After finally gathering enough points on the Deutsche Bahn, I earned myself a free round-trip train ride anywhere within Germany.  Naturally, I decided to explore somewhere brand new and Dresden was at the top of my list.  After booking everything, we discovered that our trip coincided with the 66th anniversary of the controversial Allied air raid on Dresden during WWII, which destroyed the city just three months before the end of the war. Although totally unplanned, it did make for an interesting time to visit.

I have to say that Dresden totally blew away all of my preconceived notions.  The city is absolutely gorgeous and is teeming with culture and art and music and unbelievable collections.  In fact, I already have a list of places I want to check out on our next visit!  We also ate some delicious, delicious food.  If you ever spend time in Dresden, please make sure to treat yourself to a meal at Villandry in the Neustadt — you will not be disappointed!

The city’s architecture, primarily Baroque, is enormous in scale and fascinating to look at.  Almost every building you see in the center of the city was destroyed during the bombings, and the process of reconstruction has been gradual.  Some of the historic landmarks, like the Semper Opera House and the Zwinger Palace were reconstructed in the GDR time.  Others were rebuilt only recently after reunification.  The process of painstakingly reconstructing everything that was destroyed, rather than simply building up a brand new city, kind of fascinates me.  (Is anyone out there an architectural buff that can point me to some reading on this?)

UPDATE: A friend and her architect husband tipped me off to Jean Baudrillard, who’s kind of the father of this kind of thinking in architecture.  Check out the link if you’re interested!

Dresden, of course, is known for its porcelain so we visited the Porzellansammlung at the Zwinger Palace (which houses a number of stunning exhibitions, including an armory and a large treasury).  It was absolutely exquisite, and not to be missed!

We also managed to get tickets to a concert in the Frauenkirche to commemorate the anniversary of the firebombings.  After completely collapsing from the heat of the fire, the ruins of the church remained a “memorial against the war” (Wikipedia) for almost 50 years.  Starting in 1982, the ruins began to be used as a site of peaceful protests against East German government.  Reconstruction finally began in 1993, using as many of the original stones from the rubble as possible.  In fact, the church looks a little polka-dotted from the outside because of the color difference between the old and new stones, but that should diminish over time as the new stones age.

Unfortunately the bombing anniversary in Dresden has also been coopted by the neo-Nazi movement in recent years, who stage marches and demonstrations in the city.  I find it extremely sad that on a day when the citizens of Dresden would like to remember those who died, they have to face hateful marches through their streets.  But I have to say I was impressed with the Dresdners, who formed a human chain — 17,000 people strong, wearing white roses — around the city as protest.

Despite the unplanned protest adventure, we had a wonderful time and will definitely be back to check out some of Dresden’s other treasures!  Feel free to check out our entire album of photos from Dresden over here.

* Update*  This post is part of Young Germany’s Expat Bloggers Blog Hop on travel in Germany.

Have you visited the city?  If so, what were some of your favorite sites?