Dresden, Germany

Our bus left Prague on the 20th of April to head towards Berlin. Our bus would travel through the 800 year old city of Dresden on our way and we were happy to stop for a few hours and check it out.

I found myself wandering around the part of the city where we had stopped, snapping photos and looking for a great place to stop and have a drink. I found a really tasty chocolate shop where I happily purchased some sweets for myself before wandering around a bit more.

Wandering around the Neumarkt in the photo above.

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border.  The controversial British and American bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city center. The bombing gutted the city, as it did for other major German cities.

Above is the Dresden Fraunkirche which is a Lutheran church. Built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden. The remaining ruins were left as a war memorial, following decisions of local East German leaders. The church was rebuilt after the reunification of Germany. The reconstruction of its exterior was completed in 2004 and its interior in 2005. 

The above photo and the below ones are of Brühl's Terrace, which is a historic architectural ensemble nicknamed "The Balcony of Europe". The terrace stretches high above the shore of the river Elbe.

The Fürstenzug above is a large mural of a mountain procession of the rulers of 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 porcelain tiles 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.

Above is the Semperoper, the local opera house in Dresden. The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841. After a devastating fire in 1869, the opera house was rebuilt, partly again by Semper, and completed in 1878. 

At Emil Reimann I managed to find a delicious apple pastry and enjoyed a hot chocolate that I had to partially make myself by dipping a chocolate cube into hot milk. It was good but not as amazing as if they had made the hot chocolate for me.

After my short wander around the older part of Dresden it was off to Berlin!