Dresden

1st May

When we arrived in Dresden our hosts Melanie and Tom picked us up from the bus station. After a quick lunch they drove us to Saxon Switzerland park.

As it was a public holiday everyone was there! However it was still really good and the views were breathtaking.

After that we went to Festung Königstein. We didn't go within the fortified walls but we ventured around the edge.

"Fields of Gold" on the way to the fortress 

We headed home and Jay cooked potato and capsicum curry.

After that we walked to the nearby garden. It was impressive (I think it was named The Grand Garden).

2nd May

Building on our walk to town 

Today we walked into town and visited the famous Dresden Frauenkirche. No one was there when we arrived but when it opened at 10am the inevitable tour groups had arrived.

After that we went to the Dresden Royal Palace. We couldn't decide whether to see the Historic or New Green Vault, so we gave up and bought tickets for everything.

Theatre Opposite Palace

Residenzschloss (Dresden Castle /Palace) 

First we headed to the Historic Green Vault. You can't take photos in there but it was pretty good. The ornate rooms added to the beauty of the collection.

After that we saw the armoury part of the museum. Not really our thing, room after room of weapons.

Hungry we left the building to look for lunch. We ended up eating Chinese again. It was good (but we'd eaten Chinese a bit too often lately!).

Back at the museum we went to the New Green Vault. It had similar stuff to the old one and the rooms were plain.

Then we saw the Turkish Chambers and the Great Hall (unfortunately mostly more war stuff) and the coin part of the museum.

Completely museumed out having seen every floor we walked home.

We went with Melanie and Tom to the supermarket where we bought sausages and salad for dinner. Jay tried traditional German sausages and I had beef sausages.

We had Movenpick ice cream for dessert. Jay was excited as it was only €2.99. In Switzerland it was over three times the price.

 3rd May

This morning we walked to town taking a detour to walk next to the river.

We wandered around town looking at the old buildings.

Quite by accident we came across Dresden Zwinger. The gardens there were very nice and the walk around the top offered good views of the city.

Near Dresden Zwinger was the Theaterplatz. Many tourists were there as well as many buskers.

We then walked through Hergozin Garden on our way to see the Yenidze (Tobacco Mosque). When we got there we couldn't find the entrance and when we did the lift wasn't working. We thought maybe it was shut. It seemed to be a venue for shows and it had at least one restaurant.

We walked past Congress Central and back into the middle of town.

There we shared an enormous Doner Kebab for lunch.

After that we climbed the stairs to get to Augustus Bridge. Then we went to the Albertinum where we had a rest. There was a sculpture museum there. We didn't enter though.

Apparently Pfund's Dairy has the Guinness record for world's most beautiful dairy so we walked there. Jay tried the buttermilk. He liked it, said it was similar to the plain lassi drink in India.

Tired we headed home.

I cooked capsicum and mushroom curry while Jay made the raita and roti. It was delicious.

Later when the traffic had cleared Melanie and Tom took us to see the Blue Bridge because Jay was interested to see it.

Jay polished off the rest of the ice-cream from yesterday because it was too yummy.