Pania has a Quieter Day in Dresden

Monday August 23d
Today they spent a bit more time hanging out with me and round the campsite. There was washing that needed doing and Alan used me and a tree to make a very ingenious clothes line. It would have been fine if the instructions on the washing machine had been in English, but they weren’t and when Mary went back to review the progress she found that it hadn’t started. A few presses of the buttons later and it was away, but goodness knows what the wash programme was. However she did make sure it was on the coolest possible temperature so everything didn’t come out pink or muddy grey.

Then they finally took Pania off for a day in Dresden leaving me to mind the washing, although I wasn’t going to be able to do much if suddenly started raining again. I needn’t have worried, as when they returned just after 7pm it was all dry.

It was lunchtime by the time they got into town and there were people still dismantling the stall s and stages from the day before. It looked so different. Yesterday there had been stalls and umbrellas all over the huge squares, now the vastness of the squares was evident. Apparently during the Soviet days there were large parades through all these squares and they were enlarged to accommodate this. They are all cobbled which makes walkingon them difficult and the cars are very noisey.

They set out on the town walk with the guide they had bought at the Info centre. The first place they went into was the Frauenkirche (the protestant church) with a huge statue of Martin Luther outside the front. This had been bombed nearly to the ground in 1945 and had been an anti war monument after that. Through donations received from all around the world it was rebuilt in the early 1990s and reconsecrated in October 2005 It has been brought back to its original appearance inside and out. The Germans are very good at rebuilding their lost heritage in the same style as the original. There are a huge building programmes going on in Berlin and Dresden to replace things that were either bombed in the war or torn down during GDR days. There are cranes and workmen everywhere. There reproductions are so good that you really can’t tell, except for the fact that they are not blackened by pollution. The exteriors of the remaining old buildings are black and eaten away by the extreme effects of weather and pollution and could all do with a bit of Wet and Forget.

The walk took them over the river to a large square and along the Hauptstrasse with quite a nice shops, so Alan sat on a seat for a rest and Mary went shopping and came back with new winter boots. Further on up the street was the Dreilekongskirche. It has been reconstructed inside but they have encoporated what was left of the baroque altar after the night Dresden was bombed. They also have one of Dresden’s most significant surviving Renaissance monuments in the church, a 12.5 metre “Dresden Danse Macabre” created between 1534 and 1536 and originally located at the old Georgentor Gate of Dresden Castle.


It had started to rain, so they found a tram to take them back across the river to the main part of town. The tram actually took them over another bridge so they got a good view back up the river. Finding themselves by the main railway station where there was great shopping, Alan found a bar to have a quiet drink, while Mary checked out the shops.
They then set off to complete the rest of the town walk. The Church of the Holy Cross was described as a must see. This church had also been bombed nearly to the ground. Instead of rebuilding it in the same style they used the remaining parts and built up around and on top and created a very plain and undecorated church that contrasts with the ruins. The outside was rebuilt in the original style. It is quite unique inside and is also another one of the reconciliation churches with a cross of nails from Coventry Cathedral.

It was too late in the day to get a guided tour of the opera house but the exterior was magnificent. The final stop was the catholic Cathedral a unique combination of Roman and Baroque architecture. It has a magnificent Rococo pulpit and a modern Pieta of Dresden china in one of the chapels.

Finally they made a quick stop into the food market to get some supplies and then a nice easy tram/bus ride back to camp. It is one of the easiest transport systems they have had to negotiate so far and not a great way out of town. No wonder it is such a busy campsite.