A Day In Dresden
We woke up in Dresden, Germany this morning and the first item on the agenda, after a light breakfast on the Aquavit Terrace was a city tour. The first hour we drove around the city and the local guide gave us a history of the city and pointed out the major buildings. One of the things Dresden is most known for is that the Allied Forces bombed in for three days straight and literally destroyed nearly every major building in the city. But since the 1950s they have all been rebuilt, using the original blueprints and plans AND using the same materials so that they look original. The first photo below is the only Catholic church in the city, it is a very small percentage of the population as this is Martin Luther / Protestant country. The second and third photos below are the Zwinger Palace. Something unique about it is that it was NEVER used as a residence, but instead was built as a place to hold gala events every year, multiple times a year.
Look at the first photo below, what could possibly be unique about this ordinary building. Let me translate the title of the building above the door, "The Green Vault." No? It's a museum that holds nothing but jewelry and treasures of the original rulers of the area. Now the second photo below was a jewel-laden "toy" that was called a time traveler piece by our guide. It's difficult to see, but what looks to be rings running round and round the piece - all made out of solid gold by the way - are actually tracks. And at the top right, just below the figurines on top and right on the edge is a small crystal ball. When you wind up this device a spring will release the pressure and the ball begins traveling down the path. It takes exactly sixty seconds to reach the bottom at which time one of the figurines, who is a bell ringer, rings a chime. After sixty balls have rolled down (the inner workings gradually send other balls from the bottom to the top) the entire band plays, and then the entire thing goes on again. According to our guide when you wind it up it will "play" for two full hours!
The next photo down is obviously a Backgammon set (which my wife loves to play, thus the photo), but what makes it unique is that it was hand-carved in the mid-1600s! Below that is the "Golden Tea Set." Again, difficult to make out, but it's entirely made of gold, ivory and porcelain. Look closely and you will see tea cups and pot; coffee cups; and the cups with lids are hot chocolate cups. Nothing was ever served out of this, it was merely decoration. And you can't see it, but in the bottom, base level it's hollow and INSIDE are miniature figurines of men and women who when the device is wound up and turned on, dance, eat, and drink! Finally, the incredible attention to detail......look at the tea pot on top of the sculpture. Look carefully and you'll note the handle is a lizard. The enlargement of this (the third photo) is difficult to make out but on this about 1 inch lizard are embedded 300 diamonds, all so very microscopic they are hard to make out in the enlargement, much less with the naked eye!
Finally, the most elaborate piece is the "Birthday Party" - seen below. This is about three feet wide by four feet deep and about two feet tall. It is an actual recreation of a birthday celebration and you can see all the various dignitary parties arriving and/or celebrating. The amazing facts....every figurine is SOLID gold, nothing hollow here. Second, the colors of their costumes are made from enameled gold - a very unique process. The enlarged photo shows one group, the Chinese. And get this.....all of the costumes are AUTHENTIC to the actual birthday party celebration! The creator of this - who created ALL the unique pieces in this entire 9-room museum - began work on it before the ruler saw it, feeling confident he WOULD want to pay for it. And when he saw it in it's initial stages he said he WOULD pay for it. It took him - the ruler of the country mind you - TEN YEARS to pay it off and cost more than a 200-room palace he had built during this same time period!!!
The last story about this museum is equally amazing. At the conclusion of World War II when the Soviets occupied this section of Eastern Germany the Russian dictator confiscated the entire collection - nine rooms worth of treasures - and declared it as "compensation" for all the Soviets who died in the war effort. But later in the 1950s, Russian President Nikita Khrushchev RETURNED the entire collection to it's rightful owning country without a single jewel missing!
After the museum, a little over an hour of fascinating pieces and stories told by our guide, Gerald, we headed out to the central square (seen above). The top photo is of the opera house and the central plaza statute. During the bombing only the entrance and exterior front wall remained after the Allieds called for an end to the attack. The statute was unharmed. The second thing interesting about this photo is that in 2002 the Elbe River, where our ship is sitting - about a mile away, some 8-10 feet below ground level - flooded and covered this entire square!!! The second photo shows the detail of the building, like all the others, recreated by using the same original materials and following the drawings and blue prints from the 1500 architecture.
Sailing The Elbe River
We returned from the morning excursion about 12:30, just in time for lunch to be served. Then at 2:30 we were invited to go on an afternoon sailing down the Elbe River. It was REALLY slow going with the low water level - a little over an hour up and about 45 minutes back. Saw some interesting castles/chateaux and enjoyed sailing along the river :)
The Viking Beyla
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