Dresden

I suck.  I know.  Its been over a month since we've gone on this vacation/extended weekend.   So here's to the short and sweet version .....

Here's a little background about Dresden (per Wikipedia) ....

Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence fot the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centures furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendor.  The main reason why people (in my opinion) have heard of Dresden is because of WWII.  On the night of 13/14 February 1945, Allied troops mounted a vast carpet-bombing raid on the city.  (Per wiki ...) In four raids, altogether 3,600 planes (which 1,300 were heavy bombers), dropped as many as 650,000 incendriaries, together with 8,000 lb. high explosive bombs and hundreds of 4,000-pounders.   After a pounding like that its needless to say that the city was pretty much destroyed.

Outside of the Neues Rathaus (city hall)

Frauenkirche - the Lutheran church that was so magnificent on the inside.    Unfortunately for y'all we weren't allowed to take pictures.

I honestly have no idea what this church is ...

We heard the best views of the city were from across the river so, that's where we went

That's Todd

That's Todd too

One of my faves.

The buildings were eclipsed - yes, we are dorks. 

One of the places that we had to visit while we were there is the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (translation Dresden State Art Collections).  Within this, there were 2 different museums we went to - the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister and the Neues Grunes Gewolbe (New Green Vault).   We went to the Neues Grunes Gewolbe first.   It has a lot of different things that have come from all over Europe, but the thing that I was most impressed by was the Dresden Green Diamond.  I believe its the world's largest naturally green diamond at a whopping 41 CARATS!!!!   Unfortunately for us (and y'all) they wouldn't allow any pictures inside the museum (either museum for that matter).   It housed more than 4,000 precious objects.   Another impressive piece was the a piece done by master goldsmith Johann Melchior - it is a miniature recreation of the court of an Indian mogul ruler consisiting of more than 130 golden figures with nearly 5,000 diamond.

The Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister contains what is considered to be one of Europe's best art collections.  The piece that I was the most familiar with was the Sistine Madonna.

To prove that we were there

Sachsische Staatsoper with the statue of the Saxon King Johann in front of it

Our last stop was The Zwinger Palace.   It was constructed to connect all the buildings that were already present.  Inside is a huge courtyard.  The Zwinger is home to many different museums (including the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister).

Nymphenbad - a fountain located within the Zwinger