Paris on the Elbe

Bird that ate Liz's breakfast
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On the afternoon of July 6, we arrived in Dresden, after a lot of traffic getting there. Our room was in a cool residential area of Dresden called the Neustadt (“new city,” literally, but actually the older part of town.) Much of Dresden that was destroyed in Feb 1945 (like Leipzig) has since been rebuilt, some hasn’t. We went out for a fabulous Italian meal (the most popular foreign food in Germany is Italian), had more Pfifferlinge, and then walked across the Elbe to tour the Altstadt part of town. It was really really windy, but there were fireworks, and a live rock concert happening. After a windy and woozy walk around town (we’ve walked a lot, despite all the driving we have done) we headed back to our room. The next morning we went to Café-to-Go (ok, so nobody here walks around with coffee.. We never even saw anyone take coffee to go from the Café-to-Go…I never realized how dependent on having coffee available all the time we are!)-

DDR art
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And then we toured many many many museums. Gold, ivory, Rubens, porcelain, churches….too much to recount here. But the Zwinger complex- an old royal party-grounds, basically, is now a really impressive attraction- right near the Opernhaus, the Frauenkirche (it was just finished rebuilding last year- since the WWII) and the beautiful riverfront promenades. Unfortunately we missed the German Hygiene Museum… (Google it). That night we ate Spanish tapas (thought we ordered mussels, but fake-crab croquettes arrived…ick).

Jack in front of the Frauenkirche (recently rebuilt)
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The next day (July 8) we were up-n-at m at more museums (mammoths, stone-age people, German ethnologists in New Guinea- are you tired yet?). Got in the car (after eating a quick brat while strolling through a Sunday flea market) and back on the autobahn (top speed for us 165km/hr) to Leipzig.