Our Big Adventure

DRESDEN

DRESDEN

Much of this city was obliterated over two nights in February 1944, when hundreds of Allied bombers dropped incendiary bombs and an estimated 35,000 men, women and children, many refugees fleeing the Russian advance died in the fiery inferno. Some of the finest buildings in Europe, gone overnight. A synonym for the worst, and darkest excesses of aerial destruction.

Graphic black and white photographs taken shortly after the raid are horrifying, still smoking bodies piled high awaiting removal. A city decimated. The beautiful 17th century Cathedral, the Frauenkirch totally gutted and with only a few walls still standing. Recently painstakingly reconstructed, the black stones from the original building, standing next to the paler new ones. It’s beautiful domed ceiling mural of The Virgin Mary carefully recreated, marble columns, grottos with landscapes and tons of gold gilt everywhere.

Every Friday a special service of remembrance is held here for the people of Coventry in England, another city that knows what it was like to be terrified by the air, and Dresden. We are told there is never a spare seat, the church always packed.

This once beautiful city, often referred to as the ‘Florence on the Elbe’, owing to the fact that artists, musicians, actors and master craftsmen once lived here, is slowly being rebuilt. Work wasn’t started until after the fall of the GDR in 1991 with funds mostly donated by the countries involved in the bombing, and seen as a sign of reconciliation. Much of Altstadt is being rebuilt, museums, art galleries, unless you had seen the photos, or knew of the devastation of this area, you would never know, the restoration work here is excellent.

We watch a steamboat dropping her funnel as she passes under a bridge as she cruises along the Elbe River to Meissen, our stop for tomorrow to see the beautiful porcelain that has been made there for centuries

Outside the Altstadt, or old section lies the newer Neustadt, a concrete jungle of institutional like Eastern German architecture, we don’t linger here for long although we do make a stop to take a closer look at the state of the art VW factory.

Die Glaserne Manufaktur or The Transparent Factory opened in 2001 and you can watch the assembly, by hand, of the luxury VW Phaeton saloon car. The completed cars are then held awaiting delivery in a 16 level transparent tower that holds 280 vehicles.

We wondered what anyone watching from this high tech building might think as we pulled up in our faithful 1989 VW Camper, ‘Fatima’.

MEISSEN

After our visit to ‘The Potteries’ Wedgewood, Spode and Royal Albert in the UK, we wanted to see the German equivalent, Meissen.

Being a Sunday the tourist busses were already filling up the parking lot when we arrived. There was an interesting tour complete with an English Audio version that took us through the various stages of the manufacture. The hand painting and gilding was the most interesting for me personally.

The tour finishes in the museum, a change as you usually seem to exit into the gift shop. Some of the pieces in the museum where beautiful, some you might say not to our liking, but all very expensive.

When we did finally reach the sales area we looked for a small piece of Meissen, a souvenir of our visit, but even a small dish or coffee cup was €60 plus. A vase similar to one we had seen a couple buy earlier was over €8000, we can certainly think of better ways to spend our Euro. Although before we left, we did have a great coffee in the restaurant, served of course in a beautiful Meissen cup and saucer.

posted by Brian and Julie @ 7:21:00 PM