Dresden Castle & the Frauenkirche

Today we had two places we wanted to visit: Dresden Castle (Dresdner ResidenzSchloss), and the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).

We started with a tasty (and cheap!) breakfast at the next door bakery: orange juice, muesli, yoghurt, fruit salad, and bread/rolls with butter, ham, cheese, tomato, and cucumber. Plus coffee! As planned, this avoided any need to buy lunch.

A 12 minute walk took us to the Postplatz where I was supposed to pick up our tickets for Dresden Castle and 2-day passes to the Hop OnHop Off Bus. The meeting point instructions were quite vague, and I had to hunt for the provider. Desiree and our friend Marie Thérèse took the opportunity to disappear into the Altmarkt Galerie, a huge shopping mall that they had also wanted to visit. When I finally caught up with them, Marie Thérèse had bought a new shoulder bag (looked like Louis Vuitton!, ) and Des had found the Ravensburger Jigsaw shop. You can see the results in the attached photo.

So we made our way to Dresden Castle. In times past this was the residence of the mighty August the Strong, Duke of Saxony, and one of the Electors of the Holy Roman Emperor Des wrote about yesterday. Sadly, like the rest of Dresden, the Residenz was very seriously damaged by bombing during World War Two. Much has been rebuilt, but there is a huge amount of ongoing work in progress to restore the palace to what it once was. Our immediate interest was an extraordinary collection of armour and weaponry from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. We had seen some of this on YouTube, but the reality was stunning. Ycan see some of these exhibits in the photos attached. Marie Thérèse took a different path, enjoying a number of the treasures commissioned and otherwise acquired by the Dukes over the years.

Finding our way out through the shop (only one book bought!), we carried on to the Frauenkirche. This iconic Evangelical Lutheran Church was completely burned out during the Dresden Firestorm of February 13 - 15, 1945 (along with another 6.5 square km) that resulted from British and American bombing raids. 25,000 people were killed.

Discussions about rebuilding the church started in about 1948, but with a communist government in East Germany not much actually happened until German reunification. Rebuilding proper began in 1994, and the Frauenkirche was reconsecrated in October 2005. Marie Thérèse sang in the choir at the reopening ceremony. As you can see in the photos, the Frauenkirche is a church of unique and amazing beauty. it was one of the primary reasons Des & I wanted to visit Dresden.

After we walked home, my watch told me we had walked a total of 14,314 steps. Marie Thérèse”s phone told her that she had walked more than 15,000, but she suggested that was because she had shorter legs!

We finished up with lovely hamburgers at Lohrmann’s Brauhaus. A great day!Read more