Thanks to my Deggendorf bestie, Tanja – Kyle and I got a chance to visit the beautiful city of Dresden!
The boys had a game in Schönheide on Sunday night, and since Schönheide was about and hour and a half away from beautiful Dresden, we decided to make a little road trip out of it.
The boys left for their game and Tanja and I left around four pm to pick the guys up when their game ended. (Deggendorf is about three hours away from Schönheide.) We would pick the guys up and drive the hour and a half to Dresden to spend two days
Tanja’s husband used to play in Dresden so they knew the city well and wanted to go back and visit some old friends. I was totally pumped to see a new city and see what Eastern Germany was all about.
Some Facts:
. Dresden is the third largest city in Eastern Germany after Berlin and Leipzig
. In 1945, the city of Dresden was completely destroyed by bombings in WWII causing thousands of civilians to lose their lives. (Numbers range from 25,000-135,000.)
. The city was so badly destroyed that the only way to rebuild was to completely level the site and start from scratch. Yet, they still wanted to preserve important buildings that were still hanging by a limb.
. The coffee filter was created in Dresden – so obviously, you know I HAD to visit to give thanks
. Toothpaste was created here! “Pharmacist Ottomar Heinsius von Mayenburg produced the first version of this now common product in 1907.”
Tanja told us to book a hotel on Prager Straße because it’s like the shopping hub of the city. There’s rows and rows of shops, malls, restaurants, and…STARBUCKS.
We checked in pretty late (due to snow) and decided to have some wine in our room and watch some American football (I can’t believe it was on.)
The next day, I woke up early and waited for the king to arise, as per usual. Our plan for the day was to go to Starbucks and visit Altstadt (Old City). Altstadt is filled with historic buildings and a ton of museums, so we wanted to wander and see what museum was worth going into.
FIRST OF ALL – Getting my first Starbucks in months was breathtaking. I felt like my old blonde self again.
It was freezing but we wandered about two miles towards the waterfront and BOOM! We were in Altstadt. All of the historic sites were literally in the same square so it’s not like we had to take the tram somewhere. We would just walk around.
The first place we stumbled into was the Dresden Residenzschloss, or Dresden Castle/Royal Palace. It came so abruptly, we had no idea we were even in a palace until we saw a sign inside. I blame the snow.There was a pretty intense fountain in the lobby so Kyle and I made a wish.
Before venturing to Dresden, I took note of some key buildings we simply had to see. And one of those sites was The Fürstenzug. It’s one of the largest murals that celebrates the rulers of Saxony. The craziest thing about this mural is it’s made entirely out of porcelain tiles. It has over 23,000 tiles, is 335 feet long, and showcases rulers from 1127 to 1904. It was pretty intense.
Next on the list was The Semperoper, or the Opera House. It was at this time we found out all museums were closed on Mondays, so unfortunately, we couldn’t take a peak inside many of these places, but even the outside was gorgeous. It opened in 1841. “In 1945, during the last months of World War II, the building was largely destroyed again, this time by the bombing of Dresden and subsequent firestorm, leaving only the exterior shell standing. Exactly 40 years later, on 13 February 1985, the opera’s reconstruction was completed.”
We passed through Neumarkt Square Altstadt, which is the center of the city filled with restaurants and cute cafés.
And we couldn’t pass through Dresden without stopping into the Frauenkirche or “Church of Our Lady.” Although it was built in the 18th century, it was completely destroyed in the bombings of 1945. The remnants of the church were left for 50 years as a war memorial, but was rebuilt in 1994 after the reunification of Germany.
There was a basement to the church that held more artifacts from the original building and still had the underground burial site to important priests and members of the church.
After the church, we wandered past some art museums and precious cafés before grabbing burgers for lunch at a place called Burgerei. My burger was unreal but Kyle was pissed because they forgot his bacon…whoops.
We went back to the hotel for a midday snooze and to warm up. We were going to meet up for dinner that evening with Tanja, Travis, their friends, and our old friends who play in Leipzig! Kyle and Nick played together in Fayetteville last year and we were pumped to catch up with him and his girlfriend, Lauren! It’s Lauren’s first year abroad as well, so it’s been fun comparing stories and hockey experiences.
We met up with Nick and Lauren, strolled around a bit, and then met up with the gang for some tasty Vietnamese food! It was awesome to just speak English to people and reaffirm we weren’t alone. It was totally refreshing.
We ended the night with some wine and coffee in the hotel bar. It was an awesome two days and I got A LOT of shopping done in between historic sites.
It was fascinating to see how most of the buildings still had burn marks from the bombings that happened years ago. I wish we went when the snow didn’t completely cover the streets – but it was still a super cool weekend.
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