There’s a place in Eastern Germany where you can step back in time. Here you will find palaces, baroque arches, and grand cathedrals. Its not a big city, but it isn’t a small town either. The people rush by yet everything seems to stand still. It is the capital of the land that the Saxons call home. Have a made it sound fantastical yet? What if I show you this picture?
This is Dresden. Located in the Eastern part of Germany it is a city known for its universities and high-tech endeavors that have given it a lot of significance in Germany. It is also known for its role in World War II. Towards the end of the war, the city was bombed by the American and British allied force. It not only was extremely destructive, but took the lives of 25,000 civilians making it a pretty controversial event in the war. Since then it has been rebuilt to show off once again its world renown architecture as it is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And I can attest that this is true! It really is one of the most beautiful cities I have been to.
I visited Dresden on my first trip abroad at 15 for a school tour around central Europe. We had spent a couple days in Berlin and were on our way to Prague. We only stopped in Dresden for a few short hours, but even though it was a quick stop with some stressful moments, it was completely worth it to see all the beautiful old architecture. And while I wouldn’t describe it as my favorite stop on the tour like everyone else in the group (Prague is amazing!), I do think it is one of the most beautiful cities I have visited in not only Germany, but all of Europe.
As we approached the city, you could just tell it was going to be amazing. The skyline stuck out miles away and not in the way that most cities do. You weren’t drawn to the skyscrapers. You could see the baroque architecture and the towering cathedral and castle.
Our first stop after the bus dropped us off was at Zwinger Palace. It was built by Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony in the Baroque era. It now holds museums that do cost money to visit, but the palace and its beautiful courtyard are free, so all you have to do is walk towards the arches of the gated entrance and you are transported to the 1700s. Everyone is our group was completely in awe with not only the expanse of it, but the fountains and walls surrounding it.
After visiting the courtyard we headed to the cathedral which was our last stop before we were given some free time to explore the city. It wasn’t much because we were running late due to a delayed start and break stops on the drive, but it was enough time to walk around a bit to see the major sites and get some lunch. The cathedral and the walk to it was gorgeous. I fell in love with the baroque arch we passed under to get to the old part of the city.
Here we found the cathedral, Frauenkirche, in the main square. Frauenkirche means ‘Church of our Lady’ in English, so you may come across other Frauenkirchen in Germany, like in Munich. This version of the church with the dome was built in the 1700s and just like most of the city was destroyed in World War II. The project to rebuild it began in the 90s and after 12 years was open again for visitors and parishioners. You can’t visit Dresden without stopping to see the cathedral. It does cost some euros to go inside, but you could spend a long while just taking in all of the outside of the cathedral.
This square is where we split up to go our separate ways and where we would meet back up to continue our journey to Prague. My mom, grandma, and I found a spot for lunch. It was a burger place that actually took a long while which was frustrating given our limited amount of time. We didn’t even order burgers. I just has a chicken caesar sandwich. My mom attempted to order in German. Emphasis on “tried”, but thats ok because trying is better than nothing. While we waited for our food, a man placed a wooden figurine on the table. He did it to all of them. I know it is a sales tactic, which I usually don’t like to give into, but it was an elephant! I love elephants! This was the start of my international elephant figurine collection. I have since also collected a lacquer elephant from Thailand and a mosaic one from Barcelona. I know it doesn’t make sense, but I just like them. Now we were really stressed about the amount of time it took us for lunch as we waited 45 minutes for just our food, but as we left the restaurant there were still others from our group waiting for their food. It was a bit of a messy day and we were supposed to have more time in the city so we wouldn’t be rushed, so the little details that limited our time here were a little frustrating, but that’s just what happens in travel. Nothing ever goes according to plan.
As we left the restaurant we only had 10 minutes until 3pm, which was our meeting time to leave Dresden. This is where things really got messy. We spent these last 10 minutes finding an ATM. Then when we got to the meeting spot only half the group was there because the rest was trying to scrounge together a lunch. We even lost a member from the other group that was touring with us. She was gone for a long time and her whole group was trying to find her, so our group headed to the bus. I felt so bad for our tour director. This had to have been stressful for her. We ended up not leaving until 4pm, a hour after we were supposed to meet up to leave. This was disappointing because we could have spent that hour we were on the bus exploring a foreign city.
In the end most of our time exploring Dresden was by getting to where we needed to go. We briefly got to see the opera house and Dresden Castle as we walked by on a few of the old streets. Luckily the beautiful German countryside made up for the stop. It was so green and I loved the hills. It was hard to be upset when you still had this and other beautiful stops to look forward to.
Now Dresden still was a beautiful city that I adored, but I just wish the stop didn’t leave me feeling like there was something missing. I only got to touch the surface of the city’s history and sites. Now maybe this is the reason I think so much about the city, because it is still a mystery to me. There is still so much to explore and I hope some day I can go back and tell you about everything I got to see in Dresden.
To see posts from the rest of this trip, please visit my Eastern Europe page. Or if you are just interested in Germany, I have you covered. My Germany page is full of adventures from all over the country.
The Journal of Wanderlust 