11-12 august Dresden

Today the land has changed again, now steep hills both sides of the river, some vineyards on the south facing bank. Meissen to Dresden less than 30 km. The information bureau in the city cannot assist with accommodation, telling us there is nothing under 90 Euro and no hostels. We find the Youth hostel by ourselves and get a private room for 50 Euro including all you can eat breakfast (and nick some for lunch as well).

Dresden was bombed to smithereens in 1945, neglected for almost 50 years in GDR but has been rebuilt since the reunification of Germany. Everything that was old is new again. The Frauenkirche is symbolic with the blackened sandstone mixed with new yellow sandstone bricks. It is a magnificent city of a half million residents and 10 million tourists per year.

Wunderbra, tea bags and beer coasters were invented here. We visited the “transparent factory” where the VW Phaeton is handbuilt in 32 hours (compared with Jetta in 4 hours) with 100 000 to 160 000 Euro price tag. It is as shiny as a showroom.

We visited 3 of 34 museums in the city, including the Altmeister with the feature of  Raphael’s painting of the Sistine Madonna.The painting is 500 year old this year and has two cute angels everyone would recognise on Christmas cards. Dresden is immensely proud that Augustus III (the Strong) bought the painting from the Vatican in 1700 and something and then managed to get it back again from the Russians after WWII. The exhibition showed Raphael’s early works (he was in direct competition with michaelangelo), history of the madonna painting, other artists’ copies of his madonna painting, copies of the two angels, even Ernie and Bert as the angels! A lot of fuss about one painting.

The ceramics museum was amazing, Chinese vases and plates, old Meissen ceramics and Augustus III’s bizarre collection of lifesize porcelain animals! For palaces, cathedrals, grand buildings, river vistas, culture, cafes, easy to explore by foot, cycle or tram. Dresden was pretty special. But just like Moscow and St Petersberg, some of the most impressive buildings are either centuries old or have been restored (often completely rebuilt) in just the last few years.