Day 5--Berlin to Dresden

Berlin

Day five started with a bit of a rough start. We had our tour of Berlin we missed on Day 3 today (which ended up repeating a lot of what we did yesterday, which was, well, annoying--unfortunately, we didn't know what would be on the tour),

we started at Checkpoint Charlie again

I already shared pics from Day 4, but I had not noticed this line that goes through the city to show where the wall once stood.

Next we went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  We have seen the memorial yesterday, but the lighting wasn't as good when we went by.

Next it was back to the Brandenburg Gate,

then back on the bus for a driving tour past the Victory Column,

the front of the Reichstag,

then a drive by Charlottenburg Palace.

But when we got to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church,

which was bombed in the war and has been left in its bombed state as a memorial, it didn't open until noon (and we were leaving at 1045).  We had been hoping to see the inside, and of course we were pretty disappointed.

This also cut into our time in Dresden, which I was really looking forward too.  We stopped for lunch at a rest stop on the autobahn, also lack luster.

Dresden

We did manage to fit in pretty much all we had planned to see in Dresden in about four hours.  Dresden is very pretty and was rebuilt to look like the old Baroque buildings there pre-WWII, and they really do look old!  Dresden had been largely destroyed by Allied bombing.

We saw the Hofkirche, a Catholic Church,

then passed by the Theaterplatz

on the way to the Zwinger.

The Zwinger was built  to entertain and was a venue for Saxon court celebrations (Dresden has ben a part of Saxony, which was ruled by Princes), but no one ever lived there.  Today the Zwinger is made up of different museums.  We first visited the Old Masters art gallery,

(Tizian, Portrait of a Lady in White, c.1561)

(Rafael, This Sistine Madonna, c. 1512-13)

then the Porcelain Collection (no time to look for dishes for myself though),

This collection was founded in 1715 by Saxon Prince Augustus.

The roof was open, so I could take some pictures

I swung by the Turkish rooms,

which were pretty cool (and were neat for a quick dash with a huge tent of Persian rugs and saddles and other gear for horses.

I also dashed into the jousting armor room.

We toured it, but, unfortunately, no pictures are allowed inside the historic green vault.  The vault was the treasure room of Augustus the Strong, the Prince of Saxony in the 1700s, and has been rebuilt with what is left of the treasure collection. It was pretty opulent with ivory, silver, precious gems, bronze statues, even ostrich eggs made into cups and such!

Next it was up past the Fürstenzug (Parade of Nobles)

We stopped for afternoon drinks in Neumarkt, under the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady).

We had hoped to see the church, but it was unfortunately closed.

(I had sparkling wine with a Saxon raspberry liqueur)

After a quick rest back at the hotel, we headed out for dinner at a place Rick Steve's recommended just off Neumarkt that served Saxon cuisine with local wines.

The food was okay, I had goulash, which is a traditional dish in this part of Germany because of all the Slavic influence from Poland. They put beer in their goulash though as a general matter. It was okay, a little tough and I think I was beef mixed with sauerkraut and stewed. Washed it down with white wine of course!

We went for some quick night time photos past the sights from earlier today, then back to the hotel.