Dresden (Germany)

Dresden has to offer a lot! Especially if you consider to take a dive into German history, enjoy the arts and fine cuisine (yes, Saxony is the only German place for fine and not too heavy food).

After the wall came down in 1989, Saxony went back to the roots of the old kingdom (August the Strong or Augustus I has been king of Saxony from the late 17th century) by naming Dresden the capital of Saxony and trying to restore as many as ...
...picture of the history of Dresden with a virtual tour and more: http://www.dresden.de/rooteng/history/history.html.

Although it took a while to get to speed after 1989 and many folks were faced to high unemployment and heavy restructuring of the whole society, today Dresden presents itself in a new spirit and mix: Baroque and High Tech. At the same time when tons of investments have been spent to restore all old buildings and other ... more

Dresden has to offer a lot! Especially if you consider to take a dive into German history, enjoy the arts and fine cuisine (yes, Saxony is the only German place for fine and not too heavy food).

After the wall came down in 1989, Saxony went back to the roots of the old kingdom (August the Strong or Augustus I has been king of Saxony from the late 17th century) by naming Dresden the capital of Saxony and trying to restore as many as possible treasures that have suffered under the former communist regime and many wars before that time (7 year war late 18th century, Napoleon's occupation in 1815 and the second world war with massive bombings by the allies). See this great, brief historic wrap-up of the city at: http://members.tripod.com/scapin_1/page2.htm.

Another great web site gives a complete picture of the history of Dresden with a virtual tour and more: http://www.dresden.de/rooteng/history/history.html.

Although it took a while to get to speed after 1989 and many folks were faced to high unemployment and heavy restructuring of the whole society, today Dresden presents itself in a new spirit and mix: Baroque and High Tech. At the same time when tons of investments have been spent to restore all old buildings and other cultural substance - the ?King of Saxony? (the Saxon's call their minister Kurt Biedenkopf that way) opened all doors for new technology and corporations that wanted to be the first at this East German Silicon Valley. GM daughter Opel opened Europe's most modern automobile manufacturing site there, Siemens established Infineon, Intel's first European competitor in the city and lots of youngsters from all around the nation settled in and around Dresden to drive this new spirit and run for the future.

Foreign investors and public donations made it possible to run massive programs to restore the historic value of the city alike. The world-famous Dresdner Frauenkirche is about to be rebuild after being bombed to ashes in the last war (where hundreds of women and children died that night). The project is quite ambitious as they have to put together tens of thousands of quarters and stones, mixed, both old ones (after cataloging and cleaning) and new ones, made from the same rocks as the originals. All stones are stored outside the church in huge shelves, quite impressive! See this impressive web site for historic details: http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/dres/dres10.html.

Other projects have been successfully completed already, such as restoration of the Dresdner Zwinger, Semper opera and some impressive museums and art collections. See this web site for details and description in arts and cultural treasures: http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/dres/dres12.html. If you like that interesting mix of baroque architecture, art and high tech, you should go!

How to get there
Dresden has its own little airport that is mainly served by domestic flights and inner-European carriers. There are daily flights from almost all neighbor countries as well. If you want to drive from Berlin (Autobahn A13 South, about 210km) or Prague you may want to take major highways because smaller streets are pretty slow as they lead through many villages and towns that surround Saxony and the Dresden area. The landscape though, it breathtaking as there are smooth hills covered by cherry trees and small roads through the many fields. Best time to enjoy the landscape and nature would be spring then (starts in April).

Where to stay
Slowly but surely Dresden becomes a worldwide famous city not only for its Baroque buildings but economy and perfect mix of history, art, culture, high tech and nature. Therefore hotels and other accommodations are pretty expensive already, especially if you want to stay near the main attractions. Some fine hotels charge about $100 and more but you would never forget a night or ten in any of the noble hotels there. Saxon's are famous for their hospitality (and there is a Saxon saying that goes: Saxony, where the beautiful girls grow on the trees). The food in the good hotels and the many fine restaurants in downtown are mixed internationally but you can always find Saxon cuisine in the menu (see later remarks). B&B is available too and motels or campgrounds.

How to get around
Public transportation is easy and very well organized. Buses, trams and city trains (S-Bahn) are networking well together, Taxi's are not too expensive (about 1/3 of NY prices). All main attractions though, are pretty close together and if you would stay in downtown you may not even need any. Pretty cool are the riverboats and ships on the river Elbe. Most of them serve as restaurants or offer various entertainments.

The food
Hmmmm!!!
Some fine restaurants (try the newly opened Coselpalais just around the corner of the Frauenkirche or Watzke's Ballhaus for some very creative cuisine) offer a mix of international and domestic cooking. Here are some things you must not miss if you would like to try Saxon cuisine:
Sweet, hot: Dumplings with sugar bibery sauce, crepes with wild fruits
Meat: Saxon sour beef with dumplings, prime boiled beef (Tafelspitz, actually Austrian)
Cold: Jellied prime boiled beef (Tafelspitzsuelze)
Deserts: Dresdner Eierschecke!!!! - who can bring me 20 lbs???
There are many fine white wines around the area (just forget about the red wines there) and Dresden has a lot of great breweries too, where they only produce for immediate sale in the pub. Koestritzer and Feldschloesschen are some of their famous beers, pretty strong but wonderful in taste.
One thing you just must not miss-out is the great sausage they make. Buy a fresh farmer's bread, a bottle of Koestritzer beer and a liverwurst or Knacker or Knackwurst with a domestic butcher. You will never forget that taste! In fact this is the best sausage stuff nation-wide (except of Thueringen where you could just take a bath in fine sausages).

Must see's
Dresdner Zwinger, Frauenkirche, Albertinum (one of the finest royal art collections in the world), Gruenes Gewoelbe (if you like Rubens, Duerer, Picasso, Lionardo and the like), Weimar (a 30 minutes drive west of Dresden, great wine there and a neat old town).
Try to talk to the Saxon's while having a great beer in a pub. The guys are very proud of their city and can certainly give you some secret tips too.

Here is another web site that offers great information about the city, nightlife, the arts and more: http://www.dresden-online.de/culture/index.en.phtml.

If you like to discover this city by foot, try not to go from late October through late February as the weather can get pretty nasty and cold. Other than that, Dresden is well worth a week of pure enjoyment and fun. The people are friendly (English no problem) and the city offers a lot. Maybe you want to take short trip to nearby Prague as well? If you have some more time, don't miss Leipzig (about 100km to the west) - see my other review to that city.
 

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