Saturday, September 20, 2008

Dresden

Friday:
After a nice leisurely rather drab and grey morning at Dave and Lisa's we headed down to the river, stopping first at Schwarz Market Cafe for an espresso and coffee. Not much English spoken there, but we did manage to get Kathy's special sock water coffee order in without a hitch.
After that, as we wandered over the Elbe river to the Catholic baroque church, Hof kirche, the sun came out for a surprise visit. Quickly I stripped down to short sleeves so that I could enjoy the sun. -Inside the church is actually rather stark. Surprising for the baroque style.
After a quick visit we crossed over to the Zwinger. This houses several museums as well as some amazing fountains and a museum that houses a huge collection of porcelain.

Now we are sitting at a cafe around the plaza near the newly restored Church of Our Lady. I used to say that it took me a week to chill out from work during vacation. However, i feel like I am already relaxed after one day. There is something about sitting outside, sipping a glass of wine and watching the world go by that is very relaxing.
The people watching is always fascinating. Notice the clustering of the tourists.


From 2008_09_17 - Eastern Europe

While we are here we decide to head across the plaza to check out the church. This baroque church was destroyed during WWII and completely rebuilt since the early 90s. The exterior is impressive. The only way you can tell that the church isn't hundreds of years old is that the stones are not covered with layers of black soot. At first glance the interior reminds you of a theater in the round, except instead of a stage there is a huge baroque alter piece dominating the naive. Very impressive indeed. The rest of the interior seems a bit forced with heavy doses of stucco and faux marble column. Was the original treatment faux marble? This does not seem consistent with other German Baroque churches that we have been too.

That evening we went to a Russian restaurant that had been there since commie days. Crazy place with dirt on the food, great food and an extensive vodka menu. Skhol.


Phrase of the day: die Rechnung, bitte - the check (reckoning) please.

Andy


From 2008_09_17 - Eastern Europe

From 2008_09_17 - Eastern Europe

From 2008_09_17 - Eastern Europe

2 comments:

Rochelle said...

where's the photo? (insert photo here)

Unknown said...

It is there now. It was just a reminder to me to do it!