the buildings on this side of the river. They were all destroyed during WWII--when we and our British friends bombed the crap out of Dresden--and have since been rebuilt. So the buildings in New Town are actually older than the ones in Old Town.

The Elbe River. In the rain.

The Saxon State Opera House, a.k.a. Semperoper.

Here's King John. Not Magna Carta King John; just some random German ruler.

Oh look, a horse-drawn carriage.

Over yonder is the Zwinger, an old palace complex that now houses several museums.

Along the south wall of the complex is the Crown Gate.

There are four fountains in the center of the Zwinger, at the corners of the intersection. This picture better illustrates how big this complex is.

This is the Rampart Pavillion.

And this is the Glockenspielpavillon.

I don't know what this is. Just some random spire sticking out of the ground, I guess.

This is the Royal Palace.

A mural (with Commie themes) on the Palace of Culture.

Suddenly, I'm hungry for ice cream...

This is the Watchman's Tower. But which tower watches this one? (Obscure, yes, but hopefully someone will get it.)

The Parade of Nobles, a mural on which the historical rulers of Saxony are painted.

There's the Augustus Brücke, from the old city wall, the Brühlsche Terrasse.

And there are cannon openings in said wall.

And we'll finish off with the some random dude's head. If you zoom in, you can kind of see an inscription, but I can't quite make it out.

Next post: Füssen. Hopefully that will be up tomorrow. Until then, tchüs!