Dresden - Old Town

Long trips seem to have an ebb and flow to them. When we arrived in Fulda we were at low ebb due to fatigue, hunger and our inability to find food. Then we rallied and things were better. Berlin was pretty good, we found a place to eat that we liked, and the hotel did a really good breakfast. Things ebbed last night. We had dinner at the hotel next door and the food was just abysmal. Ok, I pretty much expected that; but then, THEN we got the check and they charged us 6.7 euro for a .89 euro bottle of mineral water. We came back here and stopped in the bar for a couple of glasses of wine; 15 euro for two teeny tiny glasses of really awful wine. Low ebb. Today we found a grocery store, things will be better.
We're in Dresden. The allies bombed Dresden February 13 & 14, 1945; the city burned for 5 days. The center of the city began rebuilding in the 1950s. There is a monument in Dresden to the women who cleared the rubble, most of the men were dead. More is left to be done, but it's enough that the tourists have returned in droves.
Big old building.

The Zwinger. They have a large display of Meissen china.

The old plaza, newly rebuilt in the old style.

Detail of a new building.

The Frauenkirche. It was severely damaged during the bombing raids. In 1990 $120M or so was raised to restore it. The outside is just beautiful. We did not get to go in today because there was a wedding, followed by some sort of musical event.

And here they are! The happy couple getting a pretzel. Really, I'm not making this up.

There is a fair amount of performance art in the area. I'm not sure what this represented but it was really well done.


It's interesting to look at shopping in Germany. In France and Italy we did not see mega-malls. Berlin and Dresden have huge malls. Multiple floors, food courts, H&M, you name it, they have it. They also have McDonalds, Starbucks and KFC, which is unfortunate.
Tomorrow we're going to Meissen. We've decided to bag going to Rothenberg. It would be 4 hours in the car, and I think Meissen will offer enough oldness & cuteness, and it's only 30 minutes from here.