Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Dresden – Trip Report (Sorta longish)

First, a caveat: I had only one day to spend in Dresden. One *full* day, but only one. In retrospect, however, I wish it had been at least two.

I arrived late on a grey, chilly afternoon at the main train station which, at the moment, is one big (re-)construction project. Whether it was the mess at the Bahnhof, or the depresssing weather, or the frustration at trying to find the proper tram to get to my Pension, I dunno. But I do recall asking myself why I bothered to visit this torn-up, messy city. It didn’t help, either, that the automated vending machine for tram tickets was out of change, and I didn’t have the correct coinage to buy a ticket.

I’ll stop here with the details of my arrival debacle, but just to make clear: my mood upon arriving there was sour, dour and exasperated. (I eventually did get a proper ticket, BTW, thanks to some helpful Dresdners.)

Pension Reiche had sent me very clear directions as to when to disembark the tram, and I found it without difficulty. It was a most unusual place – an 18th-century farmstead that had been converted into a hotel/restaurant many decades ago. The architecture was mostly intact, with half-timbered walls and a tiled roof, arranged in a quadrangle with a central courtyard. Reasonably priced, quaint, and on the southeast fringe of the city center. The single room was simply furnished, but outfitted with a modern bath and cable TV. The hostess was charming and helpful to this obviously tattered traveller.

After a quick shower and a lie-down, I decided on an early dinner in the pension’s restaurant, since going elsewhere would involve another ride on the tram. It was exactly the right decision, as the meal was hearty, delicious, nicely served and quite inexpensive. I slept well on that good Saxon food and excellent beer, nestled into the thick comforter in my room. Breakfast the next morning was the typical cold cuts, cheese, bread and jam, coffee, etc., that one finds in a 2-star place, and more than satisfactory.

Day transit ticket purchased, I boarded the tram back into the city relatively early. It’s amazing, too, what a little sunshine and a good night’s sleep can do to improve one’s outlook. The city presented a much more inviting face on the inbound ride. I disembarked at Post Platz, and strolled into a stunner of a city.

For the day-tripper, Dresden is laid out most conveniently with many, if not most, of the main points of interest in the Altstadt concentrated in a few blocks on the south side of the Elbe. The Zwinger Palace, the Semper Oper, the Frauenkirche, and more, all lie within convenient walks of each other. And this area provides more than enough to do to fill up a one-day stay.

People have asked whether it disturbed me that most of what I saw was a re-creation, since most of these treasures were completely levelled in 1945 during an Allied bombing raid. I have to tell them truthfully that I was disturbed not at all. To me, the fact that the skills and artisanship still exists to re-create these wonderful buildings is a miracle in itself. The citizens of Dresden can be proud that they have successfully managed to undo most of the damage done by that horrible mistake, and preserve their heritage for both visitors and for generations of Dresdners to come.

Work is still underway, of course, and the visitor should be prepared to deal with a bit of construction chaos. But it certainly isn’t severe enough to spoil the enjoyement of that area.

Again, I’ll leave the purple prose of description of these monuments to the guidebooks. What I particularly enjoyed on my day visit were:

1. The vastness of the Zwinger Palace, especially the amazing collection of masterwork paintings in the Gemaeldegalerie. I recall hearing a terrific lecture on the Sistine Madonna in that collection, which made the work appealing to me despite my already having seen by that point perhaps a few too many Madonna-and-child oils.
2. The Bruehlische Terrasse overlooking the Elbe, with its views of the cruise boats, the park and the buildings arrayed on its perimeter. I strolled there for at least a couple of hours.
3. Studying the details of the architecture on the Semper Oper and the Albertinum
4. The buskers! I heard delightful Bach violin suites from a young woman, playing (mostly for her own enjoyment I think) under the trees on the river terrace, and some astonishingly fine clarinet playing in the shadow of the Zwinger
5. The fact that most of the my fellow tourists were Germans – eager to rediscover this jewel of a city that was almost inaccessible to them for so many years.

The day turned out to be quite hot, so I walked across the Albertsbruecke to the Neustadt for both lunch and dinner later. The Neustadt itself is quite a contrast to the other side of the river, almost different enough to be a another city altogether, and attractive in its own right with more modest architecture and more human-scale proportions. There is a wide choice of places to pause for refreshment. Koenigsstrasse is, as I recall, the best for that sort of thing.

The only disappoinment: Pfunds Molkerei. It’s lauded in the guidebooks, but unfortunately, it’s been badly “Tour Bus-ted”. So many people crowd into its narrow confines all during the day that it’s impossible to enjoy the porcelain fixtures and wall-trimmings that give it such notoriety. Unless you have a car, or are prepared for a very long stroll to get to it, I’d say enjoy it in photographs only.

I do wish I’d had more time to take tours of other portions of the Zwinger – it’s easily worth a day by itself. I’d also like to return some day to see the resurrected Frauenkirche, a magnificent structure that should soon be completely restored.

Dinner that evening was in the Neustadt, on the banks of the Elbe, next to a golden statue of August the Strong glistening in the sunset. More good Saxon cuisine – rich, filling. I took the last tram back to Pension Reiche for the night, and the next day boarded the train to Berlin.

I really do plan to return to Dresden, and I heartily recommend Germanophiles make an effort to spend some time there.

For what it’s worth.

Fritzrl