Dresden Day 2

Perhaps you are wondering what we are doing in Dresden. Our Winkler ancestors came from a small town in Saxony called Oelschuetz, which is near Wurzen, which is near Leipzig, which is near Dresden. Dresden is the capital of Saxony and a wonderful historical city, so this is where our journey began.

Yesterday started off great with a good cheap breakfast at the Imbiss below our room. Sandwiches on hard rolls with salami and lunch meat, boild egg, great coffee. Then, to save time and our legs, we took the bus to the Altstadt, but got turned around when we got off the bus and walked almost all of the way back to the hotel before we realized that. Anyway, we started the Frauenkirche, originally completed in 1763. It was destroyed in 1945 and after German reunification, was rebuilt and reopened in 2005. It is a Lutheran church, and very beautiful in pastel colors with lots of gold. The cost to rebuild was more than 100 million euros.

Next we walked past a mural called the Parade of Nobles, 24,000 tiles of Meissen procelain on the back wall of the royal palace, depicitng 700 years of Saxon royalty, constructed in 1871. As I walked past this mural, I see the people our Winkler ancestors were named after, Johann, August, Frederick, Wilhemina.

The mural led us to the Catholic church, the Hof Kirche, another beautiful church, all light and airy with a wonderful pipe organ that someone was playing. We sat and just listened for a few minutes.

Around the corner is the Zwinger museum, which is a beautiful place, built around an open square, somewhat like the Louvre. We spent an hour touring the collection of Augustus the Strong's chinese porcelain collection, then realized there was another hour of Meissen porcelain from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, beautiful stuff.

After the Zwinger, it was back to the fischhaus for lunch, grilled trout for me and the Captains plate for Fred.

After lunch, we walked and rode the bus along the Elbe river. There is a bike/hike path along the river, going all the way to Meissen. Lots of people out, even on a rainy day, walking, biking, rowing, etc.

Gotta go - breakfast calls.