As I mentioned in my last posting, I decided to stop in Dresden for a day on my way to Prague. Why not since it doesn’t cost anything extra? What is really interesting is that I actually can use my ticket anytime in the next month, so I could just stay put in Dresden for a while. I am not going to, but it is nice to know there are options. No way do the trains work like that in the U.S.!
In the morning, we woke up earlier than usual (no 9 or 10am stuff this morning!) to finish getting ready before calling for a taxi to take us to the airport. Because Corrie was bringing home one of my big bags, I went to the airport to help her with everything and to see her off before I took the bus to the train station (Berlin Hauptbanhof). Everything worked out just fine: Corrie got checked in and in the security line, and I made it to the train station with enough time to get my maps of Dresden printed and get some food – perfect!
Now, let’s just say that all train stations need to be like the German ones, or at least this one. Tons of signs and easy to navigate. You even knew within the 10 foot area of where to stand for the car/wagon that you would be getting on for your seat on the train. Nice! The train was exactly on time, of course, and I am really glad that I ended up reserving a seat because it ended up being pretty crowded – the people without seats kept having to shuffle around. By the time the waves had calmed from everyone getting on in Berlin (the train actually was going all the way to Budapest – interesting to know), I ended up having a guy around my age from Australia sit next to me. He also was going to stop over in Dresden for a day before continuing on to Prague. What are the odds? We were able to talk, so the train ride seemed to go pretty fast (only about 2.5 hours anyway), and then we walked together for a while when we arrived. We stayed at different hostels, but it was nice to have someone to kind of wander lost with for a little bit. Still, Dresden seemed pretty easy to navigate, so I think I could have done just find on my own if I had to.
I got to my hostel/hotel, the City Herberge. It is an interesting place and got some very mixed reviews on http://hostelworld.com, but it has seemed fine to me so far. Definitely a little pricey ($45/night for a single with a shared bathroom, compared to around $20 for a dorm bed in a hostel), but I really wanted my own room after sharing with my mom for a week and soon to be sharing with my friend in Prague. So, I got all checked in, dropped my bags in the room, and headed out to explore the city. Luckily, I was mere minutes from the historic center of town, and it was an absolutely beautiful day.
I think this is the opera house.
A street in the historic part of town.
Stop 1: Zwinger Palace – Armory / Rustkammer
Well, this definitely is the stop for someone who has an interesting in old guns, armor, or swords. The weapons were impressive, but I liked the suits of armor the best – ones for men, horses, and even children. Some had to be more ceremonial because they just seemed much too fancy for actual battle and are in way too good condition to have ever seen any fighting. Basically, this is a pretty small museum and definitely not worth the separate 7 euro entry fee that you would pay without the museum pass unless you are some kind of crazy lover of all this armor.
Stop 2: Zwinger Palace – Gallery of Old Masters / Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister
This museum was in an absolutely beautiful building, but you could not even take pictures in the hallways of the ceilings. Guess you will just have to visit it yourself (or look it up online)! They had a really nice temporary exhibit with lots of pieces by …. After that, much of the permanent collection for a little 16th-17th century and religious for my taste. BUT, I did get to see a Rembrandt that I knew very well, and I had no idea it was in this museum! That definitely was worth the cost of the while museum pass, at least for me.
Too cool that this was in Dresden and that I saw it!!!
At this point, I ended up running into the guy from the train, so we visited a few other museums together. It seems kind of crazy to meet the same person twice in one day, but then again the historic center of Dresden is pretty tiny, and everyone is out to see the same things.
Stop 3: Zwinger Palace – Porcelain Collection / Porzellansammlung
The porcelain collection was quite nice, and this generally is not my favorite stuff. It had an interesting blend of plates, dishware, vases, and teapots with some amazing animals. Some were even life-size, like a huge cassowary and vulture!
Stop 5: Royal Palace / Residenzschloss Dresden
New Green Vault / Neues Grunes Gewolbe
What a treasure trove this place is! Like many things in Dresden, much of the structure was badly damaged during the very end of WWII. This place just re-opened in 2006 after being closed since the start of the war. The objects certainly were opulent and definitely help explain why there have been so many uprisings against monarchies. Much of the population lived in poverty and servitude while the royal families exchanged gifts of diamond encrusted boxes, ships made of ivory, and intricately carved cherry pits!
Turkish Room / Turckische Cammer
A surprisingly random collection with objects from a German campaign in Turkey and in the Turkish conquests during the Ottoman Empire. Probably the most interesting objects were some swords (or something) made by a master craftsman in Transylvania, specifically in Klaussenberg – the German name for Cluj! How funny is that?!
Changing Exhibitions / Kupferstich-Kabinett
At least this is what I assume we saw! It was a series of rooms with many random things, starting out with math, science, and physics objects (not so much art but things like telescopes, etc) but then it morphed into a quite random collection of older and very recent art (like the 1500s to almost today). It wasn’t all that interesting, and we scurried through this whole section in about 10 minutes – perfect timing considering the museum was just about to close for the day!
Interior section of the Royal Palace.
All-in-all, a fairly successful day in using my pass – 4 different places that would have cost money (31 euros in total)!! After all of those museums, it was 6pm – closing time. The Aussie guy and I walked around town a little more and then headed off to find food. He is travelling for a while and living on a budget, so he just got some things to make at the grocery store. I got a piece of pizza and a salad and then headed back to the hostel to eat that while I used the internet and graded papers.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Check out time seemed early to me at 10pm. I definitely could have slept later, but had to get up, repack, and head to breakfast (included!) before I was kicked out of my room. Before I left to explore some more, I first looked around online, booked a hostel for that night (just an 8 minute walk from the hotel where I will be staying with Grete for two nights!), and got some directions for Prague. Unfortunately, I still haven’t told my bank that I am travelling, so I really really hope that I will be able to withdraw some money when I arrive. If not, I will hope to use some euros for a little bit until I can get on the computer and get through to my bank.
My hostel is the white building in the back right. In the foreground is a skate park.
Anyway, I ended up finding what looks like a really nice hostel: Miss Sophie’s. It is in the New Town and seems fairly close to the train stations, the old part of town, and where I will be staying Friday and Saturday. Perhaps I should have just gotten a single again because it was only $41 vs $29 for a dorm, but this time I went with the cheaper option. First time for a dorm room hostel since I was travelling with Anna, so we will see how it goes on my own!
Once a few of those plans were set, I headed out to see a few more things in Dresden before I left town at 3pm. I tried to go to the Albertinium, which has a few different things, including a big collection of contemporary art. For some reason, it was closed until Sunday. That was a little annoying, and I think the people selling the museum card should tell you that kind of thing!!! It worked out okay though because I decided to see two other museums that I hadn’t really thought about before then.
First, I went to the Museum of Ethnology (Museum fur Volkerkunde) in the Japanese Palace (Japanisches Palais). To do this, I finally made it across the river! It didn’t really seem like there was much in the way of the ethnography museum itself (I wonder where the 90,000 objects are?!), but I did get to see a special exhibit of the Messien ceramics/porcelain company – something like 300 years. I saw some of their stuff at the Porcelain Museum, but this exhibit had everything in English as well and went through the history of the company, the creation of different designs and motifs, etc, which was nice.
And now you know what it is called the Japanese Palace.
After that, I decided to go to the Pillnitz Palace (Schloss Pillnitz). I knew I wouldn’t really have time to look around, but I thought it would be nice to take the tram and bus out there. This was a really great idea because the trip was beautiful. It was such a good idea because just the old center of town wasn’t making me too sure about Dresden. It was nice, filled with lots of beautiful buildings, but it kind of seemed to be lacking something….like all the people who lived there. In addition, the area just around the old center was a lot more industrial and kind of East German, so I just wasn’t sold on the city as a whole. The ride out to the Pillnitz Palace definitely showed me a whole different side of the city and made it look like a great place to live – lots of cute neighborhoods, tons of trees and parks, beautiful buildings, farms on the edge of town, etc.
This actually is of some little private community gardens on the way to the park and palace.
Unfortunately, by the time I actually got to the edge of the palace, there wasn’t nearly enough time for me to go in (or even walk close enough to see it!). I basically just turned around and got on the bus going in the other direction. I guess that just means that if I ever come back, however unlikely that is, that there are a few things left for me to see: the Pillnitz Palace, biking around town (everyone was doing this!!! – even looked like lots of people were on biking tours of the whole region), a group of other palaces outside of town in Buhlau (the 3 Elbe castles), the composer Carl Maria Von Weber’s house (who knew he lived here?!), and the Wagner museum (he was the conductor of the Dresden symphony for a number of years, apparently). It is doubtful that I will return, but it is nice to know that it is a place that can be recommended.
I finally made it back to the hostel and had just enough time to grab all of my things and get to the train station with just about 20 minutes to spare. I actually am writing this on the train (though I am sure it will be posted later), and we already are in the Czech Republic. The route has been really pretty – cute towns and farms – but very different looking than Romania and much more interesting than the ride from Berlin to Dresden (it basically just looked like Texas!).
My semi-artistic shot of a church in the evening, back lit by the setting sun.
The same church in the morning sun :)
And, the final picture of Dresden....fighting babies!
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