Day 4 – July 8th
We should have been to Leipzig, but decided to go to Dresden via Gera.
Regensburg-Dresden
See the See the map
There has been living people in the area of Gera for about 80.000 years. Just south of Gera, at the village Weida was the southern part of the ice sheet under the ice age.
The marketplace and the town hall in Gera
The marketplace in Gera was one of the most beautiful in Thüringen and was rebuild after WW2. The town hall is one of the biggest Renaissance town halls in Germany with a nearly 60 m heigh tower, built between 1573 and 1576.
St. John’s Church in Gera, build 1881-1885 in neo-Gothic style.
Town hall
Walkingstreet in Gera
After a couple of hours, we continued to Dresden.
We got a good deal at the Swissotel in the citycenter. The hotel has own parking garage, which is great, when they are situated in the middle of the city center !
Swissotel Dresden Am Schloss
Swissotel Dresden Am Schloss
Frauenkirche
Frauenkirche has a 1.000 year history . It was destroyed in 1945, but rebuild between 1994 and 2005.
Frauenkirche
Frauenkirche
Frauenkirche
Fürstenzug – Procession of Princes – is a large mural of a mounted procession of the rulers af Saxony. It was originally painted between 1871 and 1876 to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Wettin Dynasty, Saxony’s ruling family. In order to make the work weatherproof, it was replaced with approximately 23,000 Meissen porcelaintiles between 1904 and 1907. With a length of 102 metres (335 ft), it is known as the largest porcelain artwork in the world. The mural displays the ancestral portraits of the 35 margraves, electors, dukes and kings of the House of Wettin between 1127 and 1904.
Fürstenzug – Procession of Princes
Fürstenzug – Procession of Princes
Grünes Gewölbe – Baroque treasure chamber
The Zwinger (Dresdner Zwinger) is a palace in Dresden, built in Rococo style and designed by court architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. It served as the orangery, exhibition gallery and festival arena of the Dresden Court.
The location was formerly part of the Dresden fortress of which the outer wall is conserved. The name derives from the German word Zwinger (an enclosed killing ground in front of a castle or city gate); it was for the cannons that were placed between the outer wall and the major wall. The Zwinger was not enclosed until the Neoclassical building by Gottfried Sempercalled the Semper Gallery was built on its northern side.
Today, the Zwinger is a museum complex that contains the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery), the Dresden Porcelain Collection (Porzellansammlung) and the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon (Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments).
Zwinger
Zwinger
Dresden Cathedral
Dresden Cathedral, or the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Dresden, previously the Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony, called in German Katholische Hofkirche and since 1980 also known as Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatis, is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Dresden.
Always the most important Catholic church of the city, it was elevated to the status of cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen in 1964.
Left the Saxon finance department and right the Saxon State Chamber
There is really a lot to see in Dresden and one day was def. too little. We tried to get one more night at the hotel, but the it was double up. Next time we will stay for two/three days for sure.
Tired of walking around, we decided to eat at a Canadian restaurant Ontario.
Rip Eye
Tenderloin filetsteak
The food was good and so was the beers. Eur 88 was maybe a little too expensive, but Hey, there was aircon 😉
Canadian beer – Tank House Ale
Back at the Hotel, we tried to get something to drink in the bar, but they did not have time for us and as we had an ‘all inclusive’ room including minibar, we had something to drink in our room instead !
The breakfast next morning was a little stressfull as there was a lot of people. The breakfast was good – think we would like to come back, if we can get a good deal also next time 😉
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