Delightful Dresden

At Dresden on the Elbe, that handsome city...

This quote, from German poet Heinrich Hiene (1843), sums up Dresden perfectly.

As I said in the last edition of this ramble, we fell in love with Dresden city on sight & probably because it reminded us so much of the cities and towns of our beloved second home, Italy.  The squares and streets were open, inviting and green, as 63% of Dresden consists of forests and gardens and these are surrounded by wonderful ancient edifices that told a story and were proud to do so.

 Though having said “ancient” edifices, one must be careful, because, nearing the end of WW 2, the Allies bombed the centre of Dresden till there was nothing left but the Wall of Princes, which was constructed of Meissen porcelain & therefore didn’t burn like the remainder of the city.  However, the good citizens of Saxony rebuilt their beautiful buildings, using as much of the recovered original materials as they could.  With the beautiful St Mary’s Church, the recovered stones were replaced in their original positions.

Frescoes on the upper level of St Mary's Church.

The Church was built on two levels and these frescoes adorned the outside of the upper level.  The altar was also beautifully decorated.  There was a wedding there the day we visited & it was interesting that tours and visiting tourists were still allowed into the church during the wedding service. 

The priest conducting the ceremony was in the middle of his homily when we arrived & when we left, some 15 minutes later, he was still holding forth. Whether  the presence of the extra audience led him on to greater heights, or the fact that he was exhorting the young couple to live a perfect married life, we will never know, but he was certainly making the most of the opportunity!

St Mary's Church- very fancy.

The guide books were funny.  They suggested that after we looked at St Mary’s Church we go to the Church of the Holy Cross which was much more “normal” and uneffacing and certainly more in tune with the ideas of the Church.  It was a lovely church, very simple and beautiful in its own way and certainly not prone to airs and graces like the other one.

Onto more secular themes. I mentioned earlier, the Wall of Princes.  This wall formed part of the King's mews and we were entranced with the detail. It featured all the kings, princes and dukes of the years between the 12^th and the mid 18^th centuries.  They were depicted in over 60 000 Meissen porcelain pieces and at the time of the Allied bombing of the centre of Dresden in the early months of 1945, this wall was all that was left standing in the old city.  As we heard a guide telling a group of paying tourists, it wasn’t so much the bombs that destroyed Dresden, it was the resulting fires but the porcelain could readily withstand this type of heat and so wasn’t affected. 

Part of the Wall of Princes.

Dresden wasn’t all historical- sometimes it was hysterical!  The Europeans make an art form out of enjoying their summers and there was lots of fun to be had watching the locals at play.

From toddlers to teenagers, they made the most of the wonderful weather and had the best fun.  We couldn’t believe our eyes when we came across a bunch of littlies splashing about in a public fountain.  No way would they be doing that in Australia! There would be a huge pool fence all around the perimeter and the kids wouldn’t have got within 20 metres of the water.

Groups of teenagers had hired a vehicle- for want of a better term- & were riding round the streets on it, drinking wine as they went.  It took me back to when Andrea, our “adopted” family member from Italy, was staying with us last year and couldn’t believe that he had to wear a helmet when he went for a bike ride with Mike.  As he said so succinctly, “In Italy, we’re allowed to decide whether we want to kill ourselves or not.”

Others who were not so energetic decided to let the “Limousine” take them where they wanted to go.

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All in all- a great way to spend summer!

This blog seems to have a mind of its own, as I'm sure you've worked out by now!  I can never quite get it just the way I want it, but hey- that's just a metaphor for life, I suppose- sometimes it all works out & sometimes it's sent to try us & it certainly does!

And for those of you who are still hanging in there,  next time we'll chat about the ancient pearl that's Prague.

Ci vediamo!