danon, how many hours of the 45 h did you sleep? ;-)

I am with Karasek on this. The Frauenkirche seems too polished to me, it lacks the patina that a really old church has - like the cathedral in Meißen. I wouldn't say the Frauenkirche feels like a train station, to me it's more like a concert hall. In fact I'm gonna see a Christmas concert there 26 Nov and another 17 Dec. But a church? Not really. It also doesn't have a local congregation.

MLF611, I guess we will never make you a fan of Meissen then, but to each their own!

I.

No, probably not. And I know there are places I really like that others don't. That's fine, to each their own. But I do find it annoying when someone takes my dislike to Meissen and then leaps to the conclusion that I probably didn't care for it because I find architecture and history boring.

One of the things that I like most about Frauenkirche is not its beauty, but the spirit and dedication of the people who rebuilt it. When I was there on Easter Sunday (2010), several locals talked to the visitors about what having the church back meant to them both as Christians and as Dresden residents. I found what they had to say very moving - but to each his own.

I loved Bamberg and I liked Nuremburg. The Nazi sites were very interesting.
FYI, Nuremburg's sausages were exceptional, and I am not that fond of sausages.
BTW, 2 nights in Bamburg were sufficient for our purposes.

"danon, how many hours of the 45 h did you sleep? ;-)"

Ingo, too many!

I am sure there are many local joint that 'rock" late at night, but the "tourist" area ( close to the Church) was kind of dead after 10:00 PM .
And this was in July!

Agree, danon. The area around the Frauenkirche used to be dead in the evenings. It's not as bad as before anymore, but still ... and just a few steps away, near Kreuzkirche in the lanes around Weisse Gasse, locals and tourists gather and sit in front of dozens of restaurants/bars.

In July we use to hang out in the beergardens along the river, though ... and of course in the (Äußere) Neustadt.

Again thanks to you all. It is appearing that I should cut some time out of the earlier part of the trip and add some more time in Dresden. Gorlitz sounds interesting, looks like 1.5h from Dresden via train. A shorter tip on the Elbe also sounds great.
Still have plenty of time to firm up our itinerary so your ideas are very helpful.