A very quiet night at Freital. A cooler morning with the first overcast sky for the past three weeks. Off to Dresden today for the next three days.
You meet very delightful and interesting people on the road and this happened again last evening. Two professional photographers working on a two year project photographing all German tourist sites for their clients use in national advertising. It sounds an interesting job but they reassured us that they are often working 7 days a week to get the assignment done by the end of the year. They were also very helpful with language translations etc.
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| Ha! We said this might appear on the blog - apologies for the early morning photo! |
The jewell of the Elbe has to be Dresden. Best known for the total destruction by American and English bombing in February 1945, the recovery has been remarkable - it shows what human nature can endure and how it is so resilient.
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| Dresden |
The city today is vibrant and alive - we are about to find this out with the rock concert nearby about to commence!
It is great to have a few days to experience a city like this - so much to understand as to what it means to have such a magnificent history and yet to be totally destroyed at a physical level - but not at the spiritual level!
This is the city the Augustus the Strong saw as his show piece - with the Catholic Hofkirche built for his appeasement of the Pope so that the crown of Poland could be his as well! This was a very political construction because the majority of Prussians were Protestants. Augustus the Randy - oops the Strong - has his heart literally buried in the crypt of the Hofkirche, but I'm sure not his head!
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| Bridge over the Elbe at Dresden |
The views along the promonade of the Bruhlishe Terrasse are outstanding - this is often referred to as the 'balcony of Europe'. This promonade was once the fortification wall for the city.
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| Dresden |
The Frauenkirche perhaps is the most renowned of the buildings of Dresden - totally destroyed in the firestorm of February 1945 now has been restored to its former glory with the use of much of the sandstone fragments from the rubble of 1945. What a magnificent achievement.
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| After the firestorm in 1945 |
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| Today |
On the outer wall of the former Royal Mews is the Furstenzug (The Procession of Princes), a 101 metre long mural depicting the Kings and Princes of the Saxon rulers. This mural is created by 25000 Meissen porcelain tiles - we will visit Meissen this coming week.
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| The Furstenzug (The Procession of Princes) |
Enough for now - we had picked out a nice restaurant for the evening but the music from the concert is very enticing! Perhaps a few beers at the neighbouring beer garden will be on the agenda!
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| Queuing for the night concert |
The band, 'Unheilig', were the main act. This German rock band is certainly popular in Germany. The ovation. From the crowd was enormous. The range of music was very broad from ballad type music to heavy rock. The evening was exquisite - the local population enjoyed the summer evening with picnics on the bank of the Elbe overlooking the city.
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| Balmy night on the Elbe |
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