Day 29

            It was a wet and wonderful day in Dresden!  As we were getting ready for breakfast, we heard thunder, and looked outside and realized we would need our umbrellas for sure!  This was our last pure tourist day, so we wanted to make the most of it.

            After breakfast, we caught the bus for the zentrum of Dresden – picked it up just across the street from the hotel, rode for about 15 minutes, and we were there.  On the walk into town, we passed the Kreutzkirche (more on that later) and the Frauenkirche (later again) and headed for the Zwinger.  This was a kind of palace begun by August the Strong, elector of Saxony, in the late 1500’s.  He had intended for it to be like a park and museum, and really made something out of it.  When we were here five years ago, we were in Dresden on a Monday, and museums in Germany are closed on Mondays, so I made sure we could be in Dresden during the week.

            We were early!  The Zwinger opens at 10, and we were downtown by 9:15.  And it was raining.  I mean RAINING!  We found a covered area in the Elector’s Rezidence, which is also a museum, but it was sheltered so we could sit and wait in the dry about a block from the Zwinger.  It is covered by a plexiglass dome, that acted like the metrodome – it amplified the sound of rain on the roof until we could hardly talk!

            We finally deserted the dry spot in favor of walking to the Zwinger and getting in line for our tickets.  There are actually three museums there – a porcelain museum, an art museum, and an arms and armor museum.  We got an admission ticket that let us in to all three.  The down side was that pictures are not allowed inside at all, and we couldn’t find a book that showed or discussed the contents.

            First we went into the porcelain museum.  Lots and lots of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, plus a lot of Meissen porcelain made just a few miles away from here.  Beautiful stuff, but by the time we worked through the whole wing, we had seen enough to last for…

            Next we went into the arms and armor museum.  Hardly any English labels in the whole place.  Very interesting stuff – swords, guns, suits of armor, so much that we saw enough to last for…..          

            Then came the art museum.  Paintings.  Millions, possibly even billions of dollars worth of original art.  We really enjoyed the stuff by Lucas Cranach, both the Elder and the Younger.  It tied in so well with all the things we saw and experienced in our trip up till now.  Also, many paintings by Peter Paul Reubens, Botticelli, Rembrandt, and a whole host of others. We saw enough paintings to last for…..

            You get the picture.  It was really overload, especially since there were no English explanations other than simple labels. 

            Once we left the Zwinger, we sat and had a little snack from the backpack, then headed for the Dresden Hofkappelle.  This is the Roman Catholic cathedral.  Dresden became Lutheran early on, but one of the Electors, August the Strong, wanted to also be crowned king of Poland, and he had to be Catholic to do that, so he converted.  And there was no Catholic church in town, so he had one built – primarily for him.  It is beautiful. It was bombed out like most of Dresden, but beautifully restored.  After wandering through it and taking pictures, the organ started playing some Buxtehude.  I have no idea who was playing, but it is a Gottfried Silbermann organ, by the same builder as the two we saw yesterday in Freiberg.  It’s a magnificent instrument, so we stayed and listened for a while.

            We did some window (and real!) shopping, especially when we saw a Meissen porcelain store.  We got just about the cheapest thing we could find, a beautiful porcelain medallion, and saw lots of very expensive other stuff.  As Dea had said in Munich, the whole street even smelled rich!

            We worked our way to the Frauenkirche, which is the huge Lutheran church in the center of town.  It was totally destroyed in 1945 by allied bombers who wiped out Dresden, but was rebuilt using as much original material as possible, using the original blueprints.  It was finished in 2004 or 2005, and we saw it just after it opened.  Had to stop in and see it again – it is magnificent.

            Then we headed to the Kreutzkirche.  This was – and is – the largest church in town, and was also severely bombed out at the end of WWII.  It was rebuilt rather quickly, and the inside of the church is finished in a very rough manner, designed to be a remembrance of the damage war can do. I am particularly partial to this church, because one of my musical heroes (second only to J.S. Bach) – Heinrich Schütz, did some work there while he was court composer to the Elector in Dresden.  They have a little memorial chapel for him in one corner of the church. 

            It was the end of the day – and raining again, so we decided to get our bodies ready to come home on Friday.  We stopped and had McDonalds for supper – it sure tasted good!  And in Germany, I could have beer with supper at McDonalds!

            Caught the bus back to the hotel, stopped next door at the restaurant so Dea could have dessert and I had a dark beer, and now we are back in our room, tired but satisfied that we made a real fine last tourist day out of it, rain and all!

            I actually felt quite good all day long – I think I’ve shaken the cold pretty well.  Tomorrow we’ll take our time packing up, drive back to Berlin, check into our hotel, and drop off the rental car at the airport and confirm our Friday morning flights.  Home soon!