Leipzig to Dresden

After paying a remarkably cheap bill of 46E for 2 nights AND 3 return bus tickets for 2 people, we spent a while at the internet cafe in Leipzig, and found that this also was amazingly cheap: it cost all of 2E for 100 minutes! We went on the highly publicised red bus tour, which was not at all in English, and there were no seats upstairs so we ended up craning to see anything from downstairs. There was a 15 minute stop at fairly ugly monument.  Still, you live and learn.

Drive to Dresden again involved roadworks, but the Sat nav found the place. This was a large Stellplatz behind a motorhome dealership, close to tram lines straight into the city.

Dresden was very badly damaged in the war, so a lot of the sights are restorations or rebuilds.

Got to the TIC at 09,45, but they were not yet open, so we thought we might go to the Kreuzkirche just nearby. Restoration of this church only started after reunfication: up until then it was an empty shell. The exterior of the building has been fully restored, but the inside is as yet only rough plaster, which gives it a simplistic feel. From the tower it is still possible to see empty spaces among the other buildings, where renovation is not possible and rebuilding has not yet taken place. There is a peal of 5 bells in the tower, largest of which is 11,000 kg, and the others between 2,000 and 6,000.

Walked round to the Fürstenzug, a wall of Meissen tiles, depicting the sucession of of the Dukes of Saxony from 1123 to 1904.  It is 100 m long, and an astonishing thing.

At the City museum we saw the social and political history of Dresden through the centuries including the DDR era. Interesting contour map with commentary about the growth, war damage, and restoration etc.  Also fascinating displays of East German household objects, appliances, schoolbooks, and playthings.

We were quite surprised to see that war damaged buildings had been left as heaps of rubble for decades.  Obviously, rebuilding of a city is not possible in a few years. To think that the Frauenkirche  had been left as a pile of rubble for 60-odd years stretches belief. There was a large fragment of dome displayed outside, about 8 feet high, which had collapsed when the pillars gave way under the heat of the fire in 1945.

The Dreikönigs Kirche (Three Kings Church) is another latterly restored church, utilising much of the interior space as a coffee shop and fair trade stall etc. There was an interesting bronze relief of the frim reaper, followed by different levels of society, starting with pope, abbot etc, and ending with poor man and child. 2 angels from the organ casing, which survived the war, have been utilised to decorate the balconies of the new restoration. The altar frontal, although terribly damaged, has been retained. Restoration is intended.

The Cathedral is a decidedly ugly building on the outside, and rather uninspiring inside. The saving point would be that it has the last organ built by Silbermann.